Getting people to change their attitudes about snakes is a difficult task. Knowing more about Louisiana’s snakes can help change some minds.
The Hood family members educated, reassured and influenced adults and children with their entertaining presentations on July 11 at the three Audubon Regional Library branches.
Kevin Hood shows the audience of children and adults a large snakeskin here at a program on Louisiana Snake Education and Identification at the Jackson branch of the Audubon Regional Library. He sometimes gets calls and goes out to catch snakes from people's homes and then relocates them to a better place.
The Louisiana Snake Education and Identification program brought live snakes, facts and a bit of humor to the library branches, sharing safety tips while encouraging giving the snakes safe passage.
Some of the approximately 40 parents and children at the Jackson branch of the Audubon Regional Library who turned out for the three Louisiana Snake Education and Identification programs.
The mom, Rachel, explained that she once really, really disliked snakes. Many people’s first feelings toward them are fear and hate, she said. She changed, she said, from a parent allowing one snake as an interesting pet, a corn snake named Chris, to a parent with about 35 snakes in the family.
Learning about them and teaching others eventually became a full-time family business.
They now visit schools, libraries and other events to spread their message.
One of the important first things for children to know, she said, is that if you see a snake, “don’t approach it or try to touch or grab it.” Instead, go tell an adult, she said. If the adult doesn’t know what kind of snake it is and can safely take a picture of the live snake, she continued, they can “send it to us and we can identify it.”
Landon Hood, one of the sons in the family whose business is educating people about snakes and their part in our environment, refers to pictures overhead during a recent presentation at the Audubon Regional Library
Sending a picture of a dead snake is not really what they want to see, she said. Snakes are a part of nature and have a good role, explained the group, which can relocate the snake sometimes.
The dad, Kevin, said there are 48 known species of snakes in Louisiana, and only seven are venomous. Small snakes eat things like garden pests. The larger ones eat frogs, fish and other pests or rodents like rats, which have been known to chew electrical wires and cause house fires.
Native Louisiana snakes are part of the ecological system and are needed here, he said.
He said snake bites are actually rare, but if it happens go to the hospital immediately. You do not need to get the snake or know specifically what kind it is, he said. Snakes bite when they are disturbed or frightened, he explained.
He humorously asked the children if snakes have any arms or legs to hit you with to protect themselves? Because the answer is no, he continued, they strike or bite when they feel threatened and cannot get away.
If you see a snake passing through your yard, he continued, it’s probably looking for food or shelter. Maybe the snake used to live where a new development has sprung up, he quipped.
Sometimes it is not as easy to identify snakes, he said. For instance, the shape of the eyes and the head do not always follow the common rules.
His talk also included information about myths concerning snakes. For example, baby snakes can bite without injected venom — dry bites. Also, if injected, the amount of venom is less because it is stored in the smaller head of the young snake. Another myth is that moth balls repel snakes. He explained that snakes cannot smell them and therefore do not avoid them. They showed a photo of a snake curled up around what he said it probably thought was a small “white rock.” Moth balls are also bad because they melt and get in the soil and water and are “toxic to pets and wildlife,” he added.
He said most people are unaware that snake venom is actually very useful. The copperhead snake venom is used to fight breast cancer. He added that there are other medicines, like blood pressure medicines, that use snake venom.
The presentation, in which sons Kyler and Landon also participated, included several nonvenomous snakes, a rainbow python, which is not native to Louisiana, and a snakeskin.
Two other Hood family members were in the audience and were briefly recognized. They were (parents/grandparents) Jack and Ann Hood. She is a breast cancer survivor — and they were both wearing T-shirts with information about copperhead venom being used to fight breast cancer.
For information about Louisiana Snake Education and Identification, visit louisianasnakeid.com or Louisiana Snake ID on Facebook, or call (225) 405-1927 or (225) 573-0517.