susieq

Greetings all,
this morning started like many Saturday mornings in the summer. Mr. Wonderful decided to mow the yard. I went out to pick up sticks and also pooperscoop the yard after our 85 lb boxer, Butchie. Mr. Wonderful had finished mowing and was using the weed eater when he yelled for me to come over. Over the years, he has finally come around to the theory that not all snakes are bad.....he just doesn't always know which is which. It took years to convince him that the view" the only good snake is a dead snake" was not correct.

I went to where he was in the yard and there was a small (maybe 7 or 8 inches) snake crawling along the back of the house, trying to avoid the weed eater. I looked and at first glance thougt it to be a pigmy rattler. But I always look at the eyes if possible. Since he insisted on burying his head in the sod, I had to run to my shop and get my trusty bonsai tweezers, pluck him up by the back of the neck and have a look. His pupils were big, round black balls and the eyes of a non poisonous snake. The only poisonous snake on the US continent with round pupils is the coral snake. Pit vipers, which include moccosins, copperheads and rattlers, all have a vertical black slit for a pupil. Many water snakes look like poisonous critters but the eyes are a dead give away. So I carried him with the tweezers, over to the hedge around the yard and let him go. I don't know what variety he was but he was not poisonus.

For years my neighbors have considered me to be a bit odd, because I preach at them not to kill the good snakes. (probably not the only reason they think me odd but, oh well) Our yard is surrounded by a huge hedge of iliagnus (sp?) other wise known as silver thorn. Black snakes abound in the hedge and frequently slither past while I work on my trees. We haven't seen a poisonous snake on the property in many years. Live and let live......
For that matter, I would only kill poisonus snakes because if my dog found it, well....better the snake than my dog.... Squirrels are another matter. They destroy my trees so I do battle with them.

Advertisement