Not everyone loves snakes, we totally get it! But they play an essential roll in keeping rodent populations under control; puff adders are the latest agricultural heroes says a new Wits study.
South Africa (23 May 2025) – They may not be the most glamorous of Africa’s creatures, and they certainly don’t enjoy the best PR. But those heavy-bodied, slow-moving puff adders we’re all taught to steer well clear of might just be some of the continent’s most valuable agricultural allies.
New research out of the University of the Witwatersrand is changing how we see these often-scary reptiles. According to Professor Graham Alexander, who led the study, puff adders are astonishingly effective at controlling rodent populations, and not just your far-flug mountain rats, but the kind that devastate crops, bankrupt farmers, and chew through food security that is already so fragile in South Africa.
The science is simple but staggering. When rodent populations spike, puff adders can ramp up their food intake by more than 12 times their usual needs. That means, that the more rats there are, the more gluttonous the adders become. Just a hungry puff adder doing what it does best. In fact, individual snakes can gobble up as many as 10 rodents in one go and be ready to hunt again within a week. That’s not just efficiency. That’s pest control with fangs.
Published in Scientific Reports, the proudly South African study makes the case that these snakes offer a free, continuous rodent management service and one that’s far more scalable than most traditional predators. While creatures like weasels or lynx may eat more per animal, puff adders win on sheer numbers. They’re naturally abundant in many African habitats and can quietly soak up rising rodent numbers long before they spiral into full-blown plagues.
“These findings demonstrate that puff adder population management should be an essential component of integrated pest management strategies,” says Alexander. “By protecting these natural controllers, we can harness their remarkable abilities to support both ecosystem health and agricultural productivity across Africa.”
In other words, it’s time we stopped seeing snakes as villains in the agricultural story and started treating them as heroes. They might not be cute. They definitely won’t win any popularity contests. But when it comes to safeguarding food security in a warming, increasingly unpredictable world, puff adders might just be the quiet heroes we never knew we had.
And just in case you missed it, the Snakes of Southern Africa group recently celebrated over 500,000 members. The group is changing the conversation in South Africa regarding snakes, promoting education and its changing (and saving) lives.
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