A Snake In My Yard

Discussion in 'Pets & Critters' started by Emma Smith, Apr 14, 2019.

  1. Emma Smith

    Emma Smith Veteran Member
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    This snake was in my yard today.
    I couldn't see his head, but he was alive, because when I went to get a hoe and the lawn mower, he left.
    I really wish I could have found him.

    Just read somewhere that they will bite and that they move very quickly.
    I was really enjoying planting my generic encore Azaleas. I've wanted them since I first heard of them. I don't even want to go back there now, but I have to.

    Other than running over a small black snake with my mower last year, I've never killed a snake.
    I have a short-handled hoe, but they don't seem like a good thing to use to kill a snake, at all. shorthead-garter-snakejpg-d3a9c3cd5727ed78 - Copy.jpg
     
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  2. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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  3. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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  4. Emma Smith

    Emma Smith Veteran Member
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    @Joe Riley From the article, "10 Must Know Facts About Snakes" - 5. Understand Snake Temperament: Snakes are rather sluggish in early spring when they first come out of hibernation, and in late fall when they’re getting ready to sleep again.

    It was sluggish. It didn't move for a while.
     
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    Last edited: Apr 15, 2019
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  5. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    The pictured one is harmless. You don't need a hoe. Just say go away snake and leave him be. He was probably looking for a mouse or something else to eat. No problem.
     
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  6. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    There was a crow outside my window, looking inside and then at a dove's nest down lower. I've been trying to photograph a humming bird that comes to Ann 's feeder daily. So far have gotten nothing. He's almost black. I don't think he''s a migrater but lives in the neighbor. He's around too often. I'll ctch him one of these days, get a good shot, well a shot.
     
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  7. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    True. .He's not dangerous... Don't be afraid, Emma. . He would much prefer to get away if he can.

    Most poisonous snakes have a fat head at the jawline. The coral snake has a thin head, but they are bright colored, easy to recognize, and only occur in the deep South.

    Copperhead
    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Emma Smith

    Emma Smith Veteran Member
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    He needs to find somewhere else to hang out.
     
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  9. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Emma Smith
    Your snake appears almost certainly to be a "common Lined Snake", Tropidoclonion Lineatum. Here's a few facts:

    "The lined snake is found throughout the central United States from Illinois to Texas. Adult size is typically less than 35 cm (14 inches) in total length (including tail). However, maximum recorded total length is 53 cm (21 in). The majority of the diet of T. lineatum consists of earthworms."
    See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropidoclonion


    This picture is nearly identical to yours:
    [​IMG]

    As a rule, fear of snakes will often allow folks to kill them, whereas they might not be inclined to kill any other creature. Snakes were given "bad press" by the Bible, unfortunately, and some do indeed have disagreeable habits, such as eating birds' eggs, or possessing the power to exert lethality. As another rule, one should try, however apalling the thought may be, to never kill a harmless snake, for they do far more good than harm.
    Frank
     
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  10. Emma Smith

    Emma Smith Veteran Member
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    @Frank Sanoica - The snake in your photo is a lot longer than 14 ".

    I understand how you feel. I feel very differently.

    If it isn't gone, I wish the cat that sits in my back yard and stares at one spot endlessly would
    take care of it.
     
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    Last edited: Apr 16, 2019
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  11. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Emma Smith

    "Feelings" can be rendered impermanent by appropriate consideration of all aspects of the particular thought. I once feared and hated snakes, yet as a young man unaccustomed to the rigors of Desert life, while collecting colorful sandstone rock with which to veneer our new house, encountered a reasonably small rattlesnake in a desert arroyo (wash) west of the city (Las Vegas), caught it, and brought it back to our apartment, placing it in the bathtub, from which it could not escape. My wife, returning from work for the day as a Cosmetologist at the Stardust Hotel, was urged to look in the bath tub. BAD IDEA!

    The little rattler, luckier than most, probably, was carefully returned to his natural home, unscathed.
    Frank
     
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  12. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Most snakes aren't poisonous, and even the poisonous ones are unlikely to chase you down. The biggest danger comes when you're not aware of a poisonous snake and scare it by stepping or reaching too close to it. I've come across dozens of rattlesnakes when I lived in California, particularly the canyons near Corona, and never felt the need to kill any of them. The only rattlesnake I killed was one that was by the front door a neighbor's house in Texas, and even then I wouldn't have killed it if it had been in front of my front door. My neighbor wasn't home and there were only his twelve-year-old daughter and her friend, so I didn't want to take a chance that it would return if I ran it off, and one of them would be bitten. Poisonous or not, snakes just want to be left alone.
     
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  13. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    The only snake I have had appear to chase me was a water moccasin. When they are in the water, they will follow your boat where ever it goes and there have been reports of them actually climbing into a canoe. When they came after me, I simply hit them with the paddle blade when they got close enough, but it was really spooky. No other snake bothers me at all. In Thailand we found a fairly small snake behind our rented dwelling. We grabbed it behind the head after trapping the snake against the ground and placed it into a bag we had and took it to the nearby clinic to see what kind it was. We were told that it was a good thing the snake hadn't bitten us or we wouldn't have made it to the clinic, and the man there told us a large king cobra had been captured behind that building just two weeks before. There were 4 of us and we had no way of knowing whether he was spoofing us or telling the truth. It made us not want to pick up any more stray snakes.
    In the Amazon, when I worked for a short time at a mission there, they would stampede the cattle around the compound every morning to make sure that no poisonous snakes were in that area. Apparently the cattle would just stomp the snakes before they knew what happened in all the commotion. Of course, the snakes could probably feel the vibration of the cattle and skedaddle if they could.
     
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  14. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    I remember, years ago, wife and I stopped in this store that sold small, and some dangerous, pets. I was walking down a short isle and could hear this rattling noise coming from a glass-enclosed cage, sitting on a table to my right. I looked at it and it was a rattler, head up looking at me with it's ratter going. Obviously he couldn't get me, but I called my wife and we left immediately. The store has moved.

    We were at a rodeo grounds parking lot, walking back to our vehicle. In the grass in front of us was a snake going away from us. We turned and went another way to our vehicle! I looked back and the snake kept going the other way.
     
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  15. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    My understanding is that most snakes can't see or hear well, in the traditional sense. They sense vibrations on the ground. So if you stand perfectly still, they can be unaware of you.

    I think you can mistakenly believe that a snake is chasing you, when in fact it just takes off in your direction because it's not sure where the danger is coming from, when you stand still.

    I got within 3 feet of a black snake last fall, and it just went about its business, like I wasn't even there. It was rather ego deflating. lol
     
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