A brave fireman who catches hundreds of snakes a month has spoken about his deadly job and the soaring numbers of serpents in the Thai capital. <br /><br />Phinyo Pukphinyo, 49, became a fireman when he was 18 and had never handled a snake until the station was tasked with tackling the growing problem in 2003. <br /><br />The fearless fire chief said that until then, each time a python appeared in Bangkok it was either ignored or released back into the city in the green spaces or canals. <br /><br />But that led to even more snakes being born - with females laying up to 50 eggs at a time - and the urban ecosystem being turned on its head. <br /><br />Pythons, which make up more than 75 percent of the city’s snake population, became the dominant species devouring frogs, rats, cats, birds and dogs. <br /><br />There are now believed to be millions of snakes living in the city’s sewers, woodland and pipework. <br /><br />Phinyo said he receives more than 20 calls a day to catch snakes at the height of the rainy season when the reptiles appear in the open in search of food.<br /><br />He said: ''Bangkok has a lot of snakes. The demand for snake catching is higher in the rainy season. It’s the season when snakes go searching for food.<br /><br />''There are a lot of pythons because we used to think that they couldn’t harm humans are they’re non-venomous. We thought they would reduce disease by eating rats.<br /><br />''So officers would catch and release pythons and the other kind of non-venomous snakes such as Indonesian Rat snakes or Copperheaded Rat Snake in the area.''
