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Do you have Ophidiophobia???

Then you might want to move to Hawaii

By Margie Anderson Published 3 years ago 4 min read
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Do you have Ophidiophobia???
Photo by Zane Persaud on Unsplash

I visited Hawaii back in the 1980's and I was told there were no snakes living there. This is something that I always kept in the back of my mind...because I am very much afraid of snakes. This is known as ophidiophobia. Actually, the human brain is programmed not to like snakes and I don’t find this surprising at all. But I really don’t like snakes at all and for some strange reason they always seem to end up on my porch. I live in Pennsylvania and there are different kinds of snakes, some even poisonous. Now I can't say I have done much research on the snakes in Pennsylvania other than how to keep them away from my porch. But where I live they are mainly Garter snakes although you can’t rule out other types being in the area. Can you believe there was actually a Copperhead snake at the entrance of a Dollar General store in a small neighboring town? Believe me that was the talk of the county! At least, Garter snakes are pretty much harmless. They do not really bother me, they slither away when they see me but I usually call for help to kill them so they don't return. My grandmother was not afraid of them at all and I will never forget her calmly chopping their heads off. Unfortunately, I did not inherit this talent from her!

By David Clode on Unsplash

I always dreamed of moving to Hawaii because when I visited there one of our tour guides pointed out "There are no snakes here in Hawaii!". I thought "WOW" now this is the place for me but as I have gotten older that seems a little hard to believe. Well, it is true that there are no native snakes on the Hawaiian Islands. However, as I suspected, there are snakes living there today. They got there by boats and planes! Some got there by mistake possibly hiding away while others arrived on purpose by people either trying to make some money or by people who had them as pets. The good news is that they are uncommon so this still might be one of the safest places to live if you have severe ophidiophobia like me. I would never really move to Hawaii, even though it is like heaven on earth, because I was born and raised in Pennsylvania and I am not one to make big life changes.

Snakes in Hawaii are exotic and since some people are attracted to the idea of having an exotic animal there is a black market for snakes. In Hawaii, owning a snake is illegal and if you are caught with one you can face fines of up to $200,000 with a maximum jail sentence of three years. One of the reasons Hawaii does not want snakes in their state involves what they do to their native animal population. This makes sense because they are not native to the islands; therefore, animals native to Hawaii would not know how to protect and defend themselves. Several birds are even endangered now that there are snakes in Hawaii. Another very interesting point is that snakes could actually overtake the islands because there are no natural predators to kill them. This would completely change the eco-system, which I don't think anybody would want to see happen to such a beautiful state. In 2017 there was even an amnesty program to give snake owners the chance to turn over their snakes. This program was helpful but unfortunately there are still many wild snakes on the Hawaiian Islands.

New Zealand, Cape Verde and many small Pacific Islands also do not have native snakes. I was surprised that New Zealand is in this category considering that Australia has some extremely dangerous snakes. Since snakes are cold-blooded, they depend on their environment to keep them warm; therefore, they don’t like cold weather. That’s one advantage to living in Pennsylvania for at least half of the year! But New Zealand has a warmer climate so why are there no snakes there? The reason is that there is such a great distance between New Zealand and any other country. Snakes can travel to other countries by sea but there is no way that even an Australian snake could make the distance to New Zealand. There is a vast amount of information about this topic so if this article interests you I would suggest you do some research on your own. I can’t believe I have even written this much considering I have nightmares about snakes my phobia is so bad.

To conclude, the following are some tips on how to prevent snakes from hanging around your yard, garden or porch (like in my case):

  1. Feed your pets inside your house because food attracts rodents and rodents attract snakes.
  2. Clean up debris and leaf piles because they also attract rodents plus this is a good place for snakes to hide.
  3. Keep your grass cut because cut grass is not attractive to snakes because they can’t hide. In addition, if there is a snake in the grass you can more easily spot it if your grass is cut short.
  4. Limit bird feeding because birds can be a little messy and they knock food to the ground which attracts rodents which of course attract snakes.
  5. Sprinkle hair from your hairbrush around the perimeter of your yard because the smell of your hair will keep them away. Fortunately, snakes like us about as much as we like them!
By Kent Pilcher on Unsplash

It’s not entirely possible to keep snakes away but I hope these tips help to at least minimize the time they spend visiting your house. I know I will try just about anything to keep them away from mine because after a long Pennsylvania winter I want to enjoy the nice summer weather! If you would like to learn more about the subject of this article, I obtained my information from the following websites:

https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/ophidiophobia#treatment

https://www.journeyingtheglobe.com/are-there-snakes-in-hawaii

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garter_snake

https://www.snakesforpets.com/where-are-there-no-snakes-in-the-world/

https://apnews.com/article/a9cecb4582ec4f1791b932abc86150f5

https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/pest-control/how-to-keep-snakes-out-of-your-yard

Science
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About the Creator

Margie Anderson

Retired attorney from Pennsylvania.

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