They’re creepy, crawly and totally without reading skills, but reptiles ruled at the Mokena Community Library Tuesday.
A visit with Dave DiNaso and his Traveling World of Reptiles kicked off the library’s summer reading program and drew about 170 people, children’s librarian Kathy Wierzbicki said.
“I didn’t bring wimpy animals. I brought scary, disgusting animals,” DiNaso said, pointing out that the scaly and smelly members of the animal kingdom are just as valuable to the environment as those scoring higher on the cuteness meter.
An animal that looks scary isn’t necessarily dying to have humans for dinner. Despite their rather sinister stares, Iggy and Dino, DiNaso’s pet iguanas, gently plucked broccoli florets from the teeth of two intrepid volunteers from the audience.
“They don’t bite. There’s no germs on them,” DiNaso said. “You can kiss these things and they’re not going to hurt you.”
The most dangerous reptile in Mokena is the innocent-looking snapping turtle, he said. “If you see this thing and pick it up, there’s a good chance you’ll go home with less than 10 fingers.”
“He’s got a muscular, powerful jaw and a pair of scissors for a mouth,” DiNaso said, holding the turtle by the tail in the interest of finger preservation.
Snakes, only 10 percent of which are poisonous, get a bad rap, according to DiNaso, who credits their fondness for dining on rats with keeping the rodent population under control.
If sheer size counts, Chiquita, a banana-hued Burmese python who required 10 pairs of volunteer hands to hold her full length, could probably do some serious rodent munching.
Chiquita, a curious soul, took a good, long look at Matt Ponalbade, 7, who had the dubious pleasure of holding on to her head.
“He’s smelling Matt. He wants to know if Matt’s a rat,” DiNaso explained. Nathan Fiegel, 11, ended up with a slithery handful of milk snakes, garter snakes and ribbon snakes coiled around his neck and draped across his eyeglasses.
But not everybody was inclined to cozy up to DiNaso’s reptilian friends. “I’m not touching those alligators,” said Zachary Slaviero, 10. “They know that Dave guy, but they don’t know me.”
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