For Goodness Snakes!

There was a time when the worst part about Bo Johnson's fall mornings was traversing a desolate and rather spooky course to his hunting spot in Big Cypress National Preserve. The South Florida hunter/fishing guide now treads every step concerned about sudden encounters with a hostile out-of-towner known as the Burmese python – an aggressive constrictor that grows plenty big enough to pose a serious threat to humans.

“It puts a whole new perspective on walking to your deer stand in waist-deep water at 4 o'clock in the morning in pitch black,” Johnson said. “Before it was just the Boogie Man; now it's (huge) snakes for you to worry about."

Deer...