In January 2022 you issued a written response to a complaint from DA MP Madeleine Hicklin regarding an “infestation” of snakes, rats and frogs”. In your response, you stated that the parliamentary villages would provide the appropriate horticultural services required to adequately maintain the grounds at the three parliamentary villages and added that a snake and mole programme had been implemented at Acacia Park. You revealed that snake repellent would be sprayed around the houses and fumigation tablets would be dropped into mole tunnels.
This statement is of great concern to biologists and nature conservationists, including reptile and amphibian experts, who should ideally have been contacted to seek an appropriate and informed solution to address the perceived problem before resorting to such a knee-jerk reaction. Understanding the basic ecology of these animals provides the first necessary step for rectifying the perceived problem.
Snakes provide very important ecological services to humanity by predating on pests such as rats. Increases in numbers of rats, is often the result of urbanization or fluctuations in environmental conditions and may lead to an increase in the numbers of snakes. An increase in a rat population in an urban area is almost always due to poor waste and sanitation management. For instance, if waste is not properly sealed or removed within specific timeframes, rats thrive, and populations literally explode. Rats in urban centers are usually exotic invasive species, which can spread disease and cause damage to homes, vehicles and crops, as well as negatively impact on a multitude of native species and ecosystems. Natural control of these rats is provided by snakes, such as the non-venomous Brown House Snake, which is both free, and not dangerous, unlike the use of harmful chemicals.
Frogs require freshwater for breeding and surrounding terrestrial environments in which to forage, and their presence is an indicator of a healthy ecosystem. Drainage management can create ponds and other desirable habitats in which frogs will inhabit. Thus, to address growing numbers of snakes, rats and frogs these circumstances would first need to be assessed by appropriate experts – not by politicians.
Globally, populations of amphibians and reptiles are facing major declines. Natural habitats are decreasing in size and are being degraded. Urban green spaces provide critical habitat to many of these species, and it is advisable to assess the surrounding ecological infrastructure of such areas to ensure that they are conserved, and appropriate environmental management plans are developed by relevant experts. Such processes would also address waste, sanitation and other threats for the area.
It is thus debatable whether the correct procedures were followed leading to the proposed solutions that have been instituted for the parliamentary villages. It is not known which agency or specialist recommended her proposed interventions as the best course of action, nor whether an appropriate investigation has been performed to assess which species and at what densities are classified as infestations. Further, there does not appear to have been any assessment as to whether these species are indigenous or exotic, or whether they genuinely represent a potential health risk. Such details are necessary for instituting any plan to address the perceived ‘problem’.
The action proposed, particularly the application of ‘snake repellents’ is regrettable and should be rescinded. There is no sound evidence that any commercially available products are effective in repelling snakes, and in fact, there is strong empirical evidence from scientific investigations that they are completely ineffective. A group of scientists from the Universities of Pretoria and Witwatersrand are currently completing a publication showing incontrovertibly through a combination of laboratory and field studies that these products are entirely ineffective. While this study has not yet been peer reviewed or formally published, it was presented at the 14th conference of the Herpetological Association of Africa (HAA) in September 2019 and later circulated as an abstract via the HAA newsletter (African Herp News) to all of its members. While it is not expected for politicians to be aware of current scientific literature, any specialist South African herpetologist consulted by the Department of Public Works in Cape Town to address a snake problem would have either known from personal experience that snake repellents are ineffective or would have been aware of this research and would have strongly advised against the costly application of such an ineffective treatment.
Furthermore, depending on the scale of the operation proposed, the chemicals from snake repellents and fumigation can have unintentional impacts on human health, as well as on on birds and other wildlife in the area, including those species that would naturally feed on snakes.