Burmese python (source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Have you ever wanted to be a snake hunter? Well, some people in Florida have gotten to do just that. 

Burmese pythons, an invasive species native to Southeast Asia, have been eating their way through the South Florida ecosystem since 2000. To accelerate the eradication of these snakes, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Service began paying citizens up to $150 per snake to humanely kill pythons in 2017. The recommended methods include decapitation with a machete or using a firearm.

Of course, not all removal methods for invasive species are this extreme.

The introduction of invasive species, living organisms that are both non-native and cause some type of harm to their new ecosystem, has a wide variety of causes. In order to effectively address these species, a broad range of methods needs to be employed. 

For garlic mustard and other plants, removal can simply be yanking it from the ground. For many insects, the intentional introduction of a natural predator, a form of biological control, can be utilized. In other cases, preventative measures, such as inspecting items being imported or exported, can help.

All of these methods are important to use because invasive species can cause irreversible damage if left unchecked. For example, the emerald ash borer, a small beetle from Asia, was discovered in Michigan in 2002. It has caused the death of over 40 million ash trees in Michigan and spread to 35 other states. In a 2005 study, it was found invasive species cost the U.S $120 billion per year in economic damage. Other harms range from zebra mussels clogging water pipes to leafy spurge taking over land used for cattle grazing.

Given the enormous impacts of invasive species, it is essential to learn how to manage them. How was an invasive species introduced? Who bears the costs associated with removing invasive species? Who and what is impacted by not addressing them? We might not all need to start hunting snakes, but we should learn what methods are effective or not at removing or preventing invasive species and their associated damages.