Adventures in the backyard, snakes part deux.

One side of my yard was left natural when I built my house because I didn't have an idea what to plant and I wanted to block out my neighbors backyard. My neighbor planted about 25 azaleas which are now 4 or 5 ft tall so I don't need the brush to block them out any more and I want to plant some tropical stuff to make it look more "jungle like". Plan was to get rid of anything that wasn't over 5 ft tall. Fun begins.

In the first ten minutes I was bitten in the chest by what I think was a spider, not sure but it left fang marks. Itches like the devil today. Another 5 minutes and out pops a big black racer moving fast. There is nothing I enjoy more than a fast moving large snake coming at me. He headed for the lagoon. Well that was my next project to weed eat the bank, now there is a snake hiding in it. Sweet.. Lots of marsh grass growing at least knee high.

Done with brush removal for the day and went to tackle the grass on the bank. A few days ago I saw a decent size gator in the lagoon so I have one eye looking around for the gator and the other watching for the snake from earlier. A bull frog jumped out from the grass and bounced off my leg, oh ya. I didn't see him coming so I was moving fast up the bank until I realized what just hit me. At least I didn't scream. LOL.

It was a fun filled afternoon in the yard.

ha that sounds hilarious... if were not the one getting attacked by killer bullfrogs! lol i was helping a lady w/ her yard in belfair today and her kid, mark, kept spraying the hose on me. she thought it was funny and just laughed.

Send Mark my way, I have more brush to clear. That should be a good experience for him. I'll give him a pair of small pruners and let him go at it, nice and close to the wild life.

This message was edited Jun 30, 2007 12:22 AM

Gee, DHS! You are so nice to put up with Mark...I might have had to see how funny it was when I got in my car and left! HA...unless you were getting paid for your work. Even then...You know what they say, "He who laughs last laughs best," or something akin to that;-)

yeah i was getting paid $10/hr... really good pay. its instead of a real summer job like most kids have...

Well then...what's a little water between friends, huh?

Last spring I was outside cleaning out planting beds when my husband yelled "look out, there is a snake in the grass moving toward you!!" I looked ...and sure enough, there it was...(and since I knew he couldn't come to my rescue --not while he was frantically trying to mount a tree.....and a very small dogwood at that) (This is the same man that stood on a chair when while cleaning an aquarium years ago, I dropped a fish.) Anyway, I made a mental note not to walk that way and to keep one eye on the snake at all times. As I returned to my work, I looked down (with just the one eye of course) and right in the bed where I was cleaning out fall leaves, there was a snake - not more than a 10 inches from my hand. That shook me up, so I straightened up and looked around planning to make my get-a-way. Right next to me, coming out from under the latticework covering the underside of the deck were several more long snakes. I was surrounded! This was in the spring. Is it possible that snakes go moving on a certain day (or group of days) in the spring? Do they perhaps wake up from the winter on a set day?? I bet in that 10 minute time frame, I saw 5 or 6 snakes on the move plus the one in the planter bed. I am wondering about this because this spring ...I avoided the beds and now they are in bad shape - I just couldn't get beyond the snake memories.

I'm wondering if you didn't end up in the middle of a snake mating hot spot!? They probably were heading for each other and you were in the way!

Missingrosie: Crikey! CoreHH's story was creepy enough, but yours is the stuff my nightmares are made of. Specially when I nearly picked up a snake with my bare hand by mistake about an hour ago! (Ok, it was a 10" garter snake, but it scared me just the same.)
You guys are braver than me, I think. :) I'd have been up in that dogwood too! LOL!
Deb

Spring time is mating time and the snakes do move around a lot. Same with alligators. Someone told me mothballs in your beds will keep the snakes away but I don't want my yard to smell like mothballs so I'm not sure it's a good idea.

Ah..I hadn't thought about a mating jubilee. I thought that those snakes were just waking up after a long winter.

That would have been the most action sleepy Hillsborough has seen in a long time.

My son would love all this he is 12 we call him little steve irwin Thomas loves all animals he will pick up a snake he sees on the road and bring it in the house. I worry about the poisionius ones but he studies on the computer alot and says he knows. We have a 2 to 3 ft python( not going to squeeze her not that kind) in the house(a small snake will not get big) and my 5 yr old granddaughter loves it. With 5 uncles she is going to be some man's true dream they love motorbikes,motorcycles, she and her sister love frogs lizards love to get greasy working on the car Etc. One time I had 62 frogs in the house supposedly in a container they were not going to get out of. My son and the neighbor were going to have a "yard sale ' and sell them (he was younger) Let's just say it was not long before they were in the yard.we have chickens too.I am a little more free than my parents were about animals. Deanna

No such thing as a python staying small. We had a nine footer someone let loose hiding out around folly field for months until someone found it under their house. LOL.

No this one stays small we have had it a couple of years.There are some that do get big. I would not allow one of those.if I saw a nine foot snack I would have a heart attack. Never thought I would like snakes but I do this one.I believe it is a ball python. They had one of the lg varities at the pet store that was 12 or 14 ft long. It was huge.

Ball pythons usually stay between 3 and 6 feet, depending on the breeding. They grow about a foot a year for the first three years or so, and then usually just get bigger in circumference. They are prone to obesity, like the rest of us:).

One caution, they ARE constrictors, and can "squeeze", but their small size makes them little threat to adults. I would make sure that children are supervised, but then, that's a no brainer with animals and kids *S*.

Burmese Pythons are the ones that get up to 20 feet. The are unfortunately becoming common in Florida (as a green iguanas) because when they get too big to handle, people turn them loose. Getting to be a real problem, and I know they could survive in parts of SC.
Margo

My grand daughter Talia is 5 years old and has loved nature since she was born.She found a tiny black snake in the garden a month or so ago,brought it home and wanted to keep it as a pet.My daughter convinced her that it was just a baby and was too small to keep as a pet.All week she spoke about having a pet snake and so they went to a pet shop and bought a ball python.Her name is Sera and she is doing very well.She is really beautiful and I also love to hold her.

By the way my daughter spent her early years in West Africa where pet snakes were very common.

Talia's hero is Steve Erwin's daughter Bindi.

I'm not big on pets except for dogs. I don't really consider a cat a pet either, they just like to come inside once in a while in between hunting trips. Yard cat yes, inside cat no. To each his/her own.

down_scalebabe I was just in surfside about 3 weeks ago. Yes our snake will not get any bigger it is about 1/2 the size of your wrist around or a little smaller. And if you get one that has been held alot they are pretty gentle. ours will not get 6 ft .she was a few years old when we got her. My daughter works with children and she likes to take the shedding to show. it is kind of neat that they shed in one piece. Even their eyes which I did not know until we got this one. We do not leave her (Dakota GD)alone with it. It is my son's and he will hardly let me touch it. My son Thomas caught a big black rat snake or hog nose that was a mean looking snake. It was long and it was just so evil looking. Got out of the cage but found it's way out.We are pretty sure it went out the backdoor. You could hear it hitting the top of the cage trying to get out. Even though I knew it was not posionus did not want to touch it. We have taken out python out and about and I am always amazed at the number of women who want to hold it. Deanna

Deanna
Too bad you didn't come to visit.I would have given you some cuttings.

I think that when people get over their initial reaction to snakes they see that they are not the slimy creatures we think they are.Sera is very young so they take her out of her place only when she is awake at night and only for a short time.

downscale_babe Thanks next time I will. My daughters and I sometimes take an overnight shopping trip and go to the outlet. Deanna