Ban pythons; they’re a threat

Ban pythons; they’re a threat

Miami Herald: As a Senate hearing so aptly pointed out recently, 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.

Snakes aren’t cheap

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.

Growing in size and number

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.