Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Ravenous Rabbits and other Garden Pests Part #2., 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Only ONE Summer did I have a black snake! Never seen one before (in 35 years) and haven't seen one since....

I was out in the back yard and saw, what I thought was a branch down from my maple tree. So I went to pick it up--and freaked out--It was a 4' black snake!
I ran in the house and grabbed my camera, and for the next hour I followed it along my side bed and then to the front of the house and took pictures.When it got to the front bed--it started climbing into my old, sticky Juniper bush. I was like--"Oh my God! What will it do next??"
So there i am--between the house and the dead side of this 35 year old Juniper bush--crouching under the overhang, camera in hand--trying to see where the snake had gotten to--all the time praying it would not lunge out of nowhere in my face.
Since I could not see it, I got out of the back of the Juniper and started poking around the front of it. These are pretty large bushes....All of a sudden I see TWO heads!!!!!
YIKES!!! Where did the other one come from?????? So, back I crawl behind the bushes and after a while the two of them slither down--all intertwined--and start heading towards the concrete porch to my front door. And then--to my horror--they both disappear into the foundation of the porch--still all twisted around each other......The hussies!!!!

I ran in the house and started looking up Black Snakes....called the University of MD Co-Op service and asked about these snakes....

Finally, I calmed down and realized they were "good" snakes, but now I had visions of a "litter" of baby snakes next year and also sheer fright, in case they found an opening in the foundation of the house and made their way inside through some of the cinder blocks.....Oh, MY!!!! That would have been a disaster!
I wanted to close off the hole--but then figured they would DEFINITELY find their way somewhere else--so I left it open....

After a while--I calmed down and thought it might not be so bad having a few snakes around to eat all the Chipmunks and the baby rabbits and the few mice that chose my home as theirs.....THEN--I NEVER saw them again---NEVER!

After last years invasion of the rabbits--How I wished I had one, big, fat one around.....

So--warning to the squeamish ones--there is "Blackie"....This was in 2006.

Got a bit close to it in this shot--and he/she coiled up!