from Hacker News

Battle to eradicate invasive pythons in Florida achieves milestone

by wglb on 6/16/25, 10:22 PM with 52 comments

  • by pavelstoev on 6/17/25, 1:28 AM

    This story is dear to my heart. Let me tell you why - this is the tale of how my wife of 15 years, bless her heart, an occasional unstable genius, proposed a startlingly effective method for eradicating these invasive pythons.

    She slammed her coffee cup down one morning with the conviction of an Old Testament prophet and declared: “Exploding rabbits.”

    “Excuse me?” I said, wiping marmalade off my chin.

    “Exploding. Rabbits. Stuff ‘em with quarter pound of C4, or maybe just enough tannerite to surprise the neighbors but not call down the FAA, and set them loose in the Everglades. Pythons love rabbits. Boom. Problem solved. You’re welcome, America.”

    Now I’ve heard my share of madcap schemes. Once she tried to compost credit card offers. But this time she looked me square in the eye with the righteous glow of a woman who had just solved two ecological crises and accidentally founded a billion-dollar startup in the process.

    “We’ll call it Hare Trigger™,” she added, deadpan. “It’s got product-market fit and explosive growth potential.”

    She even sketched out a logo involving a jackrabbit with aviator goggles and a plunger.

    I asked if this might attract some sort of federal attention.

    “Good,” she said. “That’s called buzz. Besides, the pythons started it.”

    And just like that, I found myself wondering how far true it is that behind every successful man stands an even more genius woman. Waiting for Elon to offer Series A.

  • by sampton on 6/17/25, 1:18 AM

    It's crazy we are hunting tuna to extinction yet here is perfectly good python meat going to landfill. Florida needs to build a marketing campaign to make wild python a delicacy.

  • by anadem on 6/17/25, 2:17 AM

    That headline sounds encouraging, but the actual info is anything but.

  • by watersb on 6/17/25, 3:14 AM

  • by jeffrallen on 6/17/25, 10:53 AM

    Meanwhile, the battle to eradicate Python 2 continues.

  • by hoseja on 6/17/25, 12:35 PM

    "20 tons of the snakes"

    Really... striking? bizzare? ...turn of phrase. It makes sense I guess, just really caught my attention.

  • by nickledave on 6/17/25, 3:14 AM

    I approve of this story as a Florida boy and as a Pythonista

  • by genter on 6/17/25, 1:01 AM

    > What's startling is those 1,400 snakes didn't come from a statewide culling. They came from a 200-square-mile area in southwestern Florida

    Or, 0.3% of Florida.

    One more example of why this planet is fucked.