Many people are all for wildlife until the s word is mentioned. Snakes strike fear in people, sometimes irrational fears. The truth is snakes normally don’t want confrontation, but sometimes our “unawareness” leaves them a last resort of striking when we don’t see the signs.

Many snakes are helpful to farmers. They eat rats and mice, which damage crops. Usually if you find a snake around it’s because food and water isn’t far away. Recently a ball python was found wrapped around a child’s leg, where he bit the child’s foot. The two foot snake was represented in some media comments as preparing to eat the child. The fact is a two foot ball python can in no way, shape or form devour a child. It’s just not physically possible. The video showed a snake that had just shed, which is the worst time to handle a snake (or run across one). Some comments charged the snake hadn’t been properly fed.

The fact is when the snake prepares to shed they stop eating. The skin prepares to shed, the eyes get a blue haze to them and the snake can just see shadows. Here he relies on scent – movement may be a threat. Once they’ve shed, they’re often hungry as they don’t eat during shed. Many snakes eat but once every week, month or few days depending on the snake.