ssssssssnakes

At the beginning of last month, a baby snake was found in our compound, a snake of a rather venomous variety. It was a little exciting, a little terrifying. Our brave guards killed it. (In the picture below, the guard flipped half of the body over, so we could see that the back is straight black and the belly is banded yellow and black.)


Then there was another one. Our guards killed that one, too. We called pest control, and they came and fumigated the yard with snake repellant. (Yes, apparently that's a thing.)


Then another met its demise.


(You're welcome for all of these pictures of dead snakes, by the way. I'm sure you were hoping to see something like that today.)


All in all, there were five baby snakes brought to my attention. The pest control people came back and fumigated again. And I tried not to think about the fact that if there were baby snakes that meant that once upon a time a rather large adult snake must have slithered through my compound and laid eggs.

Weeks passed and there were no new baby snakes. We relaxed a bit.  My children started walking under the trees again, cutting between the houses. We let the cats outside in the evenings as they were used to, and we stopped locking the kids inside the house.

And then. AND THEN. Then our guard saw The. Big. Snake. He said it was stalking our cats. He ran to the guard booth to get the other guard and the machete, and when he returned the snake was already slithering into a hole under my house and the opportunity was lost. The guards reported that it was almost three meters long (about nine feet) and as thick as their forearms.

Cue me trying really hard not to freak out.

This is an incredibly venomous snake, friends. Like I have thirty minutes to get the anti-venom for my children or they're dead—that kind of venomous snake.  That really is not who I wanted to have as a downstairs neighbor.

First Jeff tried smoking it out, but that didn't work. Then facilities came with a diesel truck to flood it out, but first they ran a snake camera (great name!) through the tunnel and discovered that there is a whole network of tunnels under my house and the two neighboring houses, and there are many exit holes for these tunnels.


I have many friends here who have cockroach and rat problems, and I thus far have not. I accredited this lack of pests to my cats, but now I'm wondering if the reason why those pests don't show up inside my house is because I have a snake in our own personal Chamber of Secrets under the house. If the snake weren't venomous, it almost seems like a great partner to have: you eat the pests, and I leave you alone. Deal? Deal. Great!

Unfortunately, it's super venomous. With our previous plans not successful or even attempted, Jeffrey turned to the internet and tried to channel his inner MacGyver. I began finding piles like this as he experimented with different supplies to create the ultimate snake trap.


We now have this sitting outside my front door. The hope is that a rat will wander inside, enticed by the peanut butter and bread, and then a snake will wander inside, enticed by the rat. Will we get lucky? Who knows. (Suddenly I find myself hoping—HOPING—that I have rats in my compound. I've honestly never hoped that before.)


Our preferred plan is that the snake enters the trap, and our Parks and Wildlife friends then take it and release it in the jungle. The backup plan would be that it slithers out into the yard, and this time our guards kill it with a machete, and one of them takes it home to eat. (People from the northern part of Gabon eat these snakes.) The final plan is that if we fail to get the snake to leave its tunnels to be caught or killed, then we will have the landlord come and fill all the holes with concrete. That sounds like a terrible way to die, but I'm really not comfortable with having a tunnel system home to a venomous snake under my home.

So in conclusion, Jeff and I have now dealt with a number of infestations during our marriage: fleas, mice, bird mites, lice, and now snakes. Whatever will be next?

(We're pretty sure these snakes are forest cobras, Naja melanoleuca, which are known for being the largest of the true cobras and the fourth most venomous of the true cobras. Yay! This impressive species is known to be able to climb trees, swim, and slither fairly quickly. What talented fellows! Is it time to move??)

Comments

  1. horrible Mimi !! Thy Mi

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  2. Oh my goodness! I just read this. And the only thing i worry about in my house is spiders.. praying that this can be resolved asap for your peace of mind and family's safety or just Move! —Nereida

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  3. It’s time to move to Nebraska. We have one inch round, less than one foot long non venomous garden snakes here and they are so cute and cuddly when compared with yours!! —Amy

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  4. Oh my gosh, Meems! —Anna C

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  5. Oh No, it sounds so scary to me I hate snake!! —Miriam B.

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  6. HOLY — SNAKE!!!! —Kyle C.

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  7. aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh —Holly K

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  8. eeeeeeeekkkkkkk —Yolande

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  9. Gabon full of the fun. —Kelly C

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  10. Snakes Eek! —GranB

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  11. I’m so glad you’re ok! —Nicky

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  12. Any updates? Catch or kill it yet?? —Heidi

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    1. Wellllllll, we were unable to catch any rats, so Jeff brought three home from work, but it proved to be harder than expected to create a trap that would hold rats and mice in yet allow a snake to enter. So now we’re basically just feeding our snake, because the rodents are loose on the compound.

      So no news except still waiting. It is a very intelligent species and wants nothing to do with us. It has been living here for about four months and (aside from its babies), it has only been seen once. Who knows when we’ll see it again. Sigh. If only it weren’t so venomous! —Mimi

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  13. Oh my stars. Burn it down! Burn the whole thing down! I will help pay for the fuel to burn it down! Whhhaaaaattttt???? This was my greatest fear and why I never shut my window shutters after dark myself. We saw a snake once, did not know what kind it was because it slithered too fast. I was done with that. —Trisha

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    Replies
    1. I’ve had similar thoughts!!
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      Yeah, finding all the babies first definitely help with identifying what the large snake is! Honestly though, it appears to want to have nothing to do with us. So there’s that. And the Embassy stocks anti-venom, so I just take deep breaths.

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  14. Ahhh! Oh my gosh! My biggest nightmare! I hope it's dead soon for your family's sake! —Brittany P

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