Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 16 ‘ Python With 50 Eggs Removed From Everglades

Being the Federal Government is heavily involved with management of most all the Everglades region, it's gonna be f'd up forever, there is no hope.

It's my humble opinion that the best way to control invasive species is to import their natural predators from their region of origin. I know it sounds ironic importing additional invasive animals to control another but really it's not, if your gonna have one you might as well have the other...

I don't care to see packs of wild Hyenas (natural predator of the python) roaming south Florida but there are others, and of course we are doing our best to eradicate the very animals that might help control these snakes..

Little things may surprise some of you, the invasive "Fire Ant" hammers on snake eggs, even the flooding doesn't stop them. When the Glades receive "hurricane floods" you can see huge rafts of fire ants drifting along looking for high ground, these snakes lay their eggs on high ground, bingo, the ants find a refuge from the flood and dinner all at the same time on the available high ground.

Of course our government has been doing their best to control this invasive ant...go figure..

In years gone by they have poisoned them from the air now they have introduced the ants natural predator, the "Phorid fly", they first introduced this fly to Florida a couple decades ago and now it's been introduced in Texas. They are pretty cool and successful with their tactics:

The phorid fly uses the injection stinger on its rear end to squirt an egg into the shoulder joint of a fire ant. That encounter lasts for about 1/60th of a second.

If the phorid fly succeeds, the egg develops into a maggot, which wiggles up into the ant’s head. After a couple of days, the maggot will start to feast upon the ant’s head tissues.
The fly will release an enzyme that will cause the ant’s head to fall off. The head will act as a capsule for the fly for another two weeks, after which the fly will exit the ant’s mouth.

It all sounds good but the Fire Ants haven't appeared to put a dent in the Alligator population and they lay their eggs in high and dry locations too.

The ants can't do it alone, especially with our federal tax dollars pouring into programs to defeat the ant.

Feral pigs can be a strong and viscous predator when it comes to snakes.

I've hunted pigs in the NW region of the Glades, I saw their numbers growing in a huge form over a 25 year period. I'm unsure if the state or Federal government were directly involved with a eradication or control program for them other than offering a hunting season.

Then it all went to hell.

The introduction of Texas Cougar's to the Everglades through strongly tax funded Federal and State programs coincidentally eliminated these feral pigs from every area I ever hunted in the Glades.

As the Texas Cougar (local pretend name "Florida Panther" but no such species actually exist) population grew the local pig population totally vanished. I see zero sign of pigs in the areas I frequent but I do see Cougar tracts in all these areas which were never seen prior to the reintroduction.

This is never spoken of but may be the very reason the snake population has exploded in recent years.
The timing of the events is spot on...

So, like I said, with the Federal Government's management tactics involved, we're f'd...get use to the snakes.

The way congress manages our public lands, I won't be surprised when they put PETA in charge of it all.

Jeff, you make some good points there, but ask Australia how it's doing with those cane toads and Hawai'i how it likes mongoose.

Those are just two examples of introducing a "natural predators from their region of origin" into an area with a population of invasives.

The case of the phorid flies for the ants might be a bit different as those flies might be obligate parasites and if and when the ants were eliminated the flies would die out with no hosts to continue their life cycle. Or, worst case scenario, they evolve/adapt to another host, perhaps a beneficial insect we'd likely miss.

My take, the snakes are likely here to stay. Along with the iguanas, cheat grass, kudzu, "wild" horses and burros, and........................


ALIENS!

Just jokin' about the last critter.

(or not!)

Geno

I was wondering how a swamp burn worked....

There will always be a down side, I was actually thinking Mongoose but know nothing of them other than they will kill a snake really fast.

I do really believe the decimation of the Feral Pigs in the areas I frequent has had to contribute in the growth of the Python numbers.

Maybe a few Honey Badgers would be effective? They are really badassed.:-)

Laughing!

Nice read , Thank You.

Yep, downsides.

Mongoose? Florida? You like the wild turkeys down there? Alligators? All those birds that winter down there? They'll eat smaller snakes for sure, rats too, then they'll eat everything else they can get except large prey.

Killing off the feral swine in your area likely did allow for some population increase, but there are real wild pigs where those things come from so they're likely somewhat adapted to them.

Honey Badgers! Cool Idea!

Geno

We need something that eats Democrats!

Democrats eat democrats. We'll send you ours.

May those who release invasive species, ANY INVASIVE suffer terminal crotch rot!

Here...wait... whaa???
I don't mean it like that!

You know they screw other Democrats too, that's why there's so many.

It's all about keeping the numbers in check, I think the Feral Pigs may have been keeping many of the invasive snakes from becoming mature adults. It takes some years to grow a 10 to 15 foot snake.

I was kinda kidding about the Honey Badgers, there has to be a huge downside to having a critter around as wicked and mean as they are....but damn, they'd be fun to observe in action..

Wanna take bets OAC is eating Rashida Tlaib for dessert tonight?

That video is a lot better with the volume muted and closed captions on...