Record Python caught in Florida

[jinman]

Can we build a snake fence around Florida to keep those illegal alien snakes out?:laughing: Hey! They aren't bad snakes; they just want to come here and live and raise their families. If an alien snake has offspring in the US, are they now natural born snakes with rights?:confused3:

 

[creekbend]

What year(s) were you seeing the snakes on the lake? Sounds like that should be the title of a movie, "Snakes on the Lake!" :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I spent quite a bit of time out in the Everglades aka Water Management Districts, during the day and night, and never saw a non native snake. Saw plenty of native snakes though. This was around 1990. Wikipedia said,



Which is accurate from what I saw. or shall I say, did not see.

What I have read, and which makes perfect sense, is that snakes escaped after Hurricane Andrew. I am sure some people released the snakes when they got too large and other's escaped from their owners but I think Andrew at least started this mess. A neighbor kept a python of some kind and I remember when the snake escaped, maybe to the lake. :laughing::laughing::laughing: That kid was really upset the snake was gone and so was my mother! We had a very large and dense hedge around the back and side yards. The snake was in a pen right next to the hedge so it was almost certain he started his escape in our hedge. Mom does quite a bit of gardening and the idea of that snake in her hedge was not comforting to her. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

I fished Okeechobee for around 30 years. I was living in Florida when Andrew hit but we didn't even get a drop of rain in Manatee County. Although Andrew was predicted to cut across Tampa Bay, it headed and tuned southward across Homestead. The last time that I fished Okeechobee was around about 5 years ago. The Pythons were everywhere. They were skimming and swimming in the reeds and cattails. One even brushed against our boat. A game warden told me that the pythons were threatening the deer population, especially the "Key Deer". The Pythons would lay on a tree branch and drop on the unsuspecting deer.

 

[dmccarty]

I once came across a python nearly that big close to 30 years ago just west of Miami. This was before Hurricane-Andrew. Lots of exotic snakes,fish,birds etc in S/Fla.

Boone

I would think pythons have been in the Everglades for a very long time but they did not have enough of a population to breed. Andrew, and likely the expanding human population keeping and then getting rid of snakes when they got too big, caused the population to get large enough to start breeding.

I spent quite a bit of time all over the Everglades back then and never saw a non native snake. I was working with people who spent even more time out there and there were not seeing the snakes either. That is not to say the pythons were not there but that they were not there in large numbers.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

I fished Okeechobee for around 30 years. I was living in Florida when Andrew hit but we didn't even get a drop of rain in Manatee County. Although Andrew was predicted to cut across Tampa Bay, it headed and tuned southward across Homestead. The last time that I fished Okeechobee was around about 5 years ago. The Pythons were everywhere. They were skimming and swimming in the reeds and cattails. One even brushed against our boat. A game warden told me that the pythons were threatening the deer population, especially the "Key Deer". The Pythons would lay on a tree branch and drop on the unsuspecting deer.

That is too many danged snakes....

I was planning on having a leisurely move the week Andrew popped up. Long story short, it was NOT a leisurely move to NC, and I was pulling away in the rental truck as the first band from Andrew started raining. Andrew chase my fanny out of FLA! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan