Snaks in Puna ???? yep

[Guest]

A very interesting situation happened to me the day after Xmas. One of my neighbor friends [yes, I do have neighbor friends] came thru my back yard to visit and Toast [my devoted dog] announced his visit. He informed me that he just saw a snake slither away from him. I asked, “are you sure?” He said, “hey Lack I lived in Florida for years and I recognize what a snake looks like, it was a brown snake.” He told me that it was coiled up and when he approached it the snake slithered off thru a loose rock wall behind my house. We did what I think any responsible citizen would do and called the police. They said, what ever you do don’t touch it, we’ll have someone out to take a look. Then the operator said that she informed DLNR and they will handle it. DLNR passed it off to the Ag people and we got two calls from them. This all happened within ten minutes

My neighbor and I though Wow, these people are really taking some decisive action here. The Ag guy wanted to babble with my neighbor on the phone and after quizzing him about his ability to recognizing a snake they derivably determined to come to my house and investigate. When these guys showed they were prepared for big game. One was wearing thick rubber boots and heavy leather gloves. Both had snake grabber sticks and an array of snake things to catch a snake. Also within their arsenal they had a video camera. This was too much fun for me so I went into the house and got my camera and documented it all. I informed the Ag guys that I had shot a couple of rats in the last few days and if they wanted when they located the snake I would be glad to dispatch it to a better life. They just laughed and said “stand by with that”


While the four of us were trying to locate the snake, them in snake gear and us in shorts and flip flops my neighbor asked,” if it was a poisonous snake and any of us got bit do they have any anti venom on the island?” There response was “not a drop” it has a short shelf life and they don’t get any snake bites in Hawaii. So I said, ‘so then why all the snake gear if we don’t get snake bites?”

The snake hunt went on for about a hour and the two Ag guys would confer with each other and at one point we heard them say, “ there is a lot of activity here,” when poking thru some dead leafs I asked if they had some snake traps that they could set out and they said, “we have some in Honolulu but none here.”

The snake was about 1 ½ feet long and about 1 ½ inch in diameter, brown in color. It very possibility could be a brown tree snake from areas like Guam and very dangerous. As the Ag guy said, “it most likely is a baby snake and not a big threat.” What I said? Baby snakes come from big mama snakes and we could have a bunch of them here. They laughed and left me their number and said to call if I spotted it again. The Hunt was over and the snake is at large behind my house. I don’t care how many people call the police if I see the snake I’m going to blow it’s head clean off

With the great food source here in Puna we may have a new invasive foe. The Brown Tree Snake.

The Lack

[John S. Rabi]

I am surprised they didn't have a dog with them. We had a snake-sighting in Kona a few years ago and they showed up with dogs to sniff out the snake.

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[iboost]

Well Lack. I hate to inflame people here but you and I know what needs to be done next time you see this critter. If I hear a 'bang' over in your direction I'll sleep easier at night knowing the snake is 'dispatched' and not crawling into my bed!

[Guest]

Here's your money maker Lack...

Snake skin boots and snake meat. []

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My Blog

[LeeE]

Rattlesnake's pretty darned tasty. Not sure about brown tree snakes.

I hear over on Oahu they have iguanas now. Big ones too!

Iguana makes for good eating, so once the locals there figure that out hunting should be good. Easier than hunting wild pig, I imagine.

[gtill]

Wow, this would have been headline stuff if it got out. There should be a truckload of traps there by now. Snake sightings are common, confirmed sightings aren't! And an 1.5" girth doesn't sound like a baby.
Hope it wasen't smuggled in for coqui control.
When they come in with traps, check their baiting system. They use live mice, but must protect the mouse from the snake (peta rules), in it's own little hotel room, and feed em daily. Which is why they drag their feet on leaving traps as if they miss a feeding it constitutes animal cruelty.

[missydog1]

What USGS says on brown tree snake bite:

quote:

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When threatened, the brown Treesnake is extremely aggressive and likely to lunge and bite repeatedly. The snake has numerous teeth but only the last two on each side of the upper jaw have grooves, which inject venom as it bites. Thus, the mouth must be opened as wide as possible to insert these fangs, and a deliberate chewing movement is employed to inject the venom by means of capillary action along the grooved fangs. The venom is used to subdue and kill prey on which the snake normally feeds but is not considered dangerous to adult humans. The snake often wraps its body around the prey to immobilize it while chewing on the animal to inject the venom with its grooved teeth.

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It does take a male and a female to reproduce. A female that has mated can "store sperm" and lay eggs in another season.

Has your neighbor identified a picture of the species?

http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/0094..._snake.jpg
Here's a photo ...

[missydog1]

And here's something explaining that trapping is mostly a gesture at snake control:

quote:

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In its arsenal against a snake invasion, the state also has another method employed by the DLNR in an effort to catch snakes. Traps are baited with live animals, usually mice. In response to the maui snake sighting, for example, the DLNR set 60 such traps. Most snake experts will admit this is not a terribly effective means of catching snakes. It is done not because of high expectations of success, but rather to make certain all possible avenues are exhausted. Nor is the ineffectiveness of traps difficult to explain. As prey densities (that is, rat populations) are so high in cane fields, getting a snake to enter a baited trap would almost be a matter of dumb luck.

Traps are somewhat more effective in Guam. There, brown tree snakes have wiped out most food sources and are looking for anything to eat. In the wild, most of the birds are gone so they basically feed on lizards and whatever else they can find, that's why they go in the trap. But in Hawai`ithere are still a lot of birds. The snake is not likely to enter a trap when it can catch its own bird on the tree. Traps are also expensive to maintain. Each trap needs live bait that must be fed and changed on a regular basis.

Other possibilities include physical barriers, fumigants to treat cargo containers, and biological control . All are still in the early research stages, and almost all of these are focused only on the brown tree snake.

Teamwork between agencies to respond to snake sightings and assist in search efforts: Response time is a critical factor.If a snake is not caught within minutes of its sighting, it is most likely it will not be caught at all. It can take as little as half an hour to mobilize searchers but if it looks as though it will take longer than two hours for Department of Agriculture personnel to arrive at the site of the spotting, other agencies are called in to help. These might include the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, military personnel, or volunteers trained by the DLNR to hunt for snakes. (The Fish and Wildlife Service cannot use funds to assist in searches unless the snake is suspected to be a brown tree snake.)

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[gtill]

Y'd think after the coqui, those in power would recognise the danger of these sightings and learn to react. Even our newspapers didn't pick it up, so if no outside nudging I guess anything goes.
Mabe the mongoose will like em. And it's ok too, because their poison won't kill an adult! Children should be inside studying anyway!

[punafish]

I clicked on this thread thinking it was a plug for huli-huli chicken (ya know, Snacks without a "c"?)

Snakes, that's serious stuff...