Invasive snakes on St. Croix

Dr. William Coles, a friend and colleague and chief of wildlife for the Division of Fish and Wildlife at the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, has been catching imported snakes since 2004. Since then, the number has increased drastically.

This seems to coincide with the closing of the oil refinery in 2012. The size of the snakes that have been caught thus far range from a foot long to 13 feet and weighing in the neighborhood of 80 pounds. According to Title 12, Virgin Islands Code, Chapter 2, Protection of Indigenous, Endangered and Threatened Fish, Wildlife and Plants, it is illegal to transport snakes into the territory without written permission from the commissioner of Agriculture.

That law fines violators $500 for entering with any species of plant or animal that does not occur naturally in the Virgin Islands.

The word on the streets is that juvenile boas were smuggled into St. Croix, and when the oil refinery closed, and the snakes’ owners relocated to the mainland, they did not take the snakes and instead released them into the wild.

The red tail boa constrictor is the main culprit found on St. Croix. However, in 2004 and 2006, two rat snakes were discovered in shipping containers.

The red tail boas are non-venomous snakes. Nonetheless, if a boa bites you, it can be nasty and can lead to an infection. These snakes climb trees, which is a threat to native birds. The boas’ source of food is rodents, rats, small dogs, cats, birds, chickens, and mongooses. In 1884, the mongoose was imported to control rats in the sugar cane fields on St. Croix, but today, mongooses are prey for the red tail boa.

The boa can swing off a tree and snatch the mongoose right off the ground. In the early 1900s, mongooses had become a major threat to wildlife and farm animals in the Virgin Islands. At that time, there were more mongooses than humans living in the Virgin Islands.

Things had gotten so bad with mongooses and the impact to wildlife habitats on the islands that in 1966, the Legislature of the Virgin Islands passed a bill authorizing the expenditure of $10,000 annually for mongoose and wild dog control. However, the late historian George A. Seaman noted, “We have been informed that this money is not yet available.”

According to Dr. Coles, boas are parthenogenic, which means females can reproduce without a male. This adds to the problem of how many snakes are out there in the wild. Furthermore, female boas can retain somewhere between six to 60 eggs in their bodies, and they can give birth to live young. Also, these reptiles can live up to 30 years.

As you can see, we have a serious problem of snake invasion here.

Thus far, snakes have been caught in Estate Upper Love, the “rain forest,” west, northwest, northeast and the Concordia housing community, Salt River Bay, Kingshill, Estate Slob, Mars Hill, and the Carlton condominiums.

One reason Virgin Islanders fear snakes is that we have not grown up in an environment with snakes. In other words, we don’t think of snakes as part of our natural ecosystem, even though we do have native non-8venomous snakes. Those, however, are rare on the islands.

In places like St. Lucia, Dominica, and Trinidad, snakes are known because they are native to those islands and people there might be aware of them.

However, encounters with snakes in those islands are rare because of the prevalence of their natural predators, which keep the environment in balance with the ecosystem and because in their natural environment, snakes tend to stay out of humans’ way.

In the Virgin Islands, humans are the only natural predators for boas or any other exotic snakes.

How can we eradicate exotic snakes on St. Croix?

Since we all are impacted by exotic snakes, the community needs to come together. Town hall meetings, for example, can be established whereby DPNR officials, U.S. Customs, police, senators, USDA, etc., are invited to be educated and to educate and to discuss some means of eradicating exotic snakes in the wild.

There are things that residents can do now to protect themselves or reduce the threat of snakes around their property. That includes sealing holes in your screens or doors, keeping your grass cut, removing water, food, rock piles, junk, tires and garbage in your yard. Fill gaps under your house, fill crevasses in walls, etc.

Call 911 if you see a snake. Do not delay. Stay away from a boa. They move slowly and can’t outrun you. And they can strike quickly.

— Olasee Davis, St. Croix, is an ecologist at the University of the Virgin Islands. He is active in Virgin Islands’ historical, cultural and environmental preservation.