NOVA CONTROL, PEST CONTROL COMPANY IN IBIZA AND FORMENTERA. SPECIALISTS IN SNAKE TRAPPING.
As is well known to all of us who live on Ibiza and Formentera, the Pitiusas Islands are currently facing the biggest environmental problem, the colonisation of the entire archipelago by snakes from the mainland. There are mainly two species: the horseshoe snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis) and the ladder snake (Zamenis scalaris), although a third one, the bastard snake (Malpolon monspessulanus), has been detected in different years, but its naturalisation (i.e. its natural breeding in the archipelago) has not been confirmed.
Adult horseshoe snake.
Juvenile ladder snake captured by one of our traps in the municipality of Sant Antoni de Portmany.
Both species are present on both islands, but a priori, through the data published by the administration and what our own experience as a pest control company tells us, the horseshoe snake has its greatest degree of dispersion on Ibiza, where it can be said that it has already colonised the entire island, even being registered on islets such as the illa de Santa Eulalia. This islet is located about 500m off the coast, which attests to its great potential as a swimming species and the real risk of colonisation of other islets, where the environmental disaster will be enormous. In the case of Formentera, the predominant snake is the ladder snake, which the administration claims to be restricted in the area of La Mola. However, in spite of this supposed restriction, there is no scientific evidence that it is under any eradication process: the data on captures provided by the administration itself indicate that the population remains stable, while in 2023 specimens of the horseshoe snake have been detected in areas of Formentera where there were no previous official records.
Returning to the island of Ibiza, the ladder snake is also present, but to a much lesser degree than the horseshoe snake, and in rather specific areas (although probably in a slow but constant process of expansion). In other words, there are large areas of the island of Ibiza where the horseshoe snake is systematically detected, but not the ladder snake. It must be said here that both species can coexist in the same area, and our experience is that, in the same trap, one week you can find a horseshoe snake and the following week a ladder snake, or even specimens of both species together in the same trap.
At Nova Control, we are a leading company in snake control in Ibiza and Formentera: we breed our own mice selected from years of field work, as well as designing and building our own traps based on our professional experience. We are the only company in the Pitiusas Islands that registers and documents each one of the captures we make, in order to use this data in studies that we carry out ourselves on the invasive snakes (reproduction, biometrics, diet...) and that we divulge completely free of charge, so that they can be useful to third parties, for the control of the invasive pest. This dissemination is carried out through the Nova Falcons Divulgation area, which is part of our environmental department. In these entries, we go into detail on the origin of the pest, control methods, diet, reproductive aspects and other biometric data of our own elaboration.
You can access these contents by clicking on the following link:
https://www.novafalcons.com/en/blog
Extracting the stomach contents of a horseshoe snake captured by us, as part of the diet study we have been carrying out on this species since 2022. In this case, we can see the remains of a Pitiusas lizard (Podarcis pityusensis).
Beyond being an economic activity, for us working with the plague of invasive snakes in Ibiza and Formentera, has an environmental implication of the first order. The Pitiusas lizard (Podarcis pityusensis) is in a ‘silent’ but vertiginous population decline, caused by the predatory effect of the invasive snakes. It is so serious that it has already been officially declared an endangered species. We are talking about a unique endemism in the world, which will disappear irreversibly if we do not intervene to remedy what humans themselves have generated. But the seriousness of the problem does not end here, through our own diet studies carried out on specimens from our catches, we have been able to confirm the great generalist character of these predators. Snakes feed on small arthropods, lizards, salamanders, micro-mammals and even birds. This means that when lizards are no longer present in the environment, their predatory effect is focused on other species, whose populations will also be seriously affected, in a way that cannot be predicted. In the same way, it is also impossible to predict the cascade effect that the disappearance of a species such as the Pitiusa lizard, which plays an important predatory role on small insects, as well as acting as a pollinator, could have on the ecosystems of Pitiusa. A possible cascade effect could be the expansion of the pine processionary (Thaumetopoea pityocampa), both in Formentera and Ibiza, which some experts are already blaming on the drastic reduction of the lizard population. This is due to the fact that the lizards include the adult phase of the pine processionary in their diet, which they prey on at the time of hatching on land (i.e. when the butterfly is born, which means that each individual preyed on does not complete its reproductive cycle).
The Pitiusas Lizard, a bluish-coloured specimen of the subspecies typical of the Cap de Barbaria area, currently in danger of extinction due to the predatory action of invasive snakes.
Our snake control service in Ibiza and Formentera is characterised by always putting animal welfare before business profit. Our technicians are properly trained to kill the snakes in the quickest and least traumatic way possible: cruelty or bad practices against snakes have no place in Nova Control, since these animals are not to blame for being in the wrong place. The traps, manufactured in-house, have a design that optimises the environmental conditions to the maximum, to guarantee that the mice that serve as attractants are in a comfortable and stress-free environment. We always try to keep our little mice in the most pleasant and safest conditions possible for them.
All our pest control plans are always adapted to the environment and the specific needs of the client, always trying to work as flexibly and discreetly as possible.
To end this short entry, we would like to share with you some images of the field work associated with the snake control service:
Our snake control service reaches any corner of Ibiza and Formentera where we are required.
Text and photographs: own elaboration.
Find out more:
- https://novacontrol.es/en/control-of-snakes-and-other-reptiles/snakes
- https://novacontrol.es/en/works-and-data-of-interest/snake-catching-in-ibiza-and-formentera
- https://novacontrol.es/en/works-and-data-of-interest/february-14-in-ibiza-the-snakes-are-already-active
-https://www.novafalcons.com/en/blog/35-snakes-on-ibiza-and-formentera-part-i
- https://www.novafalcons.com/en/blog/36-snake-control-in-ibiza-and-formentera-part-ii
- https://www.novafalcons.com/en/blog/49-notes-on-snake-control-in-ibiza-and-formentera-1-3
- https://www.novafalcons.com/en/blog/50-notes-on-snake-control-in-ibiza-and-formentera-2-3
-https://www.novafalcons.com/en/blog/51-notes-on-snake-control-in-ibiza-and-formentera-3-3
-https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podarcis_pityusensis
- https://www.periodicodeibiza.es/pitiusas/ibiza/2024/06/11/2182083/procesionaria-del-pino-expande-ibiza.html
Nova control; control of pests and microorganisms in Ibiza and Formentera.
-Wasps, ants, mosquitoes, rodents, cockroaches, moths, snakes...
-Wood treatments: woodworm, termites, fungus...
-Disinfections: covid, tanks, legionella treatment and control.
Consult other services without obligation
☎️: +34 604 04 82 98
🇪🇸: https://novacontrol.es/es/control-de-plagas
🇬🇧: https://novacontrol.es/en/pest-control
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