I waited a bit to respond to this conversation just to gather my thoughts since I am a lover of all things plants and animals.
I think we can all agree that we “mankind” are the biggest ecological disaster this world has and will ever face. Every time we clear a plot of land and build a house we cleared the native hammocks, grasses, birds and insects that occupy this space. Clearing yards to have one species of grass and a couple other trees that are not native does next to nothing for the native wildlife. Some native species are habitat specialist and will not thrive unless they have their native soils,plants, microclimate, etc. Invasive” plants and animals are just generalist species of plants and animals in their native range, and all they can be blamed for is being able to survive our influences on the terrain and are able to live around us or are better adapted for extreme weather conditions “droughts, floods, fires”.
For example here in south Florida almost every back yard has black racers. A native harmless thin black snake that is a generalist able to survive and establish itself were man has altered the habitat to the point of being a suburban community. Now take the eastern indigo snake the largest snakes in the United States. They have a huge range and cover multiple habitat types hammocks, parries, pinewoods, sand ridges and even barrier islands. But they are the first to go when we terraform the land, unable to survive alongside urban human habitation.
I used to work down in the Keys for the fire department and people think there is going to be a vast extinction of the endangered mammals and birds because they found Burmese pythons with key largo wood rats in their digestive tract. I can’t understand why they would think that. Is it because the news and social media told them? Roads as a whole kill far more animals off any kind, and when we look at cats a far more successful predator that must kill and eat way more than any python can just because they have a mammalian metabolism. Cats have a proven track record for causing extinction on islands and yet they allowed to run free and even have a spay/neuter release program?! I mean what the heck? Kill pythons onsite but catch and release cats. How equal
About snakeheads. This is just anecdotal but they are as thick as mud in the canal behind my house. And yet at the same time I can easily pull out just as many native bass on the right bait and bait fish with a cast net. A guy I work with runs a fishing charter in lake Ida ground zero for the invasive clown knifefish. Again just anecdotal but I did ask did the clowns decimate the baitfish or bass population? Not really any difference according to him. At fist he was worried the baitfish were going to be gone and the bass were going to decline or stay small from lack of food but nope the fishing is good and the bass eat the fry knife fish no problem.
In the end John my friend you should remove them if they are a disturbance to you. You can put minnow traps along the fence and side of your house. They will get caught just by walking in them. Then you can do what you must. I will not think any different of you. But are they infesting your area or just trying to survive and reproduce? The end goal for all things living. I believe they are just taking place of the six lined race runner a native lizard from a similar genus that faced oblivion when mass urbanization took hold of South Florida. You can go see those in the Sugar sand park.
