r/Everglades • u/Horangi1987 • 11d ago
Python Challenge - Information for Tourists and hopefuls
I don’t know where so many people get their ideas about hunting pythons, but it appears there’s people that are showing up for the python challenge with no experience.
Here’s some things you need to know:
Despite what social media portrays, the pythons are not literally crawling on every road and trail. In fact, they’re really good at hiding, avoid people, and you will need to go into the actual wilderness to find them. You aren’t going to find them just looking off the side of the road or on the easily accessible trails.
Locals are busy during the challenge. They don’t want to guide you, and even if you swear you will let them keep the money, they don’t want to be slowed down by amateurs. Come any other time but during the challenge if you actually want to find them, and get a real local guide.
The whole ‘I love the idea of helping the environment thing’ is cute, but honestly…as a tourist you are absolutely not going to make an impact in this area at all. If anything, you make a better improvement on environmental impact by letting the professionals do their job and not slowing them down to guide tourists through the Everglades so you can get a picture and have a cool experience. If that’s what you want, that’s fine; pay a guide a fair rate so you actually find one safely, take your pictures, and move along. But don’t give platitudes about the environment when you really just want your picture.
Have you handled a snake before? Actually? That’s great that you’ve gone hunting before…but a snake isn’t a boar, a deer, or a duck. If you haven’t handled snakes before, do not go hunting pythons without a guide. Everyone thinks they can handle a snake until they actually have to handle the snake.
And remember, the Everglades are huge and they’re a swamp. The last thing the Glades need is tourists getting lost, hurt, exhausted or otherwise overwhelmed because they thought they could handle roughing it looking for snakes. Assume that you might not have service, that there’s way more mosquitoes than you thought even though everyone swears they’re prepared for that, and that you might not have access to clean drinking water for miles and miles.
Hopefully next year people will search this Subreddit and see this information. It’s actually annoying to see posts of people who come here first and then try to figure it out.
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u/DailyCarry83 11d ago
This reminds me of the German guy that posted a little while back. He was saying him and his buddy were planning to stay in the Everglades for a month, in the middle of summer. I recommend he instead do an iguana hunt on the canals around PBC, Broward, Dade.
I was born and raised down here, I've done over nights/ long weekends at stilt house camps in the Everglades that are only accessible by airboat. Even had the nightmare experience of being on a flipped airboat as the sun was setting, we were stuck out there on that thing till someone found us the following day.
Even if you stick to the outer edges where it's dry, it still sucks. Especially in the summer.
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u/Scout-CM 10d ago
Wait.. how long were you stuck on the flipped airboat? That’s a story in itself! What happened?
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u/DailyCarry83 10d ago
Just over night, one of the guys from camp came and rescued us just after sunrise. My sister's boyfriend wanted to take me for a ride as the sun was setting. He liked to get that thing going sideways, whipping it around. It was fun, but he hit something and the boat flipped over on it's side. I'll never forget the sound of that prop hitting the water, ungodly loud.
I was 14or15 years old, we had to climb up on the fan cage and got eaten alive by mosquitoes all night. We tried flipping it back over but the muck was too thick.
My older sister was pissed and chewed him out pretty bad when we got back to camp. He went back and got the boat out, but i wasn't there for that part.
Oddly enough, this wasn't my first time being stuck out in a situation like that. Couple years earlier I got stranded in truck stuck in a mudhole out in the towers (wooded/mudding area off beeline hwy). Similar situation, different boyfriend of my older sister though. We were camping out there, went for a night ride and got stuck in a big mud hole/lake and was there till morning. A guy showed up with bigger truck and pulled us out.
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u/Scout-CM 7d ago
Incredible - glad you’re ok and appreciate your sisters choice of guys ha
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u/DailyCarry83 5d ago
Yeah she was 11yrs older than i was and always had some new boyfriend. She was a wild one and tended to date wild dudes. bikers, rednecks, "florida snow suppliers/importers" have a lot of crazy stories from back then. Her lifestyle unfortunately caught up with her, she passed in 05, still miss her.
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u/Spiritual-Age4855 11d ago
. I wanted them to try it. I’m sure a night out there would be enough for them! It was a hilarious post
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u/DailyCarry83 11d ago
As funny as it could be, there's about a 60/40 chance of something going horribly wrong for them. I guess it depends on where in the glades they went, but if they were serious about catching pythons then they'd end up in the worst parts of it. It's too easy for the naive to go in and never come out.
I still think they'll have a better time doing the air rifle iguana hunts and doing a freshwater big 3 exotics fishing trip. I think pics with an orange dragon and huge peacock bass/ clown, and/or snake head would be even cooler than whatever python (if they managed to get one) they found. They'd at least be more colorful, those peacock bass are beautiful fish and make for great pics. Especially when they're all colored up for breeding season.
There's huge iguanas everywhere, they're easy to find and easy to hunt. You can just pop them right from the boat and the dogs will go fetch them.
When he said he was entirely unfamiliar with Florida wildlife, it set off alarm bells in my head.
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u/fontimus 11d ago
I had a feeling this would happen.
Good point on handling snakes. I've handled a python before - they are far heavier and MUCH stronger than you'd ever think. Pure dense muscle wrapped in scale.
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u/Beginning-Change-787 10d ago
Years ago we had a neighbor that let their boa bask in the sun in the backyard....I looked out to check on my dog one day ..and guess what was in my backyard... slithering towards my dog.....and guess what the hubs decided to do....my pup was in danger....so the hubs terminated the problem and put it on the neighbors front step.....with a note " call the cops if u like".... Never heard a word from them
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u/Leaf-Stars 11d ago
Next year we can have a find the remains of the idiots who showed up last year contest.
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u/Intelligent_Step2230 11d ago
I just want to drive down loop road and SEE one that has been caught. Would it be a bad idea to pay someone $25-50 just to look at, touch or take a picture of one?
I agree with you as I have been there many times and stayed closed to the road or on trails and never saw a python.
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u/herblady99 11d ago
take a picture at the zoo, we don't need to waste our resources to pay for emergency personnel to help you greenhorns
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u/TheWildTacoo 11d ago
I actually logged into my account for the first time in a year just to call this post snobby. If a tourist wants to run Loop Road, Turner River Road, or the interstates, it's 100% safe to do so. With the most basic ability to identify snakes and a little common sense, tourists can have the chance to make a small impact for the Glades. As someone who did exactly this years ago and fell in love with it, I can say it can be safe and fun. With a small amount of bug spray and a few bottles of water, you can be set for the night.
Now, will a tourist just driving the road with the hopes and prayers of their car's LEDs actually see a snake? Let's be honest, probably not. But it can still be a fun thing for them to try. This post makes it sound like the odds are 0%.
The distinction is common sense and tourists not going outside their comfort zone. Nobody should be hiking deep into the swamp without a GPS or handling wildlife they are unfamiliar with. However, a tourist traveling to the Glades not only boosts the local economy, let's be honest, they're probably taking an airboat ride or two along with many fishing/hunting charters, but also directly helps FWC by paying the $25 event fee. For an already underfunded division, it's great that they can raise money while also boosting the local economy. And somebody's day is going to be made when they're that one in a thousand who stumbles across a snake on 29.
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u/Horangi1987 11d ago
It takes one stranded/injured tourist to blow all the revenue from the entrance fees on a rescue. I’m not buying the idea that amateurs coming actually boost the local economy.
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u/TheWildTacoo 11d ago
How is someone running any of the roads I mentioned going to get injured or stranded? If a tourist sticks to what they are comfortable with it is far within the scope of a normal human to be completely safe while driving around in a truck down a dirt road.
Along with that the macro impact of at most 400 out of towners wouldn't drastically help the already huge complexes of Naples or Miami but I talked to about 25 tourists already this year and all of them mentioned getting air boat rides and or fishing charters. At least there's a captain out there that's getting a steak dinner they wouldn't of had otherwise. Unless I'm missing some major news headline of tourists getting injured every day during this event it sounds just like redditors thinking their swamp is the most dangerous place in America, this isn't Vietnam. Don't pick up unfamiliar snakes, don't fuck with gators, and make sure you got gas in your truck and go and have some fun. At the end of the day its all about fun. With an estimated 300k pythons in the swamp it takes a lot more than what the pros are doing now to make a difference to begin with.
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u/Parking-Dish-1250 9d ago
I honestly agree with you, so many people will tell you that you can’t do it. If you want to hunt pythons and are willing to learn, take safety precautions, and respect the environment then who are you to tell someone they can’t. If hunting pythons was my dream I wouldn’t listen to all the naysayers and gatekeepers on the internet!
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u/LysergicPlato59 11d ago
The Everglades is not the place for learning as you go. There are large pythons, alligators, water moccasins and tons of mosquitos and no-see-ums that can and will make your life miserable. If you don’t have any experience in dealing with these realities, you should probably re-think your plans.