Giant Pythons Could Spread Quickly Across South [As if killer bees and kudzu weren't enough...]

FOX ^

[Sub-Driver]

Giant Pythons Could Spread Quickly Across South

Monday , May 12, 2008 By Katie Tweed

As if killer bees and kudzu weren't enough, the southern United States may soon have another invasive species to contend with — giant Burmese pythons capable of swallowing deer and alligators whole.

Approximately 30,000 of the big snakes, which can reach 30 feet and 200 pounds, already live wild in Florida's Everglades, thanks to thick-headed pet owners who've released them into the swamps when they've grown too large to keep at home.

But now the U.S. Geological Survey says Florida is not the only place the Burmese python can thrive.

In fact, the big beasts, which are not poisonous and rarely attack humans, could live happily in the entire southern third of the country, from Southern California to Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley and up the Eastern Seaboard to Chesapeake Bay.

All it would take would be enough pet releases in various locations to create a breeding population.

[Maine Mariner]

I am kinda glad I live in Maine

[Mogollon]

Game and Fish should open up a hunting season (year round) on them. The good ol’ boys in the southern states will hunt them down.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Has anyone developed a nice Python Recipe? Maybe Iron Chef has one.... it could become a delicacy."

Forget about the "Iron Chef". It takes a coon-ass (Cajun to the un-initiated) chef to figure out how to cook something like this. After all, look what they did for crawfish.

[Hacksaw]

Hubby for one likes snake. Blech. He says it tastes like ‘gator. Blech Blech

I had gator tail at a Jamaican rest. Not too bad!

[BubbaBasher]

Now scientists call this disease bromidrosis
(thats right!)
And well they should
Even napoleon knows that
But us regular folks
Who might wear a tennis shoe
Or an occasional python boot
Know this exquisite little inconvenience by the name of:
Stink foot ... Frank Zappa

[wbill]

“Snakes.....Why did it have to be snakes?”

[johnny7]

LOL!

“Your stinkfoot puts a hurt on my nose!”

[CommerceComet]

We like ‘gator down in the Bayou but you could substitute a good fat python for gator in a sauce picante and it would be just as tasty - every other critter has been stewed in a sauce picante, why not snake.

You can always make the most marginal of food taste pretty good if you deep-fry it.

[Bitsy]

You can always make the most marginal of food taste pretty good if you deep-fry it.

Grease rules!!!!

[Gorzaloon]

I imagine some folks with snakes end up breeding their own rabbits. I’ve heard that it’s not that hard. They reproduce like ... well ... like rabbits.

Then you get to like the rabbits, and feel even worse.

We had this big Jack Dempsey fish and we would buy feeder goldfish for him. Sometimes he and the food would become friends, and hang out together...

So the decision was made to stick to creatures that did not have to have live food.

[visualops]

And Florida, while a market leader, does not have a monopoly on the sorts of cretins who buy huge carnivorous reptiles as pets

LOL!

[hiredhand]

Here-comes-your-next-pair-of-boots Ping.

Ya know...we'll hunt just about anything here, but I'm not so sure I'd want to mess with a big snake. Just two days ago (Saturday), I took my son and his friend fishing. While they were at the pond, I walked around my friend's farm and was over the hill a couple of hundred yards away coming back up a hill from looking at a creek. I was almost to the top, walking in very low plant growth (nothing more than just an inch or two off the ground) when I nearly stepped on a snake! I'll bet I was a sight getting away. :-) The snake went one way, and I went the other! I had a pistol with me and I went back to the "general" area looking for it, but I really didn't want to find it that badly. It was colored a lot like a water moccasin, but I can't swear that's what it was.

A snake big enough to eat a deer would probably make a good pair of boots though. :-)

[Oldexpat]

There are almost daily sitings along the road into Everglades National Park. Mostly at night..they say it is like running over a 4X4 in the road.
They are trying to exterminate them.

[reagan_fanatic]

[wildbill]

You forgot the last line of the recipe:

Now throw this mess away and take your family out for a nice chicken-fried steak with macaroni & cheese and redbeans.

[Blue Highway]

They have Gator bites here in Florida, which is very tasty. I’d be game for Python if it tasted similar.

[visualops]

They need to start making belts and handbags out of them lol

[DuncanWaring]

I’ve got a pair of boots that looks a lot like that pair.

[Constitution Day]

Excellent! I love it. It’s the plane truth.

[9422WMR]

I think .22LR or C4 would be an appropriate predator for those beady eyed devils......Depending on my mood.