Little Blacks Snakes

[WISteve]

While I was having lunch outside the house with some local boys in Amphor Si Bun Ruaeng, Nong Bua Lamphu in mid-November one of them spotted a snake in a palm about twenty meters from us. It was probably 20-25 feet up a large coconut palm and I didn't see it move the entire time. It was probably about one meter in length or a bit more, and judging by the pictures in the earlier link (thank you!) I thought it might have been a green pit viper.

Two shots of it with my telephoto lense:

I got the expected response from the teelack about whether it was poisonous/non-poisonous :

"If it bite you, you die for sure!"

Any guesses gentlemen?

I moved my car just to be on the safe side, since I was parked only feet from the base of the tree!

~WISteve

[mikethevigoman]

they're called ngoo din...which means dirt snake....they're harmless....don't even think they are capable of biting you as their mouth is too small.

My wife says they are harmless, however if you kill one they smell and their friends all come !

[Bicko]

While I was having lunch outside the house with some local boys in Amphor Si Bun Ruaeng, Nong Bua Lamphu in mid-November one of them spotted a snake in a palm about twenty meters from us. It was probably 20-25 feet up a large coconut palm and I didn't see it move the entire time. It was probably about one meter in length or a bit more, and judging by the pictures in the earlier link (thank you!) I thought it might have been a green pit viper.

Two shots of it with my telephoto lense:

I got the expected response from the teelack about whether it was poisonous/non-poisonous :

"If it bite you, you die for sure!"

Any guesses gentlemen?

I moved my car just to be on the safe side, since I was parked only feet from the base of the tree!

~WISteve

Great photos WISteve. Thanks. Not sure if this guy is venomous. One way to tell is every (If I recall correctly) 5th row of scales on the underside is a single scale so it's 4 rows of multiple scales and then a single full width scale on the belly.

Wise to move your car. It is not uncommon in Australia for snakes to get up into the engine compartment at night to keep warm and then be transported to the next destination- if they don't get caught up in the fan and wreck your fan belt.

[Gimbo]

Here is a small list of NON poisonous snakes in Thailand and the first on the list is the Blind Snake or black snake.

<a href="http://www.siam-info.de/english/snakes_non-poisonous.html" target="_blank">http://www.siam-info.de/english/snakes_non-poisonous.html</a>

Well that certainly looks like my little black killers!!!!

What i don't understand is why ALL Thais think they are so deadly?????

Any ideas on that?

I have found that the Thais near me, including my wife, seem to think almost every snake is deadly, and even extend this to millipedes and Tokay geckos. (The latter they believe can leap from the wall, attach to your throat, and choke you ).

I think once the idea forms that something is dangerous, no-one goes near it, so no-one ever finds out that they are not; thus the belief survives. Until I picked up and handled millipedes, my wife was terrified of them; now my nieces also pick them up, so gradually there will be one village in Thailand where people know millipedes are harmless.

Until a kird picks up a centepede, thinking it's a harmless millipede. Sometimes those "superstitions´ have a purpose.

Liken it to the old norse myths, about the thundergod Thor. When he drove his cart pulled by two goats wielding his hammer, lightning was suposed to be the sparks from the wheels, and the thunder the sound of his hammer crushing the skulls of trolls. And when those powers fought, it was likely that lesser folk would end up in harms way. So kids where told this story to make them scared enough of the thunder and lightning storms to seek shelter....kept them from being struck by lighning...

Same with snakes here. Teach the kids that all snakes are dangerous, and it's less likely that some kid will pick up a deadly one by mistake....

[SteveH]

While I was having lunch outside the house with some local boys in Amphor Si Bun Ruaeng, Nong Bua Lamphu in mid-November one of them spotted a snake in a palm about twenty meters from us. It was probably 20-25 feet up a large coconut palm and I didn't see it move the entire time. It was probably about one meter in length or a bit more, and judging by the pictures in the earlier link (thank you!) I thought it might have been a green pit viper.

Two shots of it with my telephoto lense:

I got the expected response from the teelack about whether it was poisonous/non-poisonous :

"If it bite you, you die for sure!"

Any guesses gentlemen?

I moved my car just to be on the safe side, since I was parked only feet from the base of the tree!

~WISteve

Great photos WISteve. Thanks. Not sure if this guy is venomous. One way to tell is every (If I recall correctly) 5th row of scales on the underside is a single scale so it's 4 rows of multiple scales and then a single full width scale on the belly.

Wise to move your car. It is not uncommon in Australia for snakes to get up into the engine compartment at night to keep warm and then be transported to the next destination- if they don't get caught up in the fan and wreck your fan belt.

[SteveH]

While I was having lunch outside the house with some local boys in Amphor Si Bun Ruaeng, Nong Bua Lamphu in mid-November one of them spotted a snake in a palm about twenty meters from us. It was probably 20-25 feet up a large coconut palm and I didn't see it move the entire time. It was probably about one meter in length or a bit more, and judging by the pictures in the earlier link (thank you!) I thought it might have been a green pit viper.

Two shots of it with my telephoto lense:

I got the expected response from the teelack about whether it was poisonous/non-poisonous :

"If it bite you, you die for sure!"

Any guesses gentlemen?

I moved my car just to be on the safe side, since I was parked only feet from the base of the tree!

~WISteve

Great photos WISteve. Thanks. Not sure if this guy is venomous. One way to tell is every (If I recall correctly) 5th row of scales on the underside is a single scale so it's 4 rows of multiple scales and then a single full width scale on the belly.

Wise to move your car. It is not uncommon in Australia for snakes to get up into the engine compartment at night to keep warm and then be transported to the next destination- if they don't get caught up in the fan and wreck your fan belt.

This is a Golden Tree Snake, mildly venomous, very common in Thailand, seen many were we are.

[ALFREDO]

-"Wife said, when you get bitten you will be dead"-

I no believe much what my girlfriends say about nature and animals.

Just some days ago I saw this black, small, Blind snake, with no really visible head the first time in Thailand in my village in Udon Thani province.

So small and tiny you easy can mistaken her for a worm.

I put her to a saver place, away from children, who sure would have played with the small snake and probaply have killed her.

Already nearly nothing left of the wildlife in Thailand and Isaan.

Sorry for that.

[loong]

I've come across many of these small black snakes when digging in the garden. There is no way a gardener would confuse them with earthworms. When disturbed they always run (or sliver) away so I've never worried about them. Now thanks to this thread, I've found out that they eat termite eggs, so maybe ants eggs as well, so I'll be happy to know that they are around.

Edit, actually thinking about it, they probably don't eat ants eggs as the ants would attack them and nothing can survive the determined onslaught of 1000's of ants

Edited April 11, 2009 by loong

[Chinavet]

Just to expand this Topic:

What is very popular is what they call a FROG snake they can grow to 2/3 meters and look like a cobra very dark brown in colour and move fast, we se a lot of these:

Ant one else any knowledge on these I want to clear up the fact that locals say not venomous ??

This is a pic of what my wife calls a FROG snake. I see many in our river, have had up to three off them in the canoe with me when collecting water hyacinth and I have handled them. Still here.

[MTH]

I just said "ngoo din" to my girlfriend and she immediately replied back, "if it bites, you surely die" and she's not the kind of person who thinks every snake is dangerous. We have been up in Isaan for the last week, and have found two smaller snakes in the house during the last couple of days. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, but they were about 20cm longs and grayish in color. When asking her if these snakes are poisonous, her answer has been, I don't think so.