Carpet Snakes

One Way of Dealing with the Rat Pest

RATS are the outstanding curse of the coconut islands. The pest is worse in some islands than in others; but, what ever its condition, it is a menace to the coconut industry and to the bird life of the Pacific.

There is no keener student of natural history than Charles B. Nordhoff, of Tahiti, well-known American writer; and this scribe recently heard a conver sation which started as a joke, but de veloped into consideration of a practical plan for the elimination of rats. Nord hoff and Ion Idriess, Australian author, were chatting about Australian beasts and reptiles, on which Idriess is an authority; and Idriess became lyrical on the subject of Australian snakes. There are few men—and they mostly are de lirium tremens specialists—who have seen more queer reptiles than Idriess.

In due course, Idriess came to carpet snakes—the big, friendly chaps which are non-venomous, and which are greatly in favour among Australians because of the prompt and efficient manner in which they deal with rats. Hundreds of them are kept as cherished pets in Sydney warehouses. When a carpet snake ar rives in a waterside building, every rat within whistling distance becomes a hasty migrant.

“We could do with a few of those fel lows in Tahiti,” said Nordhoff; and he told us some moving tales of the vicious rodents —how they apparently live per manently in the palm-tops, and crawl from the frond of one tree to the frond of another, thus rendering usless the tin cylinders with which the planters enclose the trunks of the palms.

“Why not take a few carpet snakes to Tahiti?” suggested Idriess. “They do not harm human beings, and they surely would clean up your rats.”

“But how would they manage about the palm-trees?” asked someone.

“They will climb the trees as easily as the rats,” said Idriess.

Nordhoff, who at first was inclined to class the idea with the famous plan of erecting a steam-hammer to kill a wasp, began to be interested.

“These snakes —won’t they harm chil dren? What will they do to the poultry yard? Would they destroy our native birds? Do they like duck-eggs?” He had a dozen questions.

The enthusiastic Idriess gave Monsieur Carpet Snake an excellent character. He insisted that this particular species, like the dog and the horse, is the friend of man.

Nordhoff was not convinced, but he was thoughtful. “It might be worth consider ing,” he said. “The idea of introducing snakes to Tahiti seems fantastic, at first glance. Yet he would have to be a very bad snake to be worse than the rats, which are an absolute curse. I’ll talk it over with some of my friends in Tahiti.

The Administration might be favourable to the idea of making an experiment on one of the small, coconut-covered islets, where the rats have become a plague. It would be interesting to turn a few carpet snakes loose there and see what happens.”

Mr. Philip Osborne-Gibbes, of New Zealand, who was for many years a trader in the Gilbert Islands, died in hospital in Sydney on December 18.