Brahminy blind snake

It is tiny: most are under 15 cm long and about as thick as a matchstick. The body is shiny dark brown to black, the same thickness from end to end, with no rings or pattern. The head is blunt and rounded and is hard to tell apart from the tail.

The eyes are two tiny dark dots under the head scales. They can tell light from dark but cannot see shapes. The tail ends in a minute, harmless spine. Unlike an earthworm, it has smooth scales, moves in quick wriggles and flicks a small forked tongue.

It is found almost everywhere in Singapore. Records come from the Botanic Gardens, Fort Canning, Marine Parade, Changi, Bukit Timah, housing estates and offshore islands such as St John's Island and Pulau Tekong.

It lives in loose soil, leaf litter, compost and potted plants. People usually see one when they repot a plant or after heavy rain floods its burrows.

It was first reported from Singapore in 1847, and Singapore's natural history museum holds specimens collected here as early as 1922. Few sightings get written down, even though it is very common, because it spends almost all its time out of sight.

It feeds inside ant and termite nests, eating their eggs, larvae and pupae. Its small mouth suits this soft food. Being so small, it is itself food for other animals, including the sunbeam snake.

It spends most of its life underground. It comes to the surface mainly at night or when rain soaks the soil. When picked up it wriggles hard and may press its tail spine against your skin, but this cannot hurt you.

Every Brahminy blind snake ever studied has been female. It reproduces without males, so each young snake is a genetic copy of its mother. A female produces up to about eight young at a time.

It also has three sets of chromosomes instead of the usual two. A 2025 study of its genome describes it as the only snake known to be both all-female and triploid. One snake can start a new population, which is why it has spread in potted plant soil to at least 84 countries.

No. It has no venom and its mouth is too small to bite a person. It is rated HARMLESS on the danger scale.