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Flee! Run While You Can! Pythons Invade State

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: February 8, 2009

So where's everybody going? Why are schools losing kids and people abandoning Florida neighborhoods?

Does it have anything to do with a story last week that says some 10,000 Burmese pythons are now on the loose in the Everglades and are starting to spread out?

Surprisingly, people aren't leaving, at least according to the experts. I spoke with Stanley K. Smith about it the other day, and he's the guy who knows. He is the program director for Population Studies at the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. These are the people who keep track of Floridians and probably know more about you than you do.

"The numbers have slowed," Smith said. "But it's not because people are leaving. They just aren't coming in like they have for the last few years. There is a perception that people come to Florida to retire or because they see it as a tropical paradise.

"Actually," he went on, "only about 15 percent of those who come, come here to retire. Most come for jobs. Florida is a Sunbelt state, and it has been a center for economic growth. Now that there is a recession in Florida, that influx has slowed. By the way, when people come to retire, that also creates jobs as well, especially in the service industry."

The Critter Tipping Point
Well, maybe. Smith is the expert. But I think the pythons have something to do with it, too. I think we've finally reached the nasty critter tipping point.

It's never been clear why people decided Florida was a paradise in the first place. I mean there have always been those hurricanes that have used the peninsula for target practice every summer. And then there was that steamy, oppressive heat that blankets the state for at least six months.

In fact, it really wasn't until the coming of air conditioning and cooled-off buildings that offered refuge from the Florida summers that the state became a place where families could settle and live year-round.

And the pythons are only the latest critters to come our way. Florida always has had its share of exotic creatures you did not see if you lived in Ohio or Illinois.

Its beaches are beautiful, but a few yards into the water and you are in the same territory as man-eating sharks, stingrays and other creatures that see you as little more than bait. If you prefer the rivers or lakes, then you have to worry about gators and poisonous snakes.

On land the list is even longer. There are creatures you can't even see called "no-see-ums" that sting and can drive you nuts on a picnic.

The Roach That Ate The Drumstick

There are lizards my wife says are the size of dinosaurs, and roaches that are so big they can open refrigerator doors at night (at least that's what I tell my wife when she asks who took the leftover fried chicken).

This is the land of the walking catfish and an ugly toad called Bufo marinus that you don't want to mess with at all.

There are gators and mosquitoes and sandspurs to deal with, not to mention all sorts of snakes and even a few panthers.

There is the mysterious Skunk Ape, said to meander across the swamps at night, and the dreaded Canadian snowbird menacing the highways.

No, I think Smith is right. Floridians aren't leaving the state. They're just afraid to go out of the house.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, to read more of columnist Steve Otto's musings.

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