No More Snakes!!!

[Gary_C]

You would think this should be a "NO BRAINER" and I'm sure that Jeff will agree.

Feds move to keep big snakes off planes, out of US
 


NEW YORK (AP) - Federal officials want to keep nine kinds of constrictor snakes out of the United States, saying they belong to invasive species that pose the single biggest threat to the nation's environment.

"This is the story of the invasion of the snakes in the United States of America," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday, standing near a live python at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

He said the Burmese python and the other "alien snakes" are destroying some of the nation's most treasured - and most fragile - ecosystems.

I just wonder why this has to be necessary to enact such a ban. 

[DanG]

I just wonder why this has to be necessary to enact such a ban. 

Because people are idiots!

There is a huge problem with feral Burmese Pythons in S. Fla. right now, and the State has hired killer teams to deal with it.  Of course, it is being done to Gov't specs, so there is more paperwork than snake-killin' going on.  Instead of a guy going out and shooting the snakes when he finds them, he has to call in a task force of trained snake handlers to capture it and take it back to an approved Burmese Python Execution Facility, where a bunch of vegetarians weigh the benefits of killing it or letting it go to procreate.

[Mooseherder]

The good news about the Burmese Pythons and Wild Iguanas got their butts kicked with the extended cold weather we had the past couple weeks.  Hunters were encouraged to go out after them when they would come out to sun themselves.  There was a News story that said so anyways.
They mentioned that it would go a long way in helping out a bad situation.
Some people are worried that a new hybrid constrictor might come out of their interbreeding.

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/1417659.html

[Ianab]

Because people are idiots!

  Instead of a guy going out and shooting the snakes when he finds them, he has to call in a task force of trained snake handlers to capture it and take it back to an approved Burmese Python Execution Facility, where a bunch of vegetarians weigh the benefits of killing it or letting it go to procreate.

Sounds like the fuss a few animal welfare nuts made when they found the local councils pest control team were trapping wild cats and quietly dispatching them with a hammer blow to the head out in the forest.

Apparantly they should be bringing them in alive, and taking them to vet to be euthanised.

I'm sure the Vet would be overjoyed to see a sack of really annoyed feral cats bought into the surgery 

Anyway if you want to see a fuss made at an airport, arrive in NZ with a snake. The snake will be in a methyl bromide box before you can blink, and you will end up in jail, unless they stick you in the fumigator with the snake. Zero snakes in NZ, and it's totally illegal to import one, not even the bigger zoos can bring them in.

Ian

[fishpharmer]

I just wonder why this has to be necessary to enact such a ban. 

Because people are idiots!

There is a huge problem with feral Burmese Pythons in S. Fla. right now, and the State has hired killer teams to deal with it.  Of course, it is being done to Gov't specs, so there is more paperwork than snake-killin' going on.  Instead of a guy going out and shooting the snakes when he finds them, he has to call in a task force of trained snake handlers to capture it and take it back to an approved Burmese Python Execution Facility, where a bunch of vegetarians weigh the benefits of killing it or letting it go to procreate.

That was too funny in a sad way.  I saw a brief segment of dirty jobs about chickens roaming wild in Miami.  I could be wrong, because I didn't watch the whole thing, but it seems they have paid chicken catchers.  They run around with big fish nets and say  "here chicky, here chicky".  Needless to say they had a low success rate.    I guess they don't have cracked corn and six shot in Miami. 

[Gary_C]

Anyway if you want to see a fuss made at an airport, arrive in NZ with a snake. The snake will be in a methyl bromide box before you can blink, and you will end up in jail, unless they stick you in the fumigator with the snake.

Ian

Now there is a good solution. Gas them quickly before they get away. Snake too!!   

[Ianab]

Oh the Horror 

[Onthesauk]

I've got a book around here somewhere, can't lay my hands on it right now, about the brown tree snake.  Introduced by accident onto some of the islands in the pacific and completely wiped out the bird population within a few years.  Believe Hawaii is very concerned about it reaching there.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 Now that made me laugh out loud!   

[offgridder]

speaking of snakes, has any one else had success with birds like guinea foul to control rattlesnakes around their property?  I hear that peacocks do a nice job?  Your experience?

Marshall

[chain]

Don't know about the fowls you mentioned but I do know the wild turkey will take out a few snakes. I was squirrel hunting in late August in a creek bottom, very snakey, noticed lots of turkey scratchings. I glanced down to see a copperhead that had crawled out of a hollow tree, but noticed the snake seemed not quite natural. I poked with a stick and realized the snake was dead; after closely examining the creature, I surmised a turkey had apparently pecked the snake squarely in the top of head, leaving a hole about pencil size, killing it instantly!. The copperhead about two feet long.

[indiaxman1]

Black snakes can take care of the copperheads and rodents....had not heard of tudkeys taking them out

[chain]

Hopfully a turkey biologist could shed more light into a common knowledge in the Ozarks of their[turkeys] predation of snakes. An old hen turkey misses nothing as she and her brood are constantly scratching and picking, even turning over smaller rocks and logs. I believe we have two species of king-snakes here which, also, take out other reptiles.