Proper arms for clearing the pythons from the “glades”?

OCD1 is closest to the right idea. The skins are worth something. Get a market put in place and turn the local good ole boys loose. One good size snake will make lots of boots. Tell the ladies they are the in thing for high fashion purses, belts, and shoes and the price for snakeskins goes up. Demand goes up. Snake goes down. This is probably one of those things that is hard to hunt. You have to be in the right place at the right time with a gun. That's where the good ole local boys come in. I would suggest gator hooks but you'de have to hang them where the gators can't reach them. A good common sense plan would probably end the problem. That means someone besides the government will have to figure out the plan.
 
The very idea that it would be possible, much less practical, to remove the Pythons from the Glades and the rest of South Florida by hunting could only be articulated by a politician.
As OCD1 says you only have to look or take a short tour into the edges of the Everglades to realize that this can only happen in the mind (?) of someone like Bill Nelson.
I don't know what the keeps the Python under control in its native habitat, what ever it is, we had better start looking.
 
Frankly, I'd want no part of this, but a Benelli M1S90 with #4 buck would probably be pretty good medicine. I do like the part about using asshat Bill Nelson for bait, though. :)

I watched the video of the fellow with the cobra, that feller don't appear to be none too bright!
 
walnutred said:
You know the old joke, spread the rumor they taste like chicken, there is no bag limit, and season opened last week.....
Click to expand...

I have an idea similar to this that might kill two stones with one bird (or something like that). We will spread the rumor to Al-Qaeda that we really want the Pythons to be in the Everglades and that, in addition to children, they regularly eat the Koran and insult Muhammad. Al-Qaeda will outfit small stature suicide bombers with vests of explosives that are set off when wrapped by the snake and crushed at a certain poundage of pressure. These suicide bombers can wander the Everglades as bait for the pythons.

I guess I have a sick mind. Like I say, however, a sick mind is a terrible thing to waste!
 
Me against Pythons? In the Glades? :/
snakegun.jpg
 
OH, and one more thing! Why should the Government even bother?

The Army Corps of Engineers destroyed the Glades which actually begins way up by the big Lake O. way back in the early days. They damned and diked in the name of mosquito control and land development. "The River Of Grass" is no longer what it was. Now the Govt is trying to spend untold billions on trying to UNDO what the did as the Glades are dying along with Fl Bay.

I really miffed right now.:mad:

Why is the Everglades called the river of grass?
 
I've had a house in Moore Haven, Glades County Fl since 1986. I guided on big O from 87 until the mid 90s and learned the lake before gps. we guided off water towers and trees on the shore and used a compass. My area was the west wall up to Indian Prairie and my specialty was moonshine bay, monkey box, cochran's pass, the Survey trail when there was enough water and I know the north shore and horse island pretty well. Used to be able to guarantee 40-50 specks every trip or steady bass action on shiners. Bullrushes and pepper grass beds all over the lake.

Corp is in big sugars pocket and they manage O for the benefit of agriculture and use if for a water reservoir for s fl. Then God sends drought and the Corp will continue to draw down O to the point you can't run a boat. Corp lets ag back pump super fertile water that causes the junk weeds like hydrilla to thrive and the drought kills the peppergrass and bullrush. God made the Kissimmee river full of twists and turns and they acted as a natural filter for water flowing into O. Corp straightened the river and now the Mickey Mouse crap flows into Big O unfiltered.

I'm right there on the soap box with you OCD1. :mad:
 
My daughter worked as an NPS ranger in Everglades NP, before hurricane Wilma came through. At that time there was a standing order to kill any python on sight. Rem. 870 was the prefered weapon, but many were run over by patrol cars. They even had a beagle trained to hunt them, Python Pete.
 
There is probably no solution, but I heard this:

I live in S. Florida and we go out to the Glades just plinkin. I have never seen any snakes, but a lot of gators as you get out into the glades.
One letter to the editor of the local paper said that in some countries, what they do is take a cage, put a hog (we have a lot of feral hogs in Florida) into the cage. The pythons get into the cage, eat the hogs, and, of course, now are too swollen to get out of the cage. The trappers make their rounds and harvest the pythons. Since it takes a long time for a python to digest a hog, there is no rush to check all the traps. My .02
 
I like the dog and the traps with the feral hogs in them. Those sound like good ways to go. tracking and baiting may not always be sporting, probably because they work too well. Fortunately, snakes just aren't that smart. Not like those coyotes and feral hogs.

Probably the most effective thing is to let the pesticide folks go to work. They came up with the M-44 for coyotes.

Coyotes and coyote control and management

Sometimes their stuff does have side effects, however.

I'd worry about some of the more enthusiastic projectiles, as don't pythons sometimes go up in the trees?

Anyone remember the case where a policeman was shooting at a snake in a tree and killed a 5 year old 200 yards away?

Noble Officers To Be Prosecuted In Boy's Death - Oklahoma City News Story - KOCO Oklahoma City

You be careful out there.
 
Sometimes I think you guys love to complain. :D

It seems to me like they know they've got a big problem, and they're trying lots of different ways to solve it:

Bryan Christy Blog Archive Florida Python Slaughter Authorized

They're trying to educate people not to release the snakes. They're trying to develop traps and attractants. They're trying to encourage people who hunt other things in the Everglades to kill the snakes and bring them to them for study.

They have authorized agents to hunt pythons. "NPS has partnered with up to a dozen experienced and highly motivated volunteer authorized agents that have removed hundreds of pythons"

I don't think it's quite as insane and poorly organized as you seem to think, although since they are all humanoids like us, I'm sure it's not perfect.
 
I agree with the trap method. Trapping is how the frontiersmen practically wiped out the beaver populations in the eastern U.S. If enough trappers got to work in the everglades, I have confidence that they would be very effective in reducing the python population. But if I was hunting them, I'd choose a short barreled Rem. 1100 with 12 gauge buck and ball or 00 buckshot loads, plus carry a machete and/or a samurai sword. If one got ahold of me, I'd want some way to chop myself free.
 
I can't believe no one's said this yet:

"I say we nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.
 
BREAKING NEWS IN TODAYS PAPER!!!

Opening Day was HUGE sucess!

They captured one(1) yes one 9 1/2 ft Python!!!!

Oh and by the way, you are not allowed to use any firearms (really) they must be caught with a snake pole hook thing and then the head cut of with a machete. OK sure, if someone come up on one of the 15+ft monsters they are gonna scoop it up in a pillow case and than hack it:eek:

Unbelievable.

Oh ya, this guy was ready but really pissed off now?:D

image001.jpg
 
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glypnir; You are too kind to our authorities.

As mentioned, there are according to the Park Authorities, thousands upon thousands out there and the population and range are expanding. It took at least four of the "hunters" with air boats to get one snake.

It seems now that our Senator is proposing a chip and release program??????? But he verges on incoherent so it's hard to tell.

It will take a free market solution to clear them out if it can be done at this late date. "Python meat the new low calorie white meat" "Python skin jackets take Hollywood by storm." That together with poaching is probably the answer.
 
I like the hog trap and snake skin ideas. We have too many hogs and snakes. And people will always want ways to make money.

Keep engineers away, they caused the problem in the first place. If we just left the Glades alone, and moved people and farms out, they would fix themselves.
 
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