Catching snakes has become an unlikely pastime for former Mingdao University president Eddie Chen (陳世雄), who over the past 12 years has captured 75 snakes on his organic farm.
This new specialty has prompted his friends to bestow on this doctor of agriculture a new tile: “Dr Snake King.”
At his farm in Changhua County on Friday, Chen shared his snake-catching secret, which he claims has never failed him.
Photo courtesy of Eddie Chen
The trick involves goose eggs, he said.
As snakes love to eat eggs, Chen said he keeps nearly 20 geese on his farm to entice snakes.
The half hour that it takes a snake to eat a large goose egg provides all the opportunity needed to catch it, he added.
Catching them is not difficult because he has the “home-field advantage,” or knows all of the hiding places, he said.
Most of the 76 snakes that he has caught since opening the farm in 2010 have been the nonvenomous Elaphe carinata, or stink snake, although two were cobras, he said.
One stink snake he caught just last week was 2m long, he said.
“Catching snakes really is not that hard,” he said.
Before attempting to capture a snake, it is important to understand which type it is, as “once you realize it is not venomous, there is no reason to be afraid,” he said.
As he is familiar with every part of his farm, Chen said he quickly discovers shed snake skin and knows when to be on the alert.
While most people are afraid of snakes and try to scare them away, Chen said that he tries to attract them so that he can catch them using only his hands.
Asked what he does with the snakes afterward, Chen dismissed insinuations that they taste good in a soup.
Chen said he releases them in fields of grains, watermelon or other crops prone to damage from mice.
The mouse problem always clears up quickly after that, he added.
Farmers taking the organic route must accept how things naturally are, Chen said.
Snakes are a natural link in the food chain and killing them would throw the ecosystem off-balance, he said, adding that making the ecosystem work to the farmer’s advantage is the beauty of organic farming.
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