It's snake time in the garden, be careful.

[Garf]

In south Florida we have Cottenmouth water moccason, coral snakes and some rattlesnakes. I never see them in the developed area where I live. They seem to prefer it in the Glades.

Tam91,

If your really interested in a copperhead skin, as of this morning; the count is now three. As Monty Hall used to say "come on down". I had the plastic and row cover wraps folded and stacked in layers. The snakes converted the stack into a snake hotel. Every time I moved a top layer, I would find a snake. I used a stick in one hand to remove the last layer and kept my gun in the other hand. Once again, one shot, one dead copperhead.

Ted

[tam91]

I wish I could - bit of a drive though, drat. Hmm... then I'd have to remember how I tanned them (been a while)... glycerin and ...? drat, can't remember just now.

[cottonpicker]

As a child growing up on a cotton farm in western OK back in the 1940s, I remember Dad storing cottonseed in an empty & usused upstairs bedroom. Well... wintertime rolled around, mice found a nice warm home in the cottonseed and.... Bull snakes found a steady supply of food --the mice. Our house delivered up 12 Bull snakes into my Dad's grasp over a period of a few winter months & Mom begged to move out but Dad knew they were harmless to us. GOOD mousers!
LarryD

[Jeannine Anne]

Oh very scary, I can't imagine living with them, it is bad enough having bears in the bins.

I have a sweet little garter snake who lives in my greenhouse that is plenty for me.

XX Jeannine

Tam,

I would welcome you to Texas with fields of Bluebonnets.





and one local resident who also likes bluebonnets.



and if you want to make an entire wardrobe from snakeskin, I will introduce you to this guy.



Ted

[tam91]

omg Ted, that is stunning! I have Virginia Bluebells about to bloom in my yard, but nothing so gorgeous as those fields! Wow!

Yep, nice rattler. I have lots of those skins though. I used to play with them, make 'em strike a stick so the tourists could take pictures. Yes, I was crazy. Hmmm... maybe stupid? Anyway, I always won, and they made great hatbands.

Wow, that big guy - bet you could make a whole dress out of him!

[rxkeith]

one good thing about michigan is very few poisonous snakes. only snakes i have seen in the U.P. are garter snakes, and copper bellies. i have seen them hanging around the compost pile. once i saw a small one lounging half way up a lemon balm plant i had growing in the herb bed. always a bit startling to see them because they are so unexpected. sure could have used a few snakes here in sandusky. there is a healthy rodent population due to all the farm land that have made their presence known snacking in my garden, and tunneling in some raised beds. they really did a number on my sweet potatoes last year.



keith

[Irv Wiseguy]

Last week I came across a little yellow and white snake in my back yard. He (or she) was just a baby, about 8-10" long and was just lying there in the grass. At first I didn't see it and almost stepped on it, but looked down just before I did and jumped out of the way. The little snake never moved.

I don't know much about snakes so I don't know what type it was. It's the first time in 20 years here that I noticed a snake in the yard. I hope it sticks around to help control the mouse population around here.

Irv

[Ruth_10]

Mostly we have black rat snakes, which are non-venomous but can get big! We also have copperheads. My DH has run over several while brush-hogging the property.

I almost stepped on one a couple of weeks ago when we were out with some friends doing maintenance on several old family (not ours) cemeteries in the Weldon Spring conservation area across the Missouri River from us. Eek!

[peppero]

i live in southwest tennessee and we have mostly copperheads though there are some rattlesnakes as well as nonpoisonous types. when i built my house in 1976 it seems it was a copperhead crossing.. my dogs and cats seemed to have reduced the problem as i hardly ever see them any more. not being afraid of them has allowed me to deal my them in a humane way. i am speaking of copperheads as that is mainly all i see. the nonpoisonous are welcome to stay. i have only had to kill two of the copperheads because of their bad temper at the time. i caught two others and released them in a remote area. i was raised in alice, texas and we had rattlesnakes there. my dad killed a huge rattlesnake(27 rattles and was over 7 feet long. he said when he first saw it scared the daylights out of him. the skin was huge. jon

[clara]

Thanks heaven, where I live there are no snakes! The only poisonous snake in Germany is the European adder (in the meantime very rare), non-poisonous is the Grass snake.

When I was in Thailand some years ago and was snorkeling, I suddenly saw a black-white striped water snake - I think I beat all my swimming records... Don't know if it was poisonous or not, but better swim away.
On a small remote island, there was a little green snake on the roof of our neighbor's cottage and suddenly it disappeared in the palm leaves which the cottage was covered with... and we were very pleased that this cottage was not ours! We only had a little frog in our bathroom, looking black and orange. My son managed to get it out without touching it. clara

Ted, that monster would be my nightmare! clara

[PaulF]

We mostly have black snakes, bull snakes and garters. The rattlers stay mostly in the rocky bluffs along the Missouri and don't venture away from home, thank goodness. A couple days ago we disturbed the biggest garter snake I have ever seen. It would not have been considered "sweet". He was hissing and striking at anything and everything. Tossed him into the weeds to catch his next meal.

[coronabarb]

Irv,

Yellow and white snake in Thous Oaks? My son and I aren't sure what it could be. An escapee or an albino something? I take it there were no rattle buds? Next time, get a pic...would be interesting to see.

[brokenbar]

I grew up on a ranch in the desert and you learned really young NEVER stick your hand in anything without whacking it first! Baby rattlers liked to get in the grain bins. Us kids got our first 22 rifle at age 5 (the age we rode a horse by ourselves) for snakes and cougars () My Dad had an 8 foot rattler skin mounted and laid out flat, across (circumference) it was 17 inches at the widest point. We had cows and horses get bit all the time. If they did not get bit in the face or muzzle, they survived but muzzle bites meant swelling so they eventually could not breath.
The rattlers loved to hide in my Mom's strawberry patch and we also had sidewinders (LOVED to watch them come down a dune.)

Here in Mexico, you name it we have it. I live outside the city so there are a lot of fields and woody areas. Mexico is home to over 60 species of coral snake, all poisonous , Black tailed Rattler, Tiger Rattle, all together 63 kinds of poisonous.
Plus poisonous scorpions, tarantula and spiders and a couple poisonous lizards
37 years in Wyoming and never saw even one rattler on our place..