Snakes in Hawaii

Hawaii has no native land snakes at all. The official count is 2 species, and only 1 of them is venomous, but that picture needs explaining because it is unlike any mainland state. As an isolated chain of volcanic islands in the middle of the Pacific, Hawaii was never colonized by land snakes on its own, so it has no native terrestrial snake fauna. The snakes that show up in the count are a marine species and a tiny introduced one, not the snakes you picture coiled in the grass.

The 1 venomous species is the Yellow-bellied Sea Snake, an ocean animal that drifts on Pacific currents and occasionally washes up on Hawaiian beaches. It is venomous but lives in the open sea, not on land, and is rarely seen; it does not hunt people and bites are extremely uncommon. The other species is the Brahminy blindsnake, a tiny, harmless, worm-like burrowing snake introduced in potted-plant soil. It is the snake people actually find in Hawaii, often mistaken for an earthworm, and it has no venom and cannot harm a person or pet. So between the two, the one you might encounter is harmless, and the venomous one stays in the ocean.

Hawaii works hard to keep it that way. The state's great snake fear is the brown tree snake, a destructive invader that devastated Guam's native birds. It is not established in Hawaii, and aggressive airport and cargo inspections, detector dogs, and strict biosecurity rules exist specifically to keep it out. Bringing a snake into Hawaii is illegal and carries heavy penalties, because a single breeding population could wreck the islands' birds and ecosystems. If you ever see a snake on land in Hawaii, that is a biosecurity emergency.

Honest safety: with no native land snakes, the day-to-day snakebite risk in Hawaii is essentially nonexistent, far lower than in any mainland state. Leave a beached yellow-bellied sea snake alone, since it is venomous even though encounters are rare, and never handle it. If you spot any land snake, do not touch or kill it; report it immediately to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture pest hotline at 643-PEST (643-7378) so it can be caught. For any bite or poisoning concern, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or 911.