Three snakes trapped in glue pads rescued by wildlife NGO

Thane: The volunteers of a wildlife NGO in city managed to rescue three snakes that were trapped for hours in the glue traps meant for rats from Raymond company area in Vartak Nagar. The rescue operation lasted for five hours after which the snakes were rescued.

Speaking about the incident, founder and president of NGO Aditya Patil said, "Last week we received a rescue call from a local who spotted the snakes stuck in the discarded glue traps in Vartak Nagar area. On visiting the area, we saw that the glue trap had attracted not one, but two Rat snakes as well as a small skink snake." "As the skins of the snakes were deeply stuck in the glue mesh, it took our volunteers one to two hours to remove each of the three reptiles using vegetable oil, warm water and a cloth," he added.

There have been numerous instances wherein snakes, birds and even squirrels have been stuck in these traps which are meant to trap rodents.

"These easily available glue pads or traps are often used to capture rats and mice, but often the trapped rodents attract reptiles like snakes which enter the trap looking for food. In other cases, these hollow boxes or adhesive armed pads offer some shelter for birds and squirrels who then get stuck there," said Patil.

"Only licensed and trained professionals should be allowed to set up these glue pads. They should be used only indoors and not outside, to avoid attracting other wildlife. The used glue pads with rats trapped should be cleaned regularly according to the set guidelines, and the traps should be disposed in paper bags," added Kedar Bhide.

Glue pads are essential to control a rat infestation in pharmaceutical or food processing industries where using rat poison is not an option keeping in mind possible contamination of the manufactured products