Snake!!

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.

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robert1955

Greetings back at you,

Snakes, oh my! Its really dry here so we get mostly rattlers but not in our yards. We have all kinds of critters, possem, racoon, coyote(gotta keep the cat in at night), rabbits, etc.
Sometimes I find a few bonsai toppled because of visiting animals.
What kind of bonsai do you have there?
The Bald cypress is one of my favorites.

Peace
Bob

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BrianBay9

Way to go Susieq. Glad to hear a rational response to snakes. I think they are lovely creatures....a bit stupid, but lovely nonetheless.

Cheers
Brian

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RedPine

Hi Susieq,

Your knowledge and respect for snakes is cool.I am not a "snake person" by any means my self though. Here in Arkansas the land of many Junipers,places like Little Rock and Yellville(home of the turkey shoot of all things)are having some unusal snake activity.


Anyway here is a couple of quick links with pics and stuff about it-

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/...508161028495521

http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news...ory=Environment

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tom_termine

Susieq -

As a keeper of two pet reptiles, I never understood the irrational fear that is so common with regard to snakes. They are remarkable animals.

Now, as for squirrels - I have to agree there, too. This year has been particularly good (probably will regret saying this...) as there has not been a lot of squirrel or chipmunk damage in my garden and with my trees. I am curious - what do you do to "discourage" these varmints? Maybe I can learn something from you...

thanks!

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If you're a guy be careful about squirrels, they can sneak into you're house and night, go to you're bed, and we all know what squirrels eat dont we?
yes acorns,

susieq

Greetings all,
I do understand irrational fear of certain things, totally not based on logic....
I am a true arachniphobic (sp?) Absolutely out of my mind afraid of spiders. Makes no sense at all and as a child I used to play with them. When we moved to Florida I was 14. The spiders we have here are enormous and varied. I had a real scarey experience with a variety known around here as the banana spider (bigger than my hand, honest to God) I never got over it and that was over 35 years ago. So I understand irrational fears.

I have always played with the local fauna...snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, you name it, I had it for a pet at sometime, if only to show my children for a few days and then turn it loose. Trying to keep the kiddies from being afraid of little hoppy things.

We live near a small swamp that used to be home to wild otters, is still home to aligator snapping turtles (the badest of the bad) , egrets, osprey and now a pair of bald eagles that have discovered the cell tower on the neighbor's property. The summer nights fairly roar with the sound of tree frogs. And we get the odd snake in our yards from time to time. Right after we built the house and moved in, we found a pretty large coral snake in the garage. 45 inches long. Having lived out west for a time, I was shocked to see how large corals got here in Florida. But this subspecies gets much larger than their western cousin. The record is 47 inches the last time I checked.

We ran into a few pygmie rattlers here and there but that was long ago. As I said earlier, haven't seen a poisonous snake here in ten years or more.

As for the bonsai we have here, Bob, lots of the local club members keep bald cypress. I don't have any personally but they are a local tree and very popular, along with buttonwoods. Tropicals in general are pretty popular here. I read with interest about all the folks around the country having a hard time keeping fukien tea trees.....no problems here. Mine constantly drop berries that sprout new plants and I have gotten so that I just pull them out of the pot along with other weeds. Black olives do well here also, and malpigghias. Then there are the run of the mill elms, junipers, maples etc...

As for the squirrels, Tom, we are over run with them at times because we live in the remains of a 125 year old pecan grove and still have a few of the old trees on the property. I show sqirrels no mercy if they bother my trees. As I have said in other threads, I just shoot them and bury them.....but only while the damage to the trees persists. If they leave my stuff alone, I leave them alone. I have a German airgun and the neighbors are ok with my thinning them out a bit if needed. For those who cannot do this in their neighborhoods, may I suggest a rat trap baited with peanut butter. Quiet and the neighbors are none the wiser. We also have roving bands of racoons who are very brazen in their behavior. Years ago a well meaning lady on our street used to feed them all her leftovers. Bad move. Almost as bad as feeding the gators....another pet peeve but moving right along.....the coons do venture into the yard at night because our boxer is a house dog although he has treed them a couple of times. Once in a while they get onto the bonsai shelves and knock something over. No damage so far.

Red Pine, all I can say after reading the links, is becareful! Not the kind of snake I would want to see in my back yard.

We have the black snakes, garters, coach whips, indigos, red rat snake, hognosed (those are fun) and when it rains, the burrowing varieties surface to breath, like the little eastern ringnecks(soft black with a red ring around the neck), and the worm snakes, that look for all the world like an oversized nightcrawler...... pink and ribbed and some are over a foot long. Yep, just a reptilian disney world here...... To say nothing of the geckos and other lizards. Watching all this going on around me, it is a wonder I ever get anything done. Which reminds me, time to get back to work. Cheers.
susieq

Jgs bonsai

susieq: I am glad to hear that you are protecting the snakes. They are wonderful animals and help with the control of pests. I have always loved to see them in their natural environment. Two weeks ago I was collecting stones in Murphys CA. I was digging in the rock outcropings which are the natural area that rattle snakes that live around there. There are quite a few in the area and all the time I was watching closely for a snake. Everytime I put my hand down in the hole to remove a stone I was sure that one was in there. Luckly I did not see any but it goes to show that we can even get along with the rattlers if we pay attention and stay out of there way. Keep protecting the snakes in your yard, I think it is really smart on your part.

JGS

Aaron_K

Last summer my sister went out the back yard to see what one of the dog was barking at. She came running inside screaming "Snaaaaaake". I went out to take a look, and sure enough there was Paddy my bull terrier, barking and bouncing around like a looney at the creature that had invaded his space.

I picked it up as my sister was gingerly peering round the corner from the back door. Noting that it had eyelids and could feel the bumps where limbs used to be probably thousands of years prior to evolving, I preceeded to walk towards her and said ... "its ok, its a slow worm"

She still ran off screaming

I took it to the local woods and placed the little fellow in the undergrowth. Cute little thing, even though it bit my finger a few times lol.

All the best,

Aaron

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