Hi again tweets,

A response to a comment about a child being killed by a brown tree snake
(BTS). I'm sure this rather slender snake couldn't kill a human of any size
by constriction, and I doubt if it's even a constrictor. Most constrictors
are heavier-bodied. In fact, I'm fairly sure it is venomous, with rear
fangs, like our own night snake, Hypsiglena torquata, of interior Cascadia.

The BTS's scientific name is Boiga irregularis, and the related mangrove
snake, Boiga dendrophila, is quite venomous. People have become quite sick
from the bite of that species (I don't know of any fatalities) and others in
the genus. Several people have mentioned that the BTS eats eggs, but they
are very effective predators on the adults birds, too. The density of BTSs
on Guam apparently became extremely high, a classical population explosion
of an introduced species.

Dennis Paulson