Have you ever called 199 _ the call service operated by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to deal with unwanted visitors?
If you answered yes, you are not alone in seeking help from the experts in dealing with pests such as water monitors, poisonous insects and, especially, snakes.
There have been 2,935 calls to the hotline so far this year to the end of October from residents seeking help to deal with snakes invading homes in the capital.
“The incident is recorded only for those we can catch. If not, we will not record it,” said the director of Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department, Yutasak Romchatthong.
“It means that the number of calls for snake disturbances is a lot higher than that.”
He said the number of recorded rescue operations for snake disturbances had increased “significantly” from 1,582 in 2008 and 2,744 in 2009.
He said this increase was due to the continuing encroachment of humans on the natural habitats of snakes and lizards.
Bang Chan, Phra Khanong and Bang Khae are the areas with the highest numbers of calls for snake invasions. Most of them are non-poisonous species such as pythons and fish-eating snakes.
However, in some cases, cobras have been found in homes, especially on the outskirts of Bangkok where paddy fields and other farming areas are being replaced by housing estates.
After receiving a call, a team of three or four firefighters will head to the scene with simple snake-catching equipment such as a net, a plastic bag and a hook.
All City Hall fire-fighting staff have been trained to catch snakes and other harmful creatures.
Mr Yutasak said the BMA was concerned about the increase in the city’s lizard population.
“We will have to talk with other agencies about how to deal with the lizards. We usually just let them go in nearby forests, although some of them have been sent to the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute,” he said. The institute is a centre for the production of snake anti-venin and rabies vaccinations.
So far this year, the Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department has also addressed cases involving water monitors (315), cats (273), wasps and hornets (146), and stray dogs (106).
Banjong Proybamrung, a volunteer rescuer at the Bang Khen Fire Station Office, said his team gets an average of four callouts a week regarding snakes.
“Most of them are pythons,” he said. “But if we find a cobra, there is no choice but to kill them.”
Currently, 80 pythons are being kept in a cage at Bang Khen Fire Station, and about 100 others were recently released in a forest in Chon Buri province.