Results include spoiled food, computer failures, increased business losses, etc. The decline of the island's bird fauna seems likely to increase crop loss to insects and reliance on more costly chemical controls. Once established, the BTS has proven impossible to eradicate and extremely difficult to control. The snakes first came to the attention of mainland biologists after puzzling reports of the crash of the island's bird populations. In a comprehensive 1988 report on the BTS, the FWS considered the six basic methods of pest control for their applicability to this species.
None is considered fully effective at control, much less eradication.
The FWS report holds out far more hope of preventing dispersal to other islands of the Pacific than that the snake can be eliminated where it has established a foothold. To date, all approaches have been deemed to suffer from lack of funding. It is interesting to note that, taken at face value, this wording conveys no authority to prevent the introduction of the BTS, an endeavor which seems far more likely to succeed than efforts to control the species after it is established. More general provisions for the Task Force arguably allow attention to problems of preventing the further dispersal of the snake. Certainly the final report on a BTS control plan emphasizes prevention.