Snake

[Mosha]

Because I'm out in the sticks, and our cats regularly bring snakes home. Including King Cobra hatchlings. I bought a book.

A Photographic guide to Snakes and other reptiles of Thailand and South East Asia." An Asia book publication.

The locals around here tend to kill first and ask questions later. Although I have seen a fully grown KC at the back of our house. I did have a too close encounter with a 6 footer. I was scraping my meal remains into the dogs bowl', when a movement caught my eye. It was slithering away, with it's hood extended. It had found a hole under our house which we later filled in. We also had a fully grown monocled cobra in our kitchen, now my wife knows why I kept telling her to leave the doors closed.

A couple of years back one of our friends come running in shouting snake come quick. I went to look and it was a Blood Python. The book says it's the smallest and least common of the pythons in Thailand. As I walked away, they asked was I going to kill it? I replied leave it alone, it's not posonous. They only get to 2.75 m

Wow that's lucky finding a blood python I used to captive breed them in Canada, though my pythons were Sumatran Blood Pythons. They are harmless but do have a nasty temper if handled similar to reticulated pythons. What area do you live in? Have you seen any nice monitor lizards? If you see a blood python again please post a photo I would be interested to see the coloration compared to my Sumatran.

I'll try and scan the picture in the book I've got. It's more or less what I saw. The book does say the Sumatran is a sub species

[Mosha]

As to information of locality La-Un is about 15-20K NE of Muang Ranong. The snake was seen about 50 m from the local stream that runs behind our house.

Edited November 5, 2007 by Mosha

[Thaddeus]

Despite the number of snakes, the face to face encounters I find are quite small in number. I've been here for almost three years..... this happened to me two days ago.

I needed to leave the house early, one of the ex-pats had a computer problem, he said fix it and I will feed you..... done deal.

I told my Mac to shut-down and went to close and lock the back door, on my way through the kitchen I heard a noise, the sort of noise that is made by a small plastic bowl being pushed over a tiled floor, great, one of the small dogs has pushed a doggy dish under a kitchen unit and the rats are back..... wonderful.

I got down on all fours for a look, spotted the small plastic bowl, the multitude of legs supporting the kitchen units, and an elongated shape with a diamond patterned smooth skin.... this is not looking good.

I can't lock up the house with a snake under the kitchen units, as when I return it could be anywhere.... and maybe venomous.... 80% of the snakes here aren't..... but that means that 20% are.

I backed off and shut my office door, shuffled slowly to shut the door to the bathroom, backed off slightly quicker to close the front door and the door to little girls room, took a side step into our bedroom, grabbed the quilt and the closed that door..... only one door open, the one it must have come in through.

Quilt draped over my arm, I looked around for something to prod it with, floor broom? ... nah too short .... vacuum cleaner, yep, that'll do.

It was set to blow, I had been cleaning one of wifey's computers and the effect was non-existent... so I set it to suck, felt the welcome thud of a jammed tube and heard the whine of a hoover about to demand overtime payments.

Withdraw hose, felt the unwelcome release of an unblocked tube and heard the noise of a gratefully relieved hoover.

The snake then decided that it had had enough, it slithered out from under the kitchen units and confronted me, raised itself up from the floor, spread the hood and showed its fangs.

I am now around three feet away from a King Cobra with a Tog 5 Shield and a sword made by Electrolux....... and it is looking right at me, that moment probably spanned around three seconds, but it felt like an eternity ..... the snake in it's infinite wisdom, decided I wasn't worth bothering with and left by the back door. I slumped to the floor and tried to stop my legs from shaking.

People that try to tell you that a bungie jump gives you the best adrenaline rush ...... know nothing.

[Mosha]

And the smell from your under pants was.

[Neeranam]

I went into our bedroom this afternoon and saw a green snake on the floor. I managed to force it out onto the balcony where it fell off onto the car.

Now it's in the engine area and won't come out - any suggestions - I tried the hose.

[mogoso]

I would rather kill it than find out later that it was poisonous when a couple of kids in the soi are dead.

If those were the options the choice is obvious. The WHO says there were only 91 snakebite fatalities in Thailand for 2004. It isn't very likely that a random unidentified snake happens to be dangerous, happens to have a chance surprise encounter (snakes are rarely aggressive unless feeling threatened) with someone, happens to bite the person and then the person is unable to get medical attention. There are far more dangerous things around that go ignored just because they are not backed up by an irrational fear.

But its just as likely to be dangerous. I believe there are about 150 species of snakes in Thailand, and about 75 are venonous. Of those that are poisonous many can be fatal. The picture of the snake hanging on the line looked way to thin to be a rat snake. I certainly can't id it from the photo.

I was bitten by a copperhead a couple of years back. Not a real poisonous snake, but it does hurt a bit and if children could be endangered, I might do away with an unknown snake myself. I certainly don't advocate needlessly the killing of snakes, but they are creatures of habit, and will return to the same places.

My king snake is taking his winter nap and doesn't wanna be bothered more than once a week for a walk outside, but even during warm weather and I forget and leave him outside, he can be readily found.

[farang prince]

I went into our bedroom this afternoon and saw a green snake on the floor. I managed to force it out onto the balcony where it fell off onto the car.

Now it's in the engine area and won't come out - any suggestions - I tried the hose.

C4 works nicely.

Edited December 21, 2007 by farang prince

[beammeup]

A green snake about 2m long came into my front yard were several kids were playing> I heard my wife yelping and freaking out so I ran out. The snake crawled up under my pickup truck. An hr earlier all the kids in the street were admiring it as it was up a telephone post on the wires. I had a good look at it (hoping it wouldnt come into my yard)and googled it. I couldnt be sure if it was a tree snake or a pit vipor. I didnt want to kill it but with all the kids I had no other choice. If any of its family comes around they are going to get it too!!! I think I would rather be called ignorant by some goofball poster than risk the lives of my kids or any of the other kids on the street.

Edited December 21, 2007 by beammeup

[Goshawk]

A green snake about 2m long.... earlier all the kids in the street were admiring it as it was up a telephone post on the wires.

from this description i'd guess it was a whip snake

[Gary A]

There is a lot of misinformation about snakes in Thailand. The King Cobra is very feared but you will find that there is not a single documented case of a King Cobra killing anyone here in Thailand. People have been bitten but for some reason the snake does not inject enough venom to kill. I guess he figures you are too big to eat so why waste his venom. The snake that kills the most people in Thailand is the Monocled Cobra. The snake more poisonous than the cobra is the Krait. Fifty percent of people bitten by a Krait die even with anti venom shots.

I saw my first Krait this week. Thais are usually very quick to kill any snake but they scattered when they saw this one. It was a Blue Krait and they are easy to identify. Slate blue body with white rings. A little similar to harmless Bridle snake but different enough to tell the difference easily. The back hoe (excavator) dug him out of our pond bank and dumped him in a dump truck. When the dump truck dumped the dirt, the snake came out of that pile of dirt in a bad mood.

[midasthailand]

Some years ago I was playing golf in Hua Hin with the American Embassy Golf Association and as usual I managed to slice my ball off to the right rough, as I walked through the rough to where my ball was, I felt a sharp pain in my right ankle, I looked down in time to see a small bright green snake slithering away. Needless to say I thought I had been bitten by the worlds deadliest snake, I told my caddy I had been bitten by a snake, he said, "what colour" I said "green" to which he casually replied "Mai Me Pit" (not poisonous). Although doubtful I continued to play and finished the round without dying, in fact I played a lot better after the encounter with the snake, keeping the ball on the fairway for most of the round. Later in the clubhouse my son, who was playing in another group, told me of his groups' encounter with a large cobra, they just left their balls where they lay and took a drop. That is my experience with snakes in Thailand.

[jonniebkk]

...I despise the way many Thais feel the need to kill every snake in site. Especially given that they are quite happy to tolerate the vermin that cause more problems & often attract the snakes in the first place.. . I wont tolerate it & insist on removing them alive.

I have the opposite problem...my GF is like you you, she wants to remove everything alive that I want to kill...stuff like cockroaches and spiders in the house. Have not found any poisonous snakes yet, however.

[uptou]

When i last went to vientienne,laos for a visa run,the girlfreind & i visited the massive lake north of the capital.

While we were looking out over the lake there was abit of a comotion going on,on this long tail boat.These 2 local guys were very excited & laughing & shreiking whilst trying to follow something swimming in the lake & bash it senseless with a long bamboo pole.At first we thought it was a large fish,but then we saw it kept rearing out of the water,& the other locals on the shore said it was a snake,& obviously a cobra.

It was kind of funny & sad at the same time,& i wondered do they really need to kill the snake??Eventually they got it stunned enough to get it on the boat ,but they nearly fell in the lake when it came to life again.They brought it to shore,& we walked to see the large crowd gathering.One of the boat guys dragged the large snake up the many steps with the half dead snakes head bouncing off of the steps as he did so.They then tied a plastic bag around the head as it was still alive.My girlfreind was told that it would get 10 usd at the market.I wondered why they didnt finish the snake off,but i guessed better fresh.

Kind of strange at the time seing a supposedly Buddhist village get so excited about bashing the crap out of the snake.

[farang prince]

There is a lot of misinformation about snakes in Thailand. The King Cobra is very feared but you will find that there is not a single documented case of a King Cobra killing anyone here in Thailand. People have been bitten but for some reason the snake does not inject enough venom to kill. I guess he figures you are too big to eat so why waste his venom. The snake that kills the most people in Thailand is the Monocled Cobra. The snake more poisonous than the cobra is the Krait. Fifty percent of people bitten by a Krait die even with anti venom shots.

I saw my first Krait this week. Thais are usually very quick to kill any snake but they scattered when they saw this one. It was a Blue Krait and they are easy to identify. Slate blue body with white rings. A little similar to harmless Bridle snake but different enough to tell the difference easily. The back hoe (excavator) dug him out of our pond bank and dumped him in a dump truck. When the dump truck dumped the dirt, the snake came out of that pile of dirt in a bad mood.

A .12-gauge shotgun with double-OO buckshot can cure any snake of its bad mood. When I was in Vietnam, we were warned about bamboo vipers (the "three-step" snake). Never saw one in two years over there. i think with all our grunts over there, I can only recall about 24 cases of snake-bite involving U.S. Army personnel and only a couple were fatal. We lost a helluva lot more guys to the "Black Death" syphillis.

[thaipete]

That's a coincedence - my wife killed a snake this afternoon.

She said it was a "ngoo sing" - sorry not allowed to write Thai unless on the Thai language forum.

With my 5 year old pushing my 8 month old in the pram, I don't want to take any chances.

I must admit I was / am scared stiff of snakes, after we moved into our place near Rayong we come across a variety of snakes in the garden. At first I got someone to get rid of them, which normally meant they killed them. However my wife's cousin asked me one day why kill them ?. I thought about it, started to read up about Thai snakes and gradually have come to respect them and give them their space, I would still sooner see them outside of our place than in but I have got 'brave' enough to chase them out myself now. (mind you haven't encountered one that big yet). Of course we haven't got young kids around, and any Farang visitors with kids are told there are snakes around, I assume the Thai ones know already.

I make a point of not leaving places for them to hide under, however the last one we came across (golden tree snake) was hiding under the ice box, we have got one of those boxes on wheels, don't know how long it had been there but I know we had been getting ice from it while it was there.

I can see both sides of the kill or let live fence but am trying to do my enviromental conservation bit now.

Ngoo Sing are not poisonous they grow up to 10-12 feet around here and the Thais here kill them because they taste so nice barbecued

[Rooo]

A very long snake crawled along our Soi today , A very brave Thai lady of one of our members managed to kill it before it did any harm to the young children who play in the Soi, can anyone recognise the type and whether it is poisonois snake from this picture.

That particular snake is a non-poisonous species. It is a ngu singh or asiatic rat snake. It can bite and if bitten the wound needs to be cleaned to prevent stapholococcus infection. Otherwise the snake is generally harmless. We live up country and have killed several of these. There is a good book avaiable called Snakes of Thailand Many Varieties (Ngu Thai lai chanit). It is in Thai only but the photos of the 182 species of snakes found in Thialand show the general locations, whether the snake is non-poisonous or mild to highly poisonous. Can get it at Asia Books for around 400 baht.

English version is available.Snakes & Other reptiles of Thailand And south east Asia.

Edited January 5, 2008 by sbk
fixed quotes for clarity--sbk

[Tony Clifton]

I'm sick of Thais who indiscriminately kill animals/bugs/plants just to kill them. Mindless.

Maybe Thais are sick of getting bitten indiscriminately by snakes and bugs for a few thousand years?