Snake In The House - What Is It?

[eggomaniac]

In 2006, in the countryside of NST, a snake entered a house, traditional and on stilts, and the room of the old man who lived there with his large family and bit him and he died.

It was very mysterious to me. It is an old wooden house that has been there for generations. There are other houses spread around, including the one we were visiting. There were several other occupants asleep, including children, and the snake narrowed in on an old man who was ill?

I thought the snake either had radar for suffering, a euthanistic snake, or it had been placed for that purpose?

It is a VERY rare occurrence in the area.

[eggomaniac]

So unfriendly replies of the wikipedia of snakes guys here. He is asking about it because he have no knowledge of it, he is not asking for anyone to be mean to him, just to explain him what is it. If I see a snake I would also freak out as I don't have knowledge of them. He is nice enough to at least get info first of what is it.

Next time get somebody from the soup stand down the road! Snake taken care of and somebody has a lunch.

[wolf5370]

If folks would buy a small snake book and keep it handy it is an easy matter to find out if it's dangerous or not before beating it to death with a golf club.

Make snake hook or something then you can easily lift them up and put them out. They got got a place in this world as well as us.

Ok I gonna buy a small snake book and when a snake appears in my house near my children I gonna quietly sit down and search the book if the snake is dangerous or not.Never mind if in the same time I'm reading the book the snake kills everyone in the house.

Mmmm, alternatively take the kids to another room first. If you have a snake hook then you can catch it at a distance and dump it somewhere first. Personally I would rather shoo it out - using a broom - and leave it at that.

[mattias33]

Sorry snakelovers and wikkipedia users. Any snake entering my house i would kill first and ask later (if ever). Op did the right thing. Not in a snakelovers eyes maybe, but most definately in the eyes of every parent with somekind of sence.

[Goshawk]

Any snake entering my house i would kill first and ask later (if ever). Op did the right thing. Not in a snakelovers eyes maybe, but most definately in the eyes of every parent with somekind of sence.

yet another ignoramus..

[wolf5370]

Sorry snakelovers and wikkipedia users. Any snake entering my house i would kill first and ask later (if ever). Op did the right thing. Not in a snakelovers eyes maybe, but most definately in the eyes of every parent with somekind of sence.

and do you mow down young Thai man riding a bike incase he is a mugger too?

[mattias33]

Sorry snakelovers and wikkipedia users. Any snake entering my house i would kill first and ask later (if ever). Op did the right thing. Not in a snakelovers eyes maybe, but most definately in the eyes of every parent with somekind of sence.

and do you mow down young Thai man riding a bike incase he is a mugger too?

If he is anywhere near my family carrying a knife or more there´s a big chans i kill first and ask questions later. The argumentation from the snake people here is very lame. Op didnt have a clue what kind of snake this was, he just knew that in thailand 50 % of the snakes are poisonus enought to harm his child.

"learn more about snakes" is up to each and everybody. He didnt go out in wild nature and look this thing up to kill it. He killed it in his own home i would have done the same without hersitate. Anyday.

[technocracy]

Why not teach your children about snakes so they understand not to approach them instead of just killing them and using them as the excuse?

I've never killed a snake and just because I now have a 1 year old child neither will I start.

[mattias33]

Why not teach your children about snakes so they understand not to approach them instead of just killing them and using them as the excuse?

I've never killed a snake and just because I now have a 1 year old child neither will I start.

One year olds are very easy to teach. With action, not words. You let him/her tuch a glas and say "no,dont do that" and the next time he/she knows so. You can offcourse try to sit down with a one year old and tell him/her about snakes and not to play with them, and hope he understands what you talk about. I seriously doubt it works though. So, with your attitude, lets hope you dont get a snake near your kid before he/she is old enough to understand your speaks.

"whats up with all your nasty scars? Ohh that, its my dad, he refused on general principal to kill snakes when i was a baby in Thailand"

Hope the mother of your child has better knowledge about children than you. For your childs sake.

[koheesti]

I'm surprised I aven't seen this here yet...

If a snake bites you it's only because YOU did somethiing WRONG like being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Snakes have been here longer than you so you have no right to kill them. If it turns out that you are bitten by a poisonous snake then you should have known better than to bother a poisonous snake.

[technocracy]

Why not teach your children about snakes so they understand not to approach them instead of just killing them and using them as the excuse?

I've never killed a snake and just because I now have a 1 year old child neither will I start.

One year olds are very easy to teach. With action, not words. You let him/her tuch a glas and say "no,dont do that" and the next time he/she knows so. You can offcourse try to sit down with a one year old and tell him/her about snakes and not to play with them, and hope he understands what you talk about. I seriously doubt it works though. So, with your attitude, lets hope you dont get a snake near your kid before he/she is old enough to understand your speaks.

"whats up with all your nasty scars? Ohh that, its my dad, he refused on general principal to kill snakes when i was a baby in Thailand"

Hope the mother of your child has better knowledge about children than you. For your childs sake.

Are you acting thick or were you just born that way?

The fact is I will protect my son from snakes or any other harm until he is old enough to understand what snakes are and what they can do - however it does not mean I have to kill them or is this reason beyond your 'man must KILL' neanderthal brain can comprehend?

We've had several snake type visitors in my house (over several years) and all of them have just been ushered out with a broom or whatever long hand implement there was at hand.

They don't want be near you as much as you don't want be near them.

[mattias33]

Why not teach your children about snakes so they understand not to approach them instead of just killing them and using them as the excuse?

I've never killed a snake and just because I now have a 1 year old child neither will I start.

One year olds are very easy to teach. With action, not words. You let him/her tuch a glas and say "no,dont do that" and the next time he/she knows so. You can offcourse try to sit down with a one year old and tell him/her about snakes and not to play with them, and hope he understands what you talk about. I seriously doubt it works though. So, with your attitude, lets hope you dont get a snake near your kid before he/she is old enough to understand your speaks.

"whats up with all your nasty scars? Ohh that, its my dad, he refused on general principal to kill snakes when i was a baby in Thailand"

Hope the mother of your child has better knowledge about children than you. For your childs sake.

Are you acting thick or were you just born that way?

The fact is I will protect my son from snakes or any other harm until he is old enough to understand what snakes are and what they can do - however it does not mean I have to kill them or is this reason beyond your 'man must KILL' neanderthal brain can comprehend?

We've had several snake type visitors in my house (over several years) and all of them have just been ushered out with a broom or whatever long hand implement there was at hand.

They don't want be near you as much as you don't want be near them.

Look, dont be a smartass now, ok. If you are very good at this, you can spot what kind of snake it is, and remove it from your home without harm. Great for you. And in this case it would have been great for the snake. But such actions without very much knowledge and experience about snakes can be very dangerous. If there is a snake on my floor, i would try to kill it for the simple reason that i dont want it in or near my house, and i dont have the skills or experience to catch it alive and put it in a box and drive it far from my house in the jungle where it belongs. To attempt something like that for a guy with 0 experience is just insane. They dot want to be near me is right, but if they ever come in my house they are near me and if they fled the scene by themselves i wouldnt run after them just because my "man must kill neandertal brain" says so. But if a snake is in my house in my case i had to either call an expert to remove it safely or try to hit it til its dead so i can take it away from our neighbourhood. Just chase it out of the house means it can go and bite some of my neighbours kids and that wouldnt be fair either. On the plus side, we most lightly will not get a snake in our concrete neigbourhood ever so its just a meaningless conversation, but i am still on the op:s side to 100% in this thread.

[Thai at Heart]

If anyone thinks it is that easy to spot which one is poisonous or not, please check out common wolf snake, and common krait.

They varieties are immense, and, whilst I have tried in the last 36 hours to find out, the common krait is attributed as the most deadly in India, and it is almost indistinguishable from a wolf snake. Both are in Thailand, and who is to know which one it was in my house. As the pictures were bitty, actually I now believe it was a krait, having had time to check.

So whilst I appreciate the snake lovers who I do respect to a great extent as being protectors of wildlife. I do understand that the odds of my kids being wrapped in a reticulating monster are extremely remote, this isn't the west where I can calmly call the emergency snake disposal guy to take it away and handle it. Ordinarily, who would have time to identify anything clearly, when there is a possibility of a fatal bite? Expert opinion? Well I might get lucky and turn on Discovery Channel exactly when they are showing all the imponderable possibilities of identification. To those experts out there, I take my hat off to you for having taken the time ( probably decades) to study.

It isn't my fault that after thousands of years of development in the country there isn't even a decent dog catcher to be found, let alone a snake specialist within 1000 km who can handle this stuff. As for the plonker who asked if an idiot with a motorcycle would be a target, if he was in my kitchen, you betcha!!!

Sometimes, this blog is more useless than it is useful.

[Goshawk]

If anyone thinks it is that easy to spot which one is poisonous or not, please check out common wolf snake, and common krait.

piece of cake to i.d / seperate these two..

.

As the pictures were bitty, actually I now believe it was a krait, having had time to check.

Definately not a krait.. from your, admittedly 'bitty' pic, it looks more like a totally harmless Ratsnake to me..

[monkfish]

So did any of the snake experts here manage to identify the snake yet? Its not a ratsnake!

[Goshawk]

As the pictures were bitty, actually I now believe it was a krait, having had time to check.

Definately not a krait.. from your, admittedly 'bitty' pic, it looks more like a totally harmless Ratsnake to me..

Its not a ratsnake!

i take it you've never seen Ptyas mucosus then..? notice the black transverse banding.. then look again at the OP's grainy 'bitty' pic

.

What do you suggest fishmonk ?

[Thai at Heart]

As the pictures were bitty, actually I now believe it was a krait, having had time to check.

Definately not a krait.. from your, admittedly 'bitty' pic, it looks more like a totally harmless Ratsnake to me..

Its not a ratsnake!

i take it you've never seen Ptyas mucosus then..? notice the black transverse banding.. then look again at the OP's grainy 'bitty' pic

.

What do you suggest fishmonk ?

Thanks for the pictures. It may well have been a rat snake. However, the website that seems to be the encyclopaedic knowledge base for Thai snakes has a picture of a rat snake that neglects to show any of the markings and has the following statements. The first "expert" opinion was that it was a wolf snake.

http://www.siam-info.de/english/snakes_common.html

Lycodon laoensis (Laotian Wolf Snake)

Thai: (ngu plong chanuan lao, ngu kan plong)

Size: to 50 cm, very thin

Occurrence:

In completely Thailand, usually in the hill and mountain country, also in the proximity of settlements.

Behaviour:

Evening and night-active animals, which mostly are at the soil. Not very aggressively. Bites nevertheless with annoyance.

Danger: Innocuous little aggressive snake.

Note: Danger of mistake with strongly poisonous Krait

Bungarus fasciatus poisonous!

Boiga dendrophila

Dryocalamus subannulatus

So as we can see, expert opinion can be debated until the cows come home. Ironically, there was a program showing the removal guy from Oz moving something nasty in Oz on Discovery last night. He stated that over 90% of household bites occur when amateurs attempt to remove snakes from houses and gardens and the instruction is that in no way should an amateur attempt to handle a snake.

In which case, "Who you gonna call?" because the odds are it is going to end up in a bowl of soup somewhere if I call the gardener.

Edited February 10, 2009 by Thai at Heart

[Goshawk]

Thanks for the pictures. It may well have been a rat snake. However, the website that seems to be the encyclopaedic knowledge base for Thai snakes has a picture of a rat snake that neglects to show any of the markings

errr.. cos your looking at a different snake than what i suggested above.. (more than 1 Rat Snake species in Thailand)

look here and scroll down 'til you get to Ptyas mucosus (or mucosa as it's labelled there) if you really wish to see it on that particular site..

i can tell you straight that your snake is not a Laotian Wolf Snake - i know, i've captured enough of those.. very easy to i.d. and very easy to tell from a Banded Krait (which i've also caught) - cylindrical section vs triangular section for one

.

the website that seems to be the encyclopaedic knowledge base for Thai snakes

This one's ok, but wouldn't go so far as to give it the title you have, 'cos no such true site exists (yet)

Edited February 10, 2009 by Goshawk

[Thai at Heart]

Thanks for the pictures. It may well have been a rat snake. However, the website that seems to be the encyclopaedic knowledge base for Thai snakes has a picture of a rat snake that neglects to show any of the markings

errr.. cos your looking at a different snake than what i suggested above.. (more than 1 Rat Snake species in Thailand)

look here and scroll down 'til you get to Ptyas mucosus if you really wish to see it on that particular site..

i can tell you straight that your snake is not a Laotian Wolf Snake - i know, i've captured enough of those.. very easy to i.d. and very easy to tell from a Banded Krait (which i've also caught) - cylindrical section vs triangular section for one

.

the website that seems to be the encyclopaedic knowledge base for Thai snakes

This one's ok, but wouldn't go so far as to give it the title you have, 'cos no such true site exists (yet)

It probably doesn't deserve the title, but has shown up many times on TV as a reference, and if you google "Snakes, Thailand" it comes very close to if not, the top.

If as you say, there isn't a truly encyclopaedic site, now is your chance. Plus, an A4 sized identification chart would be extremely useful to put on the fridge, always assuming that snakes aren't partial to beer, or chilled pla so aren't attracted to fridges as a rule.

[bobbysan124]

I disagree with most people here. If I would know the snake was not dangerous, I would not kill it. But I just don't know it.

There are so many kinds of snakes and about 50% is venomous. Some kinds look very similar. I've looked at pictures in a book, but I still can't recognize the snakes. I just don't know which one is dangerous and which one not. My baby of 1 year old likes to play with everything that moves. So, I prefer to kill every snake that comes to our home. I don't want to take any risk, even not a very, very small risk. Most of the times the snake is scared and I am scared (I don't dare to come very close) so I don't succeed in killing it.

I think you're absolutely right to give yourself and your child the benefit of the doubt here. If it's a choice between a snake and your child's life/welfare, then there's really no choice to be made imo. And, I am not against snakes' right to live.

[Ta22]

over the years my father had become a good snake catcher himself , and had so far catch and release at least 2 doz snake from my 1 rai hous ein chiangmai .

just a few week ago -when i was in chaingmai for new years we got a 9.5 kg . snake . and few days after that - my father got a 12kg one . whahah my mom was all jumpy . i see if i can find some photo for you .

we call the local police and some guy came down . those youth ambulance driver . whahaha .

please do not catch it yourself unless you are sure the snake you are catching you can handle and also is not some cobra or pioson snake that will kill you with one bite .

[BillyBobThai]

As a person, who, when I was 11, had a brother who chased me with a live rattlesnake, to this day, I am now 60 yr old, hate snakes. Personally, I kill ALL snakes. They can either hurt me or make me hurt myself. When young children are involved, better save than sorry. Kill the snake. I am told that Thai's like to eat them.

[Goshawk]

As a person, who, when I was 11, had a brother who chased me with a live rattlesnake, to this day, I am now 60 yr old, hate snakes. Personally, I kill ALL snakes. They can either hurt me or make me hurt myself. When young children are involved, better save than sorry. Kill the snake.

you post is a psychologist's dream ticket - you've described in a nutshell a classic, textbook, early onset case of lifelong Ophidiophobia...

there is a cure..

.

I am told that Thai's like to eat them.

you are told correct. (some Thai's, that is.. )

[desertrat]

Which species is this one please.?

[eddiemonster]

Doesn't really matter whether the snake is poisonous or not, I don't think anyone wants to be even bitten by a snake. Must be pretty painful. As usual, most killing (of any kind) is done out of ignorance.

I am no expert (had never seen a wild snake 3 years ago) but I have now got a snake hook and catcher and it is very easy to hook/catch them and put them in a box.

Have a few practice runs first then try it out on a tiddler, or in my case the cat. Who wasn't very happy about it.

All those people worried about their children - fair enough. But also think about what you are teaching them or you are happy to perpetuate the ignorance and killing?

However, my home is my home and if I really had no choice I would kill it, but I have always thought it much safer to drive it away with a hose from distance than getting close enough to kill it. Don't forget - if you try to kill it, and fail, it is going to be mighty p1ssed off.

Why do idiots have to kill these wonderful creatures?

Because it is the will of God:

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,

"Cursed are you above all the livestock

and all the wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dust

all the days of your life."

Well, he got it wrong about eating dust didn't he? (I know, just a metaphor! )

[jayjayjayjay]

As a person, who, when I was 11, had a brother who chased me with a live rattlesnake, to this day, I am now 60 yr old, hate snakes. Personally, I kill ALL snakes. They can either hurt me or make me hurt myself. When young children are involved, better save than sorry. Kill the snake. I am told that Thai's like to eat them.

Billly Bob needs counciling 5555, maybe Anjelina Jolie can help Billy Bob understand how best to control a snake, dead, alive, hard or soft........... (sorry, couldn't resist this time).

Edited February 14, 2009 by jayjayjayjay

[jibber]

I don't know what the OPs snake is but the club is 1 iron yea?

[Sakeopete]

If folks would buy a small snake book and keep it handy it is an easy matter to find out if it's dangerous or not before beating it to death with a golf club.

Make snake hook or something then you can easily lift them up and put them out. They got got a place in this world as well as us.

Ok I gonna buy a small snake book and when a snake appears in my house near my children I gonna quietly sit down and search the book if the snake is dangerous or not.Never mind if in the same time I'm reading the book the snake kills everyone in the house.

Unless the snake is chasing you and your family while salivating and growling YES! Most snake encounters has the snake minding its own business or curled up in a corner. Never known a snake to actively hunt people down.

[IanForbes]

I'm surprised I aven't seen this here yet...

If a snake bites you it's only because YOU did somethiing WRONG like being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Snakes have been here longer than you so you have no right to kill them. If it turns out that you are bitten by a poisonous snake then you should have known better than to bother a poisonous snake.

That sounds like the same, lame excuse the Thais use for riding motorcycles the wrong way down one way streets, very fast and at night with no headlight on. It's all "Karma" if they have an accident.

I HAVE been bitten by a venomous Tiger snake and I wasn't doing anything wrong other than walking along a trail beside a river. Luckily I was wearing hip waders while fishing and the fangs barely entered my ankle. All I got was a nasty rash.

I like snakes and have no problem handling them... but even the non-venomous ones can pack a nasty bite. They all have inward facing teeth that are sharp as needles. There are hundreds of similar looking snakes, of which some are venomous and some are not. Cobras usually raise their hood when alarmed, but not when at rest. Kraits do not and are just as venomous... if not more. Green tree vipers look very similar to other green tree snakes and you can't always tell at a glance.

I had many run-ins with venomous snakes in Australia, and I've seen quite a few cobras in the wild in Thailand. Most of the time I just leave them alone if they are not going into someone's home. Snakes in the house are a HUGE nuisance, even if they are non-venomous. They get under furniture when scared and it takes a long time to corral them safely for all concerned... including the snake.

This guy tapped the front of my camera... just to warn me, when I got too close.

This rattler didn't enjoy it when I flipped him back onto the highway so I could take his picture.

This Bull snake is not venomous and lives in the same country as the rattlers, but it CAN be aggressive if you get in front of where it's planning on going. And, it WILL give you a nasty bite.

[IanForbes]

Never known a snake to actively hunt people down.

Then you've never met an Australian Taipan or a central America Bushmaster. Both will attack without provocation. Both are deadly.

I've followed a King cobra through the scrub for 20 minutes, trying to get a photo. But every time I got fairly close it raised its hood to warn me to stay back. I paid attention to the warning and kept my distance. Unfortunately, my photos didn't turn out worth a dam_n in the poor light and brushy terrain. I finally realized it's easier to talk a Thai snake handler into letting me into the cage of already captured snakes, if I wanted good photos.

This cobra was warning me to stay back...