Kill snakes with dead mice?

I would rather have snakes than mice any day. Why not use herons or cranes?

 

The mice are dead.

 

I realize that. I was just sayin'

 

IMO, a bounty on the heads of the snakes would be more selective and effective! Further may cost less than this scheme of dropping doctored mice by individual parachute into selected trees. And, paying damages every time a treasured cat finds one of these rats.

Pay enough to make it worthwhile for the average joe and those snakes will soon disappear.

 

Most definitely the way to solve the problem. Brings out the entrepenurel (sp?) spirit in man.

 

It might work, but I'm doubting it. Snakes prefer live fresh food and those kept for pets often have to be trained and tempted into eating dead mice. I've had a couple that totally refused dead (bought frozen and thawed) food. But if the snakes were starving from lack of prey, they might be persuaded. :/

A better idea would be to introduce neutered mongoose (neuter to prevent yet another non native species from populating the island) to spots with high snake counts and encourage "snake hunts" etc. There is probably not one single method that will cure the problem, but will take several methods with concurrent cooperation to solve the issue.