I keep my Mommy up all night as I'm a big growing boy and need to eat round the clock. At night while I sleep, I know my Mommy worries and watches to make sure I'm breathing, not choking on regurgitated milk but more importantly she looks out for SNAKES!
You see, we live on Guam. My parents are biologists working to get rid Guam of Brown treesnakes (BTS). These snakes are bad. Since they were accidentally introduced to Guam, they have eaten most of the island's native birds, bats and lizards. And there are no large predators to eat these snakes. So now there are 1-2 million of these snakes on the island.
They do have a toxin they use to stun their prey but for healthy humans a bite from this snake is not fatal. However, the snake does seem to have a liking for babies (or their scent); they have bit and wrapped themselves around babies' limbs. If bitten, young children should seek medical help.
But my Mommy, Daddy and our two doggies are trained in finding and killing these snakes so... I sleep easy at night.
Here's my Daddy's report:
Brown Treesnake found in house with 4 ½ week old baby, Guam
About 10 minutes ago (1:47A) I encountered a BTS in my house on the table where we store the diaper supplies and underneath of which is located the dirty diaper disposal can. I actually saw the snake immediately after placing a diaper in the disposal can. My wife had been at the same table not 10 minutes prior to make up a bottle for Joshua.
I watched the snake for a few minutes and she was actively searching including entering the diaper bag we use for short trips to the store, etc. and hanging off the side of the table and tongue flicking over and around the top side of the dirty diaper can. The snake moved about continuous during the brief period I watched, possibly searching for prey amongst the items on the table and its surroundings, returning to the diaper bag several times.
The snake was female and approximately 1250 mm SVL (although this is a guess as I had not tape handy). The snake appeared healthy (ribs not showing and no visible parasites).
After about 5 minutes of observing, I woke Mason up and told him to go to work. Mason found the snake in less than 30 seconds.
This is the first snake I have encountered in this house and I have only seen one before in the yard here.
There are plenty of geckos around, but no more than usual.
The snake likely came in under the back door which has a gap at the bottom big enough for a medium sized BTS to pass through (apparently I am going to have to fix that or start collecting data). The door is about 12 feet from the table where the snake was found. The snake had to pass through an outer room first to get to the table which is in the kitchen area. The snake would also have had to pass right by the kitchen counter, a favorite hangout for geckos.
Wonder what is lurking under the bed.....
Brown Treesnake found in electric box outside house, Guam
On 28 November 2011, my wife and I noticed the smell of something dead, perhaps a gecko under the couch or so we thought. Our dogs were showing interest just outside the sliding doors near a aircon compressor on a cement pad while we searched for the source of the odor. The smell was not strong enough to locate the source and the dogs did not press their location as the source.
Finally on 1 December in the afternoon, an abundance of flies helped narrow down the source of the smell. See the following photograph for the gruesome details.
It turns out that the odor was from something dead and that it was not in the house, but outside on the wall, just beside the sliding door and immediately above the old aircon compressor where both of the dogs had shown interest. The odor was emanating from a dead Brown Treesnake which apparently crawled into an opening on the side of an electric box attached to the side of the house about 2m above the ground.
The snake had entered the box, wrapped around the electric wires, started to depart the box and appears to have gotten stuck, unable to continue forward and not capable of reversing direction. The snake must have been there, alive for some time while we entered and exited the house never noticing the snake.
We use the sliding door often and typically leave the glass door open (but not the screen door) to promote wind flow through the house. The dogs may or may not have shown interest prior to the day we started searching for the source of the smell, but I can recall nothing specific in this regard.
Additionally there was a third snake recently discovered at this property. This third snake was found in the outside garbage can. This can is stored some distance from the house, approximately 150m distance and is where we store our trash until trash pick-up day. Perhaps two weeks ago, when I was moving the trash can to the road side for pick-up, I noticed a live Brown Treesnake inside the can. There were only two small bags of trash and one of soiled disposal diapers in the trash can so it was easy to observe the snake. The can is designed with smooth plastic walls that are slightly rounded in the corners. The height of the can is approximately 1.5 m and apparently this was enough to entrap the snake which appeared to be roughly 980 - 1020 mm SVL. The snake appeared to be trying to exit the trash can but was not successful during the short period of observation.
Given the expected density of snakes on Guam, 3 snake sightings in about 2 weeks on a 1 acre property may not seem unusual for someone who is a competent snake detector. The surprising thing about these 3 incidents is that prior to them, only 1 BTS has been seen on this property in the past 4 years.
In addition to the recent snake incidents, a Green Anole was encountered in the house on 24 November 2011. This is the first Green Anole that I have observed at this property and the first one I have seen in the community. The next closest population of Green Anole that I am aware of is in the village to our north.
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