grabbing pythons in the Everglades [Video]

HOLEY LAND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA, Fla. — It’s after midnight when the windshield fogs up on Thomas Aycock’s F-250 pickup truck. He flashes a low smile as he slowly maneuvers through the sawgrass, down dirt roads deep in the Florida Everglades.

His windshield just confirmed it: When the dew point drops in the dead of the night, it’s prime time for pythons.

“I catch more pythons when that happens,” Aycock explained. “It’ll make things start moving.”

Aycock, a contractor with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, has hunted Burmese pythons in the Everglades for 11 years. The retired U.S. Army veteran divides his time between North Carolina, the Florida Panhandle and Homestead, Florida, where he keeps a recreational vehicle.

He always participates in the Florida Python Challenge, hosted by the Wildlife Commission to incentivize people to track down invasive Burmese pythons that thrive in Florida’s preserved wetlands. This year’s …