The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Friday, July 10:

As a Senate hearing so aptly pointed out Wednesday, the United States needs to take control of the exotic species that have invaded every region of the country. The pest du jour at the hearing was the Burmese python, which Sen. Bill Nelson wants banned from importing and pet store inventories.

In truth there are hundreds of invasive creatures threatening our native species – everything from the zebra snails that plug up power-plant intake pipes in the Great Lakes to the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a bacteria-carrying insect that has caused nearly $40 million in losses in California’s wine country.

In all, say scientists with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, nonnative species – plant and animal – cost the country $100 billion a year.

Nelson is right: The pythons should be banned. They threaten not just other animals but also humans. Unfurling a 17-foot-long skin of a snake caught in Everglades National Park, Sen. Nelson more than made his point about their danger.

A tragic reminder of just how dangerous: the pet python that escaped its terrarium and strangled 2-year-old Shaiunna Hare in Sumter County this month.

The pythons, which often start out here as pets that are freed or escape captivity, have proliferated in Everglades park. Biologists estimate that 150,000 of them now inhabit it. That’s a very scary number.

Still, Nelson’s bill to ban the snakes has run into opposition from hobbyists, breeders and the pet trade. Their argument – that the majority of imported pythons don’t pose a threat – rings hollow. It only took two mating pythons to begin a major snake infestation in the Everglades.

There could be more than 2,000 Burmese pythons ranging largely across south Sarasota County within three years unless steps are taken to control the growth of the huge snakes, says a New College of Florida professor.

Suggestions, though, that this latest scourge of Mother Nature could harm tourism may be a stretch. After all, this is a state known for alligator and shark attacks — not to mention hurricanes, mosquitoes and love bugs — and the tourists still come.

The predicted explosion in the local python population is being made by Meg Lowman, director of environmental initiatives at New College. Lowman ranked pythons as a bigger issue, at least in the near term, than climate change in a report to the county. She and New College are in the final year of a five-year, $250,000 contract to advise the county on science issues.

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New College of Florida students spent an afternoon tramping through the tall grass and undergrowth of Red Bug Slough Preserve on Wednesday, trying to figure out the best way to flush out monitor lizards and Burmese pythons.

…

Public sightings of invasive reptiles have increased recently. Meg Lowman, director of environmental initiatives at the school, says the creatures are spreading into the northern half of the county after being seen for several years around Englewood and Venice.

Full article

There are lizards on Siesta Key — and we’re not talking about bling-laden 50-somethings lounging around the island’s nightspots.

What scientists refer to as a reproducing colony of black spiny-tailed iguanas has established itself along Midnight Pass Road south of Siesta Key Beach. Previously, these colonies had only been found in Venice, Englewood and Manasota Key.

The invasion of reptiles — not just iguanas, but also the more muscular and often nastier monitor lizards and even pythons — is extending northward based on reported sightings and may be on the verge of a major population explosion, said Meg Lowman, director of environmental initiatives at New College of Florida.

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Invasive reptiles covered in this guide:

• Black Spiny-Tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura similis)
• Brown Basilisk (Basiliscus vittatis)
• Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus)
• Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus or Varanus niloticus ornatus)
• Savannah Monitor (Varanus exanthematicus)

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Oct. 23 (UPI) — A Virginia Beach woman appears to have been killed by a pet reticulated python while she was trying to give the 13-foot snake medication.

Amanda Ruth Black’s husband found her body Tuesday night when he came home, The Virginian-Pilot reported. She was lying in front of the snake’s empty cage.

Police said the 25-year-old woman died from asphyxiation. They found the python in the bedroom and described it as agitated.

The snake was in the custody of Virginia Beach Animal Control.

The reticulated python, native to Southeast Asia, can grow to be more than 30 feet long and competes with the heavier anaconda of South America for the title of longest snake. Pythons are not venomous and have become popular pets, but experts warn they can be dangerous if they are startled or if not fed correctly.

From Leslie Anthony, author of Snakebit: Confessions of a Herpetologist:

Thanks again for your hospitality and involving me in the workshop.

I had a really good experience in South Floridia, though we found no pythons either road-driving at night or checking traps with Skip’s student contingent in the Everglades or Ron Rozar and Karen Garrod’s impressive trap array down on Key Largo—a rapid response project well worth looking at. I spent a fair bit of time with Skip and he is not just a fountain of knowledge, he is a geyser! I’m sure any visit you make with the students will be well worth it.

I reallythink this whole over-the-top invasve species problem in Florida is worthy of more than a magazine article and will see if my publishers are ultimately interested in a book of some kind. It’s insane what’s going on down there!

Here’s a picture of Skip with the skin of a 16-foot female that one of his radio-tagged Judas snakes led him to.

The Invasive Herps workshop on September 22, 2008 was an opportunity to bring best practices, share data and management practices, and develop “one voice” for Florida challenges with invasive reptiles. Scientists, county managers, state workers, students and trappers gathered to present information and discuss strategies. This workshop was organized by Dr. Meg Lowman from New College who hosted participants, organized meals, created program, and collected a list of state practitioners for this topic.

This one-day workshop is a model of what Base Camp Sarasota could offer – easily, effectively and with minimal effort. Base Camp Sarasota could offer accommodation for science professionals, a go-to place, and a think-tank setting. It could begin to collect some of the much-needed data sets that were sorely missing from this first-ever invasive reptile workshop. BCS could become a center for the creation of best-ecological-management practices in Florida, and assemble scientists, students and managers in a setting that could gain name recognition for environmental solutions. Nowhere in southwest Florida’s watershed ecosystems does such a field station exist. In the aegis of “build it, and they will come…….” Any scientist from the northern temperate regions of America will tell you that field biologists would flock to a subtropical habitat for year-round research, instead of hanging out in the libraries during the January and February snowstorms of Harvard, Vermont, Cornell, Chicago, Michigan and other major centers of ecological research.

Thank you to the TREE Foundation and New College for hosting the Invasive Species Workshop, and for setting the stage for future efforts through Base Camp Sarasota!

You can view a contact list of all participants by opening this document:
Invasive Herp Workshop Participants
(Document is password protected to avoid SPAM bots. Use password: herps)

Below is a video playlist of select speakers, the full agenda list, and a photo gallery from the event.

(Video playlist tips: Use the scroll bar to access all videos thumbnails, click to play, click the button to view in full screen.)

AGENDA (Names in bold are the speakers)

9:30 AM – Coffee, posters and herp displays

10:00 AM – Opening Introduction – The invasion ecology of large reptiles in South Florida – Defining a new battleground
Meg Lowman, New College

10:15 AM – Sarasota County – Management challenges of invasive herps
Kenya Leonard, Sarasota County Environmental Services

10:30 AM – Cooperative research and education for control of Burmese pythons in Greater Everglades ecosystems
Michael R. Rochford, Michael S. Cherkiss, Matthew L. Brien, Skip Snow, Kenneth Rice, Michael E. Dorcas, Alexander Wolf, Brian Greeves, Laurie Wilkins, Gordon Rodda, Robert Reed, Kristen Hart (US Geological Survey), and Frank Mazzotti

11:00 AM – Nonindigeneous amphibians and reptiles in Florida: defining the invasion process and identifying continuous pathways.
Kenneth L. Krysko (University of Florida Museum of Natural History), Joseph Burgess, Kevin M. Enge, Louis A. Somma, Michael R. Rochford, Stuart V. Nielson, and Jennifer L. Stabile

11:30 AM – Preliminary data on the Argentine black and white tegu (Tupinambis merianea) in central Florida
Bernard Kaiser, Larry Connor, Ross Dickerson, Kevin Enge (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission), Scott Hardin, Kenneth Krysko, and Catherine Smith

12:00 PM – Are invasive fishes causing the collapse of Florida’s native semi-aquatic herpetofauna?
Steve Godley, Biological Research Associates

12:30 PM – Lunch provided by TREE Foundation

1:30 PM – Reptile Trapping Techniques – Challenges and Frustrations
George Cera, SW Florida trapper

1:45 PM – How far can they go? Exotic in NE Florida
Joseph Burgess, Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve

2:00 PM – Exploring potential management strategies for invasive Cuban treefrogs and coquis
Steve Johnson and Monica McGarrity, University of Florida

2:30 PM – What, why, and what does it all mean?
Kevin Enge, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

3:00 PM – Break

3:15 PM – Is there a role for invasive journalists in the exotic species problem? Public education as a solution
Leslie Anthony, author of Snakebit: Confessions of a Herpetologist

3:30 PM – Paradise lost: the status of introduced amphibian and reptile management in Florida
Todd Campbell, University of Tampa

4:00 PM – Discussion – Where to go from here? Group discussion led by Meg, Kenya, Kristen, Kenney and Todd