Green Snake in Roofspace

[Robroona]

Thanks to all for your valued comments. My guest snake is curled up, I assume sleeping, and has been in that position since last evening. I wonder when he will wake up and kill all the rodents up there in the roofspace. Must be hungry by now

[off road pat]

Green tree snake for sure. Very common. Harmless to humans. Good news for you if you leave it alone, less mice / bats and poop all over your place.

Nearly every Thai I meet think all snakes will kill you. Only around 10 - 15% are actually deadly to humans, and guess what? death only occurs when people dick about with them. Recent morons have tried to take selfies with rattle snakes and ended up in a bad way. Good I say. Just helps to confirm that nature eliminates the weak, stupid and feeble minded.

A recent surevy in the sates showed that 90% of snake bites were when "humans" tried to pick them up and in over 50% of cases the person was intoxicated at the time.

Yeah,..I read about those fools taking selfies with highly poisonous rattlesnakes....Darwinism at it's best.....!

One of the guys was footed with a hospital bill well over a $ 100.000......

Regards,.

Edited August 31, 2015 by off road pat

[moonseeker]

Golden (green) Tree-snake? Up to1.5 m long, very slender, very fast, very good climber. Slightly poisonous, but hardly dangerous, small mouth. Hard to catch.

Seen many time in all color variations in gardens of Pattaya. Often falls from trees and goes up the next one. Lovely animal. MS>

[Scuba 1st]

With all this talk about snakes, do you know what to do if bitten by one that you suspect is poisonous? ?? Its not hard, have on hand ( first aid kit ) long crepe bandages. You rap the affected limb all the way up and then down again make it firm but dont strangle the limb. This slows the flow of poison in the system and then get to a doctor/hospital asap. Good luck.

[LawrenceN]

Green tree snake for sure. Very common. Harmless to humans. Good news for you if you leave it alone, less mice / bats and poop all over your place.

Nearly every Thai I meet think all snakes will kill you. Only around 10 - 15% are actually deadly to humans, and guess what? death only occurs when people dick about with them. Recent morons have tried to take selfies with rattle snakes and ended up in a bad way. Good I say. Just helps to confirm that nature eliminates the weak, stupid and feeble minded.

A recent surevy in the sates showed that 90% of snake bites were when "humans" tried to pick them up and in over 50% of cases the person was intoxicated at the time.

Well I wish great luck to everybody. Considering that only 10% of the people bitten by poisonous snakes are bitten through no fault of their own, the actual number of "no fault" bites is probably very small. That puts the odds in favor of the snake lovers.

On the other hand, if you kill every one of them, the odds of not being bitten are even better. That's why no snakes are welcome at my house. I can't tell the difference between common rat snake (good snake) and a cobra (bad snake) unless the cobra stands up and shows its hood. It's a little late by then, isn't it? That's why I dispatch them all. For those that can tell the difference and will attack me for being a stupid killer, etc., I am happy for you. It's just me.

Did anybody mention that there is also another bright green snake that is extremely deadly and is known to cause a large number of the deadly snakebites in

Thailand (according to my snake book). I almost stepped on one, as they just lie there and don't try to get away. If you step on it, you have a big problem. Lucky for me, my wife saw it and warned me. I dispatched it to the spirit world.

I have no interest in the good snake/bad snake guessing game. For those that do, I wish you luck. In any event, the odds are with you. There is that.

And just for the record, even though I have few snakes, and almost none that survive a sighting by me, I DO NOT have a rat/bat/other vermin problem. I built my house with an eye toward keeping them out; and it is rare for one to get in. I have never had a rat the living area of my house (kept very clean) and the couple that managed to get into the attic area were soon dispatched to become food for their snake friends in the spirit world. I have ventilation like the OP picture, but I put aluminum screen over it all, topside.

Just because you live in Thailand doesn't mean you have to choose between snakes or vermin. Despite what some people would have you believe it IS NOT an either/or situation.

You said "... no snakes are welcome at my house. I can't tell the difference between [them]." Then you tell us you almost stepped on one of these deadly green snakes, which you were able to look up in your snake book. How is it you were able to identify that one with such certainty? You just told you you can't tell the difference. And if your snake book is such a big help, why don't you use it to identify snakes before you kill any of them, because, as has been pointed out, many are useful? Why are you so eager to kill harmless creatures? There are poisonous toads. Do you kill all amphibians you see? There are vicious dogs. Do you kill all dogs you see? There are some incredibly fearsome felines? Do you shoot them, Bungalow Bill?

Edited August 31, 2015 by LawrenceN

[onionluke]

So, now I know where all those alcohol preseved snakes in a bottle come from.It is the despatcher of snakes to the spirit world , he who kills the evil biblical serpent, he who reads but learns not, mocks and kills! Well thank you very mucho, I love drinking that stuff.

[Muzarella]

A golden tree snake. Very good rats killers and non dangerous to humans....Very beautiful too!

[northernphil]

Frankly, I cannot understand how anybody on this forum could make a positive ID on the OP's snake, given the quality of the photo. it would be like claiming a positive ID of a 7-Eleven robber based only upon a security camera photo of the back of his head (well maybe on Ko Tao . . . ).

According to Snakes and Other Reptiles in Thailand and South-East Asia, by Mere J. Cox, et al:

White Lipped Viper, Trimeresurus albolabris albolabris to 100cm

The body of this attractive viper is fairly stout, the scales keeled. The head and body are green, the chin, throat and belly greenish or yellowish white. Males have a white stripe on the first body scale row which is indistinct or absent on females. The tail is reddish brown. It prefers open country below 400m, sometimes inhabits urban areas. It hunts mice, birds, lizards, and frogs at night on the ground and spends resting in vegetation. Litters comprise 7-16 miniature replicas of the adult, 12-18cm long. Venomous and dangerous [emphasis in original], the species is responsible for many snake-bite cases. Widely distributed in tropical asia, it occurs throughout Thailand.

Instead of resting in vegetation, the one that came to our kitchen was spending a leisurely afternoon in the dish rack. It all started in the Garden of Eden. Everybody like a good snake thread.

Yep , that is the book I have ,bought it in C/Mai about 7 years ago. Very useful , I don't kill any snakes but if they sit around in the grass and my cat takes an interest I like to find out if my cat is teasing something best left alone. My cat was bothering a Red-necked Keel Back a couple of years ago , the book says unevenly tempered and venomous , bit like the wife so it had to go but was back a few months later . The snake , the wife doesn't bite unless teased.

[northernphil]

I think this is a Paradise Tree snake . Over the wall it went before Samsee-the-Vicious killed the poor thing.

[connda]

I'd consider that 'good luck'. Bad news for creepy-crawlies when the Green Naga is overlooking the house. At worst these species are mildly venomous and are definitely not interested in you.

[nithisa78]

Green tree snake for sure. Very common. Harmless to humans. Good news for you if you leave it alone, less mice / bats and poop all over your place.

Nearly every Thai I meet think all snakes will kill you. Only around 10 - 15% are actually deadly to humans, and guess what? death only occurs when people dick about with them. Recent morons have tried to take selfies with rattle snakes and ended up in a bad way. Good I say. Just helps to confirm that nature eliminates the weak, stupid and feeble minded.

A recent surevy in the sates showed that 90% of snake bites were when "humans" tried to pick them up and in over 50% of cases the person was intoxicated at the t

the second paragraph is true, why are you still here? the rest prove it.

Edited August 31, 2015 by nithisa78

[PattayaClub]

Green tree snake for sure. Very common. Harmless to humans. Good news for you if you leave it alone, less mice / bats and poop all over your place.

Nearly every Thai I meet think all snakes will kill you. Only around 10 - 15% are actually deadly to humans, and guess what? death only occurs when people dick about with them. Recent morons have tried to take selfies with rattle snakes and ended up in a bad way. Good I say. Just helps to confirm that nature eliminates the weak, stupid and feeble minded.

A recent surevy in the sates showed that 90% of snake bites were when "humans" tried to pick them up and in over 50% of cases the person was intoxicated at the time.

Well I wish great luck to everybody. Considering that only 10% of the people bitten by poisonous snakes are bitten through no fault of their own, the actual number of "no fault" bites is probably very small. That puts the odds in favor of the snake lovers.

On the other hand, if you kill every one of them, the odds of not being bitten are even better. That's why no snakes are welcome at my house. I can't tell the difference between common rat snake (good snake) and a cobra (bad snake) unless the cobra stands up and shows its hood. It's a little late by then, isn't it? That's why I dispatch them all. For those that can tell the difference and will attack me for being a stupid killer, etc., I am happy for you. It's just me.

Did anybody mention that there is also another bright green snake that is extremely deadly and is known to cause a large number of the deadly snakebites in

Thailand (according to my snake book). I almost stepped on one, as they just lie there and don't try to get away. If you step on it, you have a big problem. Lucky for me, my wife saw it and warned me. I dispatched it to the spirit world.

I have no interest in the good snake/bad snake guessing game. For those that do, I wish you luck. In any event, the odds are with you. There is that.

And just for the record, even though I have few snakes, and almost none that survive a sighting by me, I DO NOT have a rat/bat/other vermin problem. I built my house with an eye toward keeping them out; and it is rare for one to get in. I have never had a rat the living area of my house (kept very clean) and the couple that managed to get into the attic area were soon dispatched to become food for their snake friends in the spirit world. I have ventilation like the OP picture, but I put aluminum screen over it all, topside.

Just because you live in Thailand doesn't mean you have to choose between snakes or vermin. Despite what some people would have you believe it IS NOT an either/or situation.

You said "... no snakes are welcome at my house. I can't tell the difference between [them]." Then you tell us you almost stepped on one of these deadly green snakes, which you were able to look up in your snake book. How is it you were able to identify that one with such certainty? You just told you you can't tell the difference. And if your snake book is such a big help, why don't you use it to identify snakes before you kill any of them, because, as has been pointed out, many are useful? Why are you so eager to kill harmless creatures? There are poisonous toads. Do you kill all amphibians you see? There are vicious dogs. Do you kill all dogs you see? There are some incredibly fearsome felines? Do you shoot them, Bungalow Bill?

How could I identify the white lipped viper? Easy. First, my wife pointed it out to me and said it was poisonous, so I killed it. Having the dead snake, it was easy to use the book for certain identification. I had almost stepped on it. Had my wife not pointed it out to me (she sees snakes much better than I), I would more than likely have been bitten as I was working around it. The good news is they are not aggressive if you do not touch them. The bad news is that they also do not try to escape; they just lie there and ignore you. But if you inadvertently touch it or step on it, it will very quickly strike and bite. This is the reason this species is responsible for so many snakebites in SE Asia.

If I see a dark slate gray snake just slithering off into the grass and it gets away, I don't know if it was a cobra or rat snake. I can't use the book for ID on a snake that is disappearing. But I do not want to risk having a coba getting away, so, if i can, I just kill the thing, then ID it. Why not let it get away? If it is a cobra, they breed. I am not taking the chance. It's like mosquitos. If you kill one, you may have killed thousands or even millions because it is deprived of breeding. My intent is to minimize the number of poisonous snakes on my land.

I had a worker point out a green snake on a tree one day. I went over and had a look. It did not try to escape; just hung there. I was able to identify it as a harmless tree snake. I left it alone. I can't do that with a snake fleeing into the grass or weeds.

Poisonous toads don't bite; they are no threat. Why would anybody kill them? Snakes kill and maim (venom rapidly destroys tissue), toads don't. Toads help control vermin and pose no threat. Snakes help to control vermin and do pose a threat. To each his own.

I killed a whole slew of wat dogs that kept digging under and breaking through my fence to kill my chickens. Once I eliminated the marauding canine gang, the problem disappeared. That was over three years ago and I haven't had a single dog problem since.

You know, we all have a choice. You can choose to be a pitcher or catcher. Of course the catcher has to bend over. I'm a pitcher. I don't bend over. Again, to each his own.

By the way, with my practices, I certainly fit into the local culture better than you. My behavior in this respect is the same as every Thai I know. Unlike you, they do NOT see venomous snakes as "harmless creatures."

[sunshine51]

I think this is a Paradise Tree snake . Over the wall it went before Samsee-the-Vicious killed the poor thing.

That looks like a Brown Kukri snake...non venomous...not harmful to humans.

[sunshine51]

Here's the Golden or Paradise Green Tree snake having lunch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqHm9I1uaXE

[Robroona]

Greedy bugger

[northernphil]

I think this is a Paradise Tree snake . Over the wall it went before Samsee-the-Vicious killed the poor thing.

That looks like a Brown Kukri snake...non venomous...not harmful to humans.

Hmm , does look similar but the BK snake ( according to my book ) is rarely seen and in the south of LoS. We live right up near the northern border. I do think some of the book pics are a bit misleading. In the Uk as a lad we caught Grass Snakes and saw the occasional Adder but what a choice we have here. Same snake.

[sunshine51]

^^^ NP...strange thing about snakes I have learned...like us they may not stay in their

generic locations. I've seen mangrove snakes way up mountain sides without

mangroves anywhere near by. Like the Malayan pit viper...nasty buggers & all

over the place...not just resident in Malaysia.

And yes...snake pix in a book can be misleading & I have found out that we

may be looking at juveniles vs mature & vice versa. I went with the BK mainly

due to the head markings (not great but ok in a way) & that curled up tail

which seems to be common in kukri's.

Whatever you do though, these next two are not a kukri or a golden/paradise

green tree snake...and best left alone.

[thailand49]

Lots of pictures and macho people talking about % of them being or not being harmless! I'm as macho as the next person but when it comes to snakes which I have found a number outside and inside my house. I'm not going to be thinking what type and whether it is going to bite harmless etc.. If it is small and I can get the better of it I'm going to kill it if it is big and mean looking before I pee in my pants I'm out of there!