Snakes in the house: who you gonna call?

[Lite Beer]

Snakes in the house: who you gonna call?
Phuket Gazette -

Watchara Srikacha believes Phuket residents need to find a way to share the island with the local wildlife. Photo: Chutharat Plerin

Watchara Srikacha, 26, has been catching snakes since he was 10 years old. Originally from Sisaket province in Thailand’s Northeast, Watchara has been working with the Kusoldharm Foundation since he came to Phuket almost five years ago. Part of his job is catching snakes. Here, he explains why more and more snakes are appearing in residential areas of Phuket.

PHUKET: We’ve been getting a lot of calls from people about snakes lately, and we catch a lot of them, almost one a day. They like to enter people’s houses and cars. It’s the rainy season and the snakes are trying to find a dry place.

The snakes might bother people, but there’s no point in blaming them; they’re not trespassing, we are. The jungle and rainforests used to be their home, and now we are encroaching on their area by building more and more houses all over the island.

I understand that more people are coming to Phuket and we need more land for them to live on, but we need to find a way to share the space with the local wildlife.

We should be very strict on not allowing construction in national parks and we should restrict building on hillsides, which requires cutting down a lot of trees. In this way, we can reserve some land for the animals.

If you ask me whose side I’m on, I’ll say I’m on the snake’s, because they aren’t aggressive. They’re scared of people. That’s why I’m not scared of them. I’ve never been attacked or bitten by a snake.

I learned to catch snakes by myself when I was about 10 years old. Snakes used to come into our house, and when only my sister and I were at home, it was up to me to catch them.

At Kusoldharm, there are more than 10 of us who can catch snakes. When we receive a snake call, we usually send out two people.

One trick we use is to play with them before we catch them – we make them move around until they get tired out. Then they’re easier to catch.

The longest king cobra I ever caught was about five meters. It was bigger around than my arms.

After we catch them, we let them go in a forest. We normally take them to hills behind Patong, where we believe they will be safe. We make sure to leave them on relatively flat surfaces, so they won’t get swept away by water when it rains.

And we make sure that we set them free far from where people live. We don’t want them to bite people and we don’t want people to kill them.

People shouldn’t try to catch a snake by themselves, even ones that are not poisonous.

One time a guy caught a python by himself, thinking it wasn’t dangerous because it wasn’t venomous. But he was bitten very badly on the arm.

When snakes bite, they sometimes pull your flesh off. That guy’s wound couldn’t be sutured. Just because they’re not poisonous doesn’t mean they won’t bite you.

Even those of us who have a lot of experience have to be very careful whenever we catch them.

Call us anytime at 076-246301.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2013/Phuket-Opinion-Snakes-in-the-house-who-you-gonna-call-21854.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2013-08-04

[theblether]

Good article and I appreciate people who go the extra mile to preserve wildlife, including the much maligned snake. I would live to have seen him tackling the 5 metre Cobra, as long as I was behind a glass screen and with the doors locked.

What a majestic and terrifying sight at the same time that must have been.

[jpeg]

Heartwarming article. Wish there were more here,Thai and farang alike, with the same attitude instead of immediately heading for a large stick with which to beat these animals to death.

I've had cobras, a five meter python, and lately a harmless Keelback, along with the many rat snakes, tree snakes. The Keelback comes back same time every year to my pond to keep the frog population down.

Just slam a door and they bugger off. As stated in the article, they're more afraid of us than we them.

[Guest]

Maybe the most dangerous snakes could be moved in to one of the inhabited islands close to Phuket.

Next step would be transferring inmates from Phuket's prisons to this island.

Finally the island would be named as Little Australia.

Some adventure companies could organize survival trips there to make a bit of local profit.

[vegasphl]

Call "SnakeBusters."

[GBK]

Can't speak for anywhere else, but Hat Yai used to have a municipal "Snake police", maybe still does. Many years ago, they turned up at the house of one expat who had called them, armed with sawn-off shotguns and machetes and proceeded to blow the crap out of his kitchen ceiling. His landlady wasn't terribly amused.

[Markaew]

Several months ago I had a cobra in the yard during the night. Didn't see it but thankfully a cat did. I wanted nothing to do with it so the wife went to the neighbors to ask them for help. They came, killed it, and ate it.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Markaew

[Old Croc]

We have a resident snake catcher. Our small Manx cat.

She regularly leaves dead and dying snakes around the yard, usually small tree and rat snakes.

I watched her fighting a rat snake outside our gate once, the snake struck at her many times , but had no chance.

Her latest kill was a cobra about 2 1/2 to 3 ' long (I hope she has enough sense to leave the big ones alone).

My GF bought this one inside to show me, much to the horror of several mates in Australia, to whom I was talking on Skype!

The cat's greatest desire is to one day catch up with one of those pesky squirrels that taunt her from the power lines. Don't know how she would go if she did get one, as some of those things are about the size of a mongoose.

She did meet her match recently with a medium sized monitor. She backed off and the lizard escaped with a few teeth marks.

[lagavulin1]

Splendid article by the OP. Now who does spiders??

[DarrenB3]

Who you call when there's 56 cobras in your house?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHHrgQ_c4E

[Richie23]

"We normally take them to hills behind Patong" - I take it said hills are sufficiently far enough from Patong?

[dontejo]

Thanks for this post. Very important.!!

[bigbamboo]

We have a resident snake catcher. Our small Manx cat.

She regularly leaves dead and dying snakes around the yard, usually small tree and rat snakes.

I watched her fighting a rat snake outside our gate once, the snake struck at her many times , but had no chance.

Her latest kill was a cobra about 2 1/2 to 3 ' long (I hope she has enough sense to leave the big ones alone).

My GF bought this one inside to show me, much to the horror of several mates in Australia, to whom I was talking on Skype!

The cat's greatest desire is to one day catch up with one of those pesky squirrels that taunt her from the power lines. Don't know how she would go if she did get one, as some of those things are about the size of a mongoose.

She did meet her match recently with a medium sized monitor. She backed off and the lizard escaped with a few teeth marks.

We have something similar...... only young but a natural hunter.

One advantage cats do have is their high immunity levels to snake poison.... several times higher than that of humans or most animals so even a stray bite may not be fatal.

[wpcoe]

In Hua Hin, there is a small squad within the Fire Department that deals with snakes in homes. My landlady called them when I was having a series of snake "invasions" in my home a few years ago.

In Pattaya, I believe it's the Sawang Booriboon (sp?) that takes care of snakes.

[Ulic]

Who you gonna call....... Snake Busters....076-246301 thanks for the number

[mrfill]

Cobras are not poisonous. They are venomous.

Poisonous snakes are ones that will poison you if you eat them.

[LivinginKata]

Inflammatory post and the reply removed.

[transam]

Good article and I appreciate people who go the extra mile to preserve wildlife, including the much maligned snake. I would live to have seen him tackling the 5 metre Cobra, as long as I was behind a glass screen and with the doors locked.

What a majestic and terrifying sight at the same time that must have been.

I have dealt with worse snakes but they had 2 legs. .....................

[Nayet]

The snakes might bother people, but there’s no point in blaming them; they’re not trespassing, we are.

I hate that old cliché! So every square inch of the globe belongs to species other than humans? I thought ants were invading my apartment, but I guess I am really the one trespassing on their land.