A live snake was captured on the side of the road near the Pukalani Golf Club on Monday after a resident reported seeing children playing with the snake around 3 p.m., according to the state Department of Agriculture.
Agricultural inspectors from the Maui Plant Quarantine Branch were immediately dispatched and found the snake had been contained in a plastic garbage bin, the department said Tuesday. The snake measured 3 1/2 feet long and has been tentatively identified as a nonvenomous female gopher snake, a species that is found in North America and can grow up to about 7 feet.
Maui Police Department officers helped secure the snake, which was taken to the Plant Quarantine Office and was humanely euthanized, the Agriculture Department said. Inspectors surveyed the immediate area and found no other evidence of snakes.
Snakes are illegal in Hawaii, where they have no natural predators and threaten the ecosystem.
Anyone who sees a snake should treat it as venomous and should not handle it, the department said. Maintain visual contact at a safe distance and safely cover or contain the snake when possible. Report it immediately to the state’s toll-free Pest Hotline at (808) 643-PEST (7378).
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