re: the Florida python problem

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Some snakes like rat snakes eat other snakes including venomous ones so they might be good to have eating baby pythons before they get too big.

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I'm just a simple man with a simple 7 iron. I am nowhere near qualified to make a judgement call on the snakes lineage. After all, there will be plenty of time for more learned men to make those determinations once the snake is dead.

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Anyone releasing any snake into the wild needs to be shot

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Cats, too. Hell, let's just say that anyone caught releasing any animal they acquired as a pet into the wild should be shot.

20 ft and 400 lbs???

frick that….. nope nope nope…

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Waaaay past too late for that

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Is it though?

Like the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is today.

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This is a long and very detailed analysis of how far these pythons can spread. He points out the flaw in this map's methodology.

How Far North Will Florida's Pythons Spread? | Invasive Biogeography

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Nature is unrelenting. It works in slow motion most of the time, but it never stops. Native Florida ecosystems are being destroyed by a host of non-native species. First, the introduced species will pressure the native species. They will out breed and out hunt them. Resources will dwindle, the weaker of the species will die off, and the stronger ones will push into territories with more food and less competition. They'll slowly acclimate while the cycle continues. They'll keep going until they reach an environment that is just absolutely not conducive to life for their species.

This will all take time, but it is a constant, steady progression.

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Nature is unrelenting. It works in slow motion most of the time, but it never stops. Native Florida ecosystems are being destroyed by a host of non-native species. First, the introduced species will pressure the native species. They will out breed and out hunt them. Resources will dwindle, the weaker of the species will die off, and the stronger ones will push into territories with more food and less competition. They'll slowly acclimate while the cycle continues. They'll keep going until they reach an environment that is just absolutely not conducive to life for their species.

This will all take time, but it is a constant, steady progression.

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Sometimes it has to be treated like a lake that has invasive fish that are killing off all of the native fish and the whole thing is poisoned so it can be restocked later.

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If they have trouble reproducing at 60F, that map is bullshite

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That map was comparing the average temperature and python range in America with that of India. The problem with that is that even in our southern regions, we get some significant sub-freezing days while India does not. Freezing weather is generally deadly for pythons.

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Those bastards will be all over S. Louisiana before long.

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Only small, dead ones. First continuing hard freeze would get them. Pretty sure they are a tropical species.

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think the only way to decimate their population is to bait them with thousands of mice, rats and rabbits with Tylenol collars. Tylenol is a strong poison for snakes.

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That'd end up killing a bunch of native species as well, considering pythons aren't the only animals that eat mice.

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That map was comparing the average temperature and python range in America with that of India. The problem with that is that even in our southern regions, we get some significant sub-freezing days while India does not. Freezing weather is generally deadly for pythons.

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Even below 60 degrees they get so lethargic that predators can easily target them.

They may get to south Louisiana if someone moves them there, but they won’t make it very far past the first winter. It gets below 40 degrees routinely and below freezing at least a dozen times every year.