Got $25 ? You can go wrangle some big snakes.


https://www.outkick.com/culture/florida-python-challenge-2025

Clever. They ask citizens to pay $25 to remove invasive species for the state.

Yeah, but it’s a competition where you win $10,000 maybe. You can go catch them the rest of the year for free if you want.

The whole concept of running around in the swamps trying to catch pythons by hand seems idiotic on its face. Did some looking into it and it seems well over 90% of them that are caught are crossing roads. Few if any really wade out into the nasty stuff like shown on videos.

Having said that, I did find a really long.......like 100 pages long......research paper on them. Like most animals, they have patterns that would make them easy to trap. And it may be possible to bait them into certain areas, then use snares and maybe even body grip traps.......say a 220......to catch them. Would be curious to find out what Florida Fish and Game and US Wildlife would have to say about aggressive trapping methods to really go after them.

This the paper...........as I recall, good stuff that matters toward the end. Apparently they even worked with Tomahawk trap guys in WI to build them a cage trap.......that didn't work. No shock there. I'm thinking one of those Igloo pet shelters has potential to make a better one.

https://neobiota.pensoft.net/article/90439/

seems to me they don't want them gone, imagine putting a bounty on coyotes and not allow guns traps, or snares!

Gators also frequent the Everglades and I'd think they would eat pythons. That would deter humans from going into the swamps after them. They claim there are no longer any small aminals in the swamps where there are pythons.

The Burmese pythons in Florida frequently eat alligators, American crocodiles and caiman. I'm sure the crocodillians eat some pythons too.

Keith

I spose the little ones are vulnerable. Can't see a python taking on a very big gator. After 2 yrs in Florida gators are the only thing I liked about it.

An average adult Burmese python can kill and swallow an alligator that is 11.8 inches wide around. That's a pretty big gator. If they eat too large of a gator and it gets stuck, the snake will rupture and die when the gator rots and expands inside it.



Keitn

It says no guns allowed and right below it, it says the snakes must be killed humanely. If they want them gone, a 12 gauge seems like perfect medicine.

I saw that "must be killed humanely" ...so what do they consider humane?....

So you can shoot game animals with any number of firearms, and you can shoot water moccasins, but a dangerous truck length snake must be put down by their proscribed humane method.....

Seems to me a 410 shot charge to the head would accomplish both steps of their 2 step method....

If you wade thru that paper, you find there are opportunities to really go after them. During the mating / nesting season, the females migrate to dry land where they seek out dens, burrows, etc to use as nesting siites. High, dry land, which in the big picture of things is probably a small percentage of the total area. Seasonally, they concentrate there. Once you ID where those locations are, you set up for them with nesting trap sites.....say a line of those igloo pet shelters rigged with funnel trap entrances and tip ups like used with ice fishing. Nab the big females and use those to catch the males. Concept as old as time.......boys always fall for the girl trap.

Plus bait stations surrounded by same. Bait stations? I'd start with an elevated 6' x 10' chicken tractor populated with 6 rooster chicks, with a messy leaky feeder. Everybody likes chicken, so would attract and concentrate all manner of varmints, but also rats. Snakes love rats. the combination of noisy, smelly chickens, varmints and rats would pull in snakes from a mile or two out.

There are lots of ways to go after them. Just all depends on what Florida fish and game would allow. How serious they are about thinning the herd.

We’ve all heard stories about how the settlers wiped out animals in different states. Some to near extinction. Deer, turkeys, beaver, mt. Lions, wolves. Etc. all done with primitive traps and primitive guns. And they say they can’t get rid of these snakes. Yeah right. With all the technology of lights and guns etc. they could wipe them out if they really wanted too. Give a good bounty on them to actually make it worthwhile and let them use weapons that work. As population decreases and less and less are being killed then increase the bounty to make it worthwhile. They can be exterminated if they really wanted too.

If they really wanted to is right.

When reading thru that paper, when you get to the part about trapping.........the word that comes to mind is........inept.

Give the people the tools to do it and they money to make it worth it.

I talked to a snake hunter in the Everglades 3 years ago or so. He had a Toyota PU with lights everywhere. Anyway he had an anvil like attachment in his receiver hitch and a hammer. That's how he killed them. Seemed pretty ridiculous compared to a.22. But he said no shooting was allowed.

.410 #9 tss to the head just out of bite range = deceased snake. How extremely foolish that those in charge won't allow a firearm.
Imagine that the problem animals were cougars, grizzly bears, or wolves. The rule would be, yes you can hunt them but you have to wrestle them first and put them in a sack and take it back to the truck and kill it.
Rickey