DH runs to back door and yells for me to "come see this." That's never a good thing. As I run out following him thru the front door, he says, "Well, it was just here,.. a snake with yellow and red and black bands." I'm trying to repeat the coral snake rhyme, as I'm jumping around! I can't remember the other part (good snake)...and decide I don't want it here no matter what it is! We finally see it going thru the grass and DH lands a shovel on a coral snake, a little over 2 ft. and cuts it in two.
End of story? No, the head part, about 6", disappeared into the grass. We looked and looked, but can't find it. I just don't want to "find it" while I'm trimming tomorrow. My snake book says venom is 8 times deadlier than a rattler, and equal to a cobra. I know, I know, it would have to nibble on me, but just thinking about seeing that head part.....I spent the whole day tramping around in the bushes in my backyard clipping and tossing stuff....and now I'm sending DH out to get my Felcos........can't go out again....ick. Haven't seen but one other coral snake in all the years we lived up here. Hope this isn't going to be an "interesting" summer.....
night visitor
Wow! I am sorry. It is hard to be rational when there is a SNAKE around!
I wonder if it is the odd weather we have seen but there are more snake sightings around here too. We are having some timber harvested and today the man overseeing the job almost got bit by a rattlesnake. It struck at him and missed. Now, I'm worried. We are in the woods and have an acre under fence for our pets and I'm afraid the snakes will want to get away from the shears and skidders and will join us in the yard. I will have to watch where I walk for a few days!
BTW, red and yellow ~ kill a fellow. If the reds and yellows are separated by black, it was a king snake and they eat other snakes.
Keep your eyes open and your courage up... pod
The other part is 'Red on black, you're okay Jack'
Here's a Texas Coral snake. It is scary because you have to follow them to get a good look at the colors to be sure.
http://www.kingsnake.com/louisiana/pics/coral1.jpg
And here's a King snake;
http://www.texassnakes.net/grayband.htm
Our next door neighbor's dog was bitten twice on the snout a few nights ago by something that left puncture wounds. Head swelled up on that side and yesterday had to have wounds lanced. Neighbor's a nurse, so she didn't take dog to vet. Figure it was a rat snake. Dog's a yappy little Jack Russell and it probably confronted snake in yard. She didn't even notice it had been bitten till next morning. Had to have happened when dogs went out for last run around 11pm. We have rat snakes in the oak trees here. Can always tell when they're around because the birds go crazy.
I could remember the rhyme for coral, but not the "red and black............something.... Jack."
Be careful out there. Sounds like you just may get some slithery visitors. We're having a problem now at the lake with rabies again. A horse in Burnet County was bitten by a skunk and the attendant that opened the trailer at the vet's had to take the shots ($1900 worth). We usually have fox that get it during summer around LBJ. Have to drop bait from planes to inoculate them. We have our yard fenced up there, but I always check out all the cracks and crevices!
Thanks fly, we posted at the same time...I could only remember the first of the rhyme...but realized I was certainly looking at a coral as I was saying the first part. I have a TX Monthly TX Field Guide to TX Snakes. What was is the yard was definitely a coral. We have lots of little brown snakes, TX garter snakes, and rat snakes. They don't bother me. I just shoo them away. But the coral...and any other viper... are going to snake heaven! That is...if I can scream loud enough for someone else to come kill it!
I've got some brown and ribbon snakes but haven't seen any rat, king or coral snakes.
I have an outdoor dog(fenced) and the rabie issue always concerns me......she always gets her shots.
Well at least if you have rat snakes, you won't have rats....that's some consolation lol
You be careful too....carry a big stick!
Will do!
whoa.. getting the weebie jeebies even reading this.... thank god i only have the little brown things... i feel for yall... where i grew up, ( western new york)we had ratlte snakes at least 6 feet long and some called spotted atters...really poisonous, but beautiful in color.. red and yellow...yall need to walk gingerly in your gardens :-)
My first encounter with a snake was in my upstairs bathroom a few months after we moved into this house over 20 yrs ago. We had a deck off our bedroom and I had opened the door one spring morning to water some plants out there. Snake must have slipped in and wound up laying along the moulding on the floor. We had just come in from taking my MIL sightseeing in Austin. I ran upstairs to change. I saw what I thought was a long brown ribbon on the carpet...but it moved. I jumped into the tub and closed the glass doors, then I realized I couldn't get out. I had to jump from the tub, open the bath door and stuff a towel under the door...which I accomplished in under 5 seconds! Then I ran to the top of stairs and screamed for DH to come get the snake. My very straight forward, no nonsense, German MIL heard me first, came down the hall, put her hands on her hips and said, "why are you standing there in your underwear screaming ?" To which I replied, "I'm screaming 'cause I have a $^#&**&^%$$ snake in my bathroom!" I think if she could have, she'd have left for IL that night. She had a hard time sleeping. 'Scared there was more than one in the house. DH caught snake and let it go in the street. I never forgave him for not cutting it into little pieces for scaring me! MIL had quite a story to tell her card group about Texas.
ROFLOL!!!
LOL - that's a funny story. Always gotta give MIL something to talk about. :)
Ugh, I really hate snakes. When I was clearing out the front garden bed for planting after we moved in here, I came across a baby garden snake. I think I had already killed it with my hoe, but as soon as I saw it I didn't care that is wasn't even a foot long, I ran! DH turns back at me and asks whats wrong. Of course, I tell him there's a snake and he goes to investigate...proceeds to ROFL because it was this itty bitty thing. According to me that is the one thing that if it didn't exist would not be missed. I know that would be messing with the ecosystem, they have their job in the food chain, but I could really do without them. I even hate going into the reptile house at the zoo! lol That is the one reason why I don't go poking around on the side of the house at night or anywhere I do not have light. I try not to water after dark either. I'd rather wake up at 6 am than water at 9 pm and risk seeing a 'visitor'.
This message was edited May 13, 2007 10:47 AM
Went out to get paper this morning, and "had to go look" where snake was buried. About 8" had wiggled up and was lying on the ground. Yuck. So I got shovel and dug rest up so I could take photo. And no, haven't "looked" for the head part. So...is it a coral? I think so....
Oohh BB, that looks like a coral...red on yellow....
Funny story with your MIL!
I try to tolerate the good snakes in my garden but they still will make me jump when I see them, must be instinct, probably a good thing, just in case they are poisonous.
I was at Petsmart the other day and you know how you can take your pets in there? A guy had a snake, it was pretty active, crawling all around his fingers....kinda creepy.
I have this morbid obsession w/ snakes. Get goosebumps reading these threads, yet I continue to read. I hope you all are WRONG about weird weather bringing them out. (but I think you are right...)
A few nights ago, I went to the kitchen, barefeet, to put something in the sink. Went back a second time, but this time turned the light on. I found a little snake right by the sink. I don't know how I missed it the first time. Horrors! I yelled at hubby to come get it out. DH had been doing some work that required ourt kitchen door be open for about 1 hr. My guess is that is how the little critter invited itself in.
Sandi, that does look like a coral. But both, the coral and the non-coral move so darned fast, many times people are unable to identify 'cause they slither so swiftly.
Been working in the BACK yard all day...not front. Family took off this morning for the lake and I begged off so I could get some things done. I wind up being the chief cook and bottle washer at the lake.... We were up most of the last week, so I had enough lake for a bit. DH called twice to check on me. Guess he figured the snake's friends would come get me. Didn't see anymore today. I was extra cautious for about an hour, then turned into my usual garden fiend....slashing and yanking.
As for the guy with a snake in Petsmart. My daughter went to the big farmers' market out here at the football stadium last Sat. with her nearly two yr old. She has always hated clowns. Up walks a clown.....with a huge snake wrapped around his arm and asks her if she and baby want to pet it....I think she'll be getting her veggies from Randall's now on!
Voss...I hope he got the snake out of the house...you didn't say. Our neighbors had "Critter Control" out to see what was in their attic....raccoons. The guy told them that the rat snakes were the only thing keeping us all from having roof rats in our attics. He said most of the houses on the other side of Mo-Pac in Austin are battling them. They've chewed thru pvc pipes and are coming up thru the toilets. He said some of the houses have had major damage from them. Then he said it was just a matter of time before we got them out here too. I think I'd be moving......
yes he did. It was a small one and probably harmless but it freaked me out anyway.
DH was laughing at me because after reading your snake stories I told him there was no way no how I would be moving to any country/wooded type area! We had been talking about in say five years moving further out and geting a house sitting on an acre or two of land....NO THANK YOU! Not anymore.... I can live with human neighbors instead of the slithery kind. :-)
I guess its nice to know that in this age of reason and enlightenment that there are still very stupid people killing things that have the right to live and a job to do. Just so you know, a lot of us out here feel the same way about your cat.
"Stupid People" just because they are afraid of snakes? I don't think so!! I'm afraid of snakes - they send cold shivers up and down my spine - just hate them. I'm not afraid of spiders but I don't laugh at people who are. We all have our little idiosyncrasies. "To each his own said the old woman as she kissed the cow."
Ann
Your not stupid because you are afraid of snakes. You are stupid if you kill a snake just because you are afraid of it. If you are afraid of snakes maybe you should do a little research on them and try to understand the source of your fear. It takes strength and fortitude to over come fear and only cowardice to succumb to it.
Are you just TRYING to yank my chain? As far as I'm concerned, the only good snake is a dead snake. There is something to be said for mental health, too, you know.
Ann
I'm sorry you feel that way, Toby. However, if a snake is posing a threat to me, my children or any other loved one then yes, I'd want it dead. Snakes are going to exist whether I like it or not, I'd just rather not come encountered with them. I do fear them, but nothing fears me more than the thought of my children coming across one and their reactions or worse, them getting bit. You can call me stupid for that, but I doubt that if I did come across fearless to the snake it would decide to leave me and my family alone.
As for the comment of "your cat"...don't know who you were speaking to, but I can say my cat does not bother anyone in the neighborhood. She is an inside cat and is happy to be so. She does not strike at anyone, nor does she have venom that can kill you. If you don't like cats, that your thing, but please don't compare a cat to a snake. There is absolutely no comparison.
Dont feel sorry for me, feel sorry for yourself. Your world is flat and full of ghosts, shadows, and vengeful snakes that are out to harm your family. Yes they have an agenda.
I would never compare a cat to a snake. Snakes have a purpose, they keep pests in check and never kill more then is needed. Cats kill for pleasure, crap in a box that you have to clean out, cost tax money to shelter and destroy strays, and most importantly they bother me because they sit on my car and crap in my flower beds.
This is a gardening forum. Snakes eat pests that eat your plants. You killing them is illogical and unethical. Killing something because there is a remote chance it will bight you, as remote as being hit by lighting, is stupid.
Oh please, my world is anything but flat.
This is a gardening forum....we are allowed to complain about the pests that eat our plants so why not about the snakes that eat the pests too? It's all about having a common factor and we all did except for you.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have a container pot I just bought the last plant for that I need to pot instead of arguing my opinion of snakes.
Happy gardening!
Why do you trash other people's beliefs and thoughts? Instead of coming on rationally and stating your point of view, you come on calling people 'stupid'. How disrespectful and utterly uncivilized is that? You have a different view, okay, state so kindly and have an adult conversation. You may affect a change that way. But don't expect anyone to really pay attention to you if you choose words that are unsavory and call names. Tsk...tsk...tsk.
Todydmv ~
I am disappointed to see the direction this thread has taken. I think ones' fear of snakes is due to lack of education. But I also feel vehemence is not an appropriate means of education.
Over the years I have learned to ID snakes and be reasonable about them. I have read books, looked at "roadkilled" snakes and even had one in the kitchen which I singlehandedly relocated.
I have had many cats and a dog survive venomous snake bites. One of my elderly male cats still sports bald spots from a large venomous snake. No doubt the snake survived that encounter also but it was a wet strike so went hungry for a while. We live in a wooded area with an acre under fence. My dogs and cats stay in this area. My cats are neutered ~ spayed. They do stay home. I suspect your cat problems are a direct result of irresponsible people. They neglect and dump them and then the cat will become a pest in the neighborhood. I appreciate your not liking cats ~ that is your perogative. I know a lady that is far more terrified by a cat than a snake. Make fun of her? I don't!
Poisonous snakes are not welcome in my yard, the nonpoisonous are o.k. I am not trained to handle a poisonous snake therefore I do kill them. If I encounter one in the woods, I leave them alone.
Snakes do serve a purpose ~ eating bugs, rodents, etc. My cats also serve a purpose. They eliminate rats, mice, voles and moles. They also kill bugs. By doing this, they reduce the reason for a snake to come into the yard. Many times, the cats thru their actions have alerted me to a snake in the vicinity, preventing me from stepping on it.
On the other hand,
Killing something because there is a remote chance it will bight you, as remote as being hit by lighting, is stupid.
That said, I have yet to meet anyone that was struck a lightning strike.
Now, I grant that per capita, a small amount of people have been bit but it is a very realistic possibility and one that we each deal with in our own way. I respectfully ask that you temper your responses with less hostility.
Shortstuff430 ~ We just got back from a pilgrimage to a medical specialist in the Houston area and after reading this post, I must comment:
DH was laughing at me because after reading your snake stories I told him there was no way no how I would be moving to any country/wooded type area! We had been talking about in say five years moving further out and geting a house sitting on an acre or two of land....NO THANK YOU! Not anymore.... I can live with human neighbors instead of the slithery kind. :-)
Should my DH ever, I repeat EVER suggest moving to an urban area, I would run screaming into our snake infested woods, never to be seen again! : )) I am certainly glad you like living in a developed community but it is not for everyone. I cannot believe how agressive drivers can be, how rude the public can be, how smoggy this beautiful morning became as we neared the metroplex, how incredibly bad the noise pollution is! NO THANK YOU! Give me them buddies with no legs, I know they won't mug me, aren't interested in carjacking and don't care if we don't have HOA's. Think I'll go sit on the porch and enjoy the dark, the fireflies, the quiet. It is a good thing the Lord makes all kinds of people, isn't it!
I DREAM of moving to the country. I want critters, I want forest. I'm with ya' Pod. So tired of the rude drivers and the noise. I'm sure driving into Houston is a pretty bad experience for those not used to the traffic and such. Granted, I live in a pretty secluded area and have a nice big pecan orchard and pasture for my backyard but.....if I want ice cream...I only have to drive one mile, where it is city, to get it. And that means I deal with the thumping cars with loud music, people not having the courtesy to stop at stop signs and wait their turn and never letting my child ride a bike alone in the neighborhood as I did when I was a child.
May I be blessed to retire out in the country where folks wave at each other when passing and life seems a lot easier to take in all the beauty.
PS....we consistently get water mocassins in our yard thanks to a lovely little pond next to us. I too, will kill one if I find it in my yard (and coral snakes!) but I have harmless snakes as well. My cat brought one in one night and my poor DH almost had a heart attack. He jumped up on the coffee table screaming (and he'd shoot me if he knew I was telling this story). I calmly got a kitchen towel, got the snake from the cat and threw him back out in the pasture.
Way to go girl! LOL I got to say I am benevolent to the coral snakes. I ain't gonna let them chew on me and I know my pets won't either.
I cannot tell you what a blessing it is to come home to a rural area. Folks wave even when they don't know you. When a foreign vehicle is at someones' home, calls are made and questions are asked.
We laughed Sunday when we saw a man come to a complete stop for a confused squirrel in the road. We considered ourselves blessed that if we were confused in Houston traffic we didn't get run over!
BTW, the ice cream here is as near as the freezer... : )) pod
Got butter pecan? I'm on my way!!!! ;>}
NOT ~ cherry vanilla?
Cherry Vanilla is good too!!!! Hey, I just picked a load of peaches yesterday from a local friend's orchard. We can make homemade peach ice cream. YUM!
Meant to tell ya, I grew up in Willis, waaaaaaaayyyyy before it was developed like it is now and before Lake Conroe was there. I think I was 4 or 5 when the lake came. We had 3 houses on the street and quite a bit of distance between them all. Picked loads of blackberries every spring, we had a HUGE garden, I built forts in the pine forests out of the pine needles (and I could go alone, snakes were the worst thing I had to worry about). It was wonderful. Double so when the lake came because our house was right on it. My entire family on my dad's side still live there, each with their own lake house but it really has become a developed community now. I miss the old days so much. The neighbors taking care of each other, the party line phones (remember those?).....aaaaahhhhh.
"I pity the fool who kicks my cat" LOL JUst my two cents worth and I hate snakes too!
I've lived in Houston nearly all my life. The city is pretty much what I know. As I've gotten older, we keep coming further away from the city. Not much, but we are inching our way out. Of course, urban developement is always two step in front though. I hear you about the traffic and pollution (both air and noise) and definitely the HOA. lol DH grew up in Alvin and his grandparents live in Needville; there little house is pretty secluded from their neighbors and that is similar to what he wants. I have to admit it is tempting sometimes. If it did ever happen, I would definitely have to research on all kinds of critters to better be prepared. Where we live now we get super excited if we happen to see a deer while driving down the road IF we;re lucky. :-) My youngest would be all for it, let me tell you. He simultaneously goes between us and grandma and grandpa asking when we can get a farm. lol
Knolan - I have friends that live in Richmond near Greatwood and they've had water mocassins too. The first time they saw one their 7 year old daughter was walking out the front door and saw it and shut the door. That was about two years ago and they were pretty shocked. Seems to happen more often now.
You go, Mrs. "T".
Well said, Podster....
Shortstufff - thank goodness that child didn't step on it. I myself, came home for lunch one day, went to turn on the outside faucet to water the plants and felt something move under my foot. Sure enough, it was a big old water moccasin. Scared the 'you know what' outta me. They are dangerous and precautions have to be made.
I can handle the non-poisonous snakes, the armadillos, the racoons, the skunks, the possums. Actually, I kinda like having them all around (well, maybe not the armadillos but not so much that I would kill them). I have every kind of lizard and toad and we have a couple of gators as well. They don't bother us, and if I saw one in a developed area, I would call the Texas Parks and Wildlife and ask that they be moved back to the bayou or pond.
Greatwood is not far from me at all and the areas are the same. At least, same native plant and animal species. I know that our home has encroached on the natural wildlife and I do try to protect it as much as possible. But something that is a danger to my children, pets or family as a whole will be dealt with in the most humane way I know how. I'm like you in every sense of protecting my family.
came in here cause i saw the fur flying.....slowly tiptoeing out the back.....(grin)
I've lived in Houston all my life and that is longer than most of you have been alive. I am knowledgeable about snakes and the good they do and I still don't like them. My DDH is from WI and they don't have poisonous snakes in Green Bay that he had ever seen. I have seen all kinds of snakes and I didn't stay around long enough to identify them or see if they were 6" long or 6' long. They just give me the heebyjeebies w/all their slithering. If that makes me ignorant, so be it. But I can dig in the dirt all day long and not worry about all the many critters that inhabit my turf. I was raised, fromthe time I was 10 until I was off to college in a house very near Sims Bayou in SE Houston near Hobby and at that time it was W A Y out in the country. All the kids of my acquaintance ran around barefoot in the summer and we all hated snakes so maybe it's a product of my early training - whatever - I just can't stand snakes. Nothing anyone can say will change my mind but then I'm old and crotchety and set in my ways and definitely not stupid and I really resent anyone inferring or outright saying that I am. Some people are afraid of clowns or ghosts/stories - I'm not but I don't think those people who are are stupid or unlearned. Give us the freedom, for pete's sake, to have our own little foibles, likes and dislikes w/out calling us names and being accusatory. Don't make us afraid to offer our opinions for fear of being ridiculed - some of us don't like that. Leave us in peace. 'nuff said.
Ann
I live in the wilds of Central Texas. Even with a dog around to let me know when a snake is nearby, I'm afraid to plant shrubs that are bushy all the way to the ground for fear of encountering a rattler, copperhead or water moccasin hiding underneath. I don't mind the non-poisonous snakes that slither by every so often. In fact I almost always had a California gopher snake in my biology classroom. I acquired my first one when a student brought in a coffee can with one in it. We rummaged around in the basement and found an appropriate cage for it. It was released to the wild at the end of the school year. From that point on, within a few weeks of the start of a new school year, the cage would have a new occupant.
Out walking one day, I caught a beautifully patterned king snake and brought it home for our two young boys to see. My DH was not as thrilled as Ross and Alex were. They kept pet garter snakes in their rooms all through high school.
But poisonous snakes are a different matter. I don't go out hunting them down, but I will kill those hanging around the house. The boys are grown and no longer living with us, but we have pets and cattle to protect as well as ourselves.
I found this thread on the 14th and was tempted to post a reply until I read tobydmv's first reply. I did what sticks_n_stones did later — pushed the Back button and went elsewhere, but not before thinking "Whoa! A spitting cobra in Texas!
I agree it is possible to disagree without insulting name calling. Maybe the guy/gal had a bad day. Week?