Re: So we are starting to have snake problems!!!
Yes, there has been an "invasion" of Burmese pythons in LA., due to fools letting them go. Here is a story from the L.A. Times:
April 20, 2010
With Burmese pythons infesting the Everglades, the state wildlife commission turned to a formidable force to kill them: Florida's licensed hunters.
"Our hunters are on the front lines," said Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in a February announcement of a six-week python hunt. "And we hope, by tapping into their knowledge of the Everglades, we can make significant progress in this effort."
The hunt , which began March 8, ended Saturday. The total bagged: zero.
Officials attributed the hunt's failure primarily to the unusually cold winter, which they said killed about half of the pythons in south Florida. The species, which consumes native wildlife and competes for food with other top predators, remains a serious environmental threat, they said.
"There are still pythons out there," said Pat Behnke, spokeswoman for the wildlife commission. "It's still a problem we take very seriously."
But the hunt's poor results will play into a debate over a proposed federal ban on the interstate commerce of Burmese pythons.
Reptile dealers and hobbyists say the proposal is an overreaction to a local problem.
"This is an issue limited to a few counties in south Florida, and even there, they're susceptible to the cold," said Andrew Wyatt, president of the U.S. Assn. of Reptile Keepers, which represents hobbyists, breeders and dealers.
"I'm not saying it killed off every single Burmese python, but you're going to be hard-pressed to find any this year," Wyatt said. "The whole breeding cycle was interrupted. You're not going to have a crop of new babies this year."
No one knows how many hunters tried to find the snakes. They were required to report their kills, and Behnke said she doubted any hunters would keep that sort of information to themselves anyway. The best estimate is that a few dozen hunters participated, she said.
"It's a tough hunt," said Shawn Meiman, a hunter from Davie, Fla. "I've been out four times. I've gone to some really remote corners of the Everglades, where they should have been, and there weren't any."
Surviving pythons are typically smaller ones capable of wedging themselves into places that would give them shelter from the cold, but the wildlife commission says they still pose a threat.
They have been spotten in Louisiana, here is an article:
Giant pythons capable of swallowing a dog and even an alligator are rapidly making south Florida their home, potentially threatening other southeastern states, a study said.
"Pythons are likely to colonize anywhere alligators live, including north Florida, Georgia and Louisiana," said Frank Mazzotti, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor, in his two-year study.
The pythons thriving in Florida are mostly Burmese pythons from Myanmar that were brought over as pets and then turned loose in the wild.
From 2002-2005, 201 of the beasts were caught by state authorities, but in the last two years the number has more than doubled to 418, Mazzotti said in his study published on the university Web site.
The largest python caught so far in Florida measured 16.4 feet and weighed 154 pounds.
Mazzotti said the serpents, despite their awesome size, are not poisonous, but are excellent swimmers and able to cover great distances in little time. Some, trapped and released with radio transmitters, swam 37 miles in a few hours.
Highly adaptable, pythons prey on cats, dogs, hares, foxes, squirrels, raccoons and even alligators, allowing them to thrive in a variety of environments.
After populating the Florida Everglades -- a vast marshland -- ,b>where it is estimated they number 30,000, the giant python is now spreading across the rest of the peninsula.
"Females may store sperm, so they can produce fertile clutches for years. And a 100-something pound snake can easily be producing 60, 80 eggs a year," said Mazzotti, adding that the reptile could eventually populate the entire southern United States.
This problem will only get worse, if they aren't killed off, all the flooding we've had here in the south isn't going to help things.