 |
|
04/02/11, 06:19 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
|
|
|
Spring is officially here (warning slithering something photo)
Every year about this time, I get surprised by a ratsnake somewhere in the horse barn.
Last year it was a solid black snake that had decided to stretch out on my work bench and startled me when I turned on the barn lights to feed the horses.
And last night, it was this guy:
Not the clearest photos, since he was about 5 ft above the ground and I'm a shorty, lol.
__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
|
04/02/11, 06:21 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
|
|
|
Forgot to mention, the horse panel is 2 inch by 4 inch welded wire, so you can get a pretty good idea of his length. Roughly 3 1/2 feet.
__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
|
04/02/11, 06:24 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Lake Station
Posts: 14,761
|
|
Cool! Nice one! 
__________________
It's not that I don't like mankind, I just like nature a whole lot more.
|
04/02/11, 06:28 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
|
|
Glad you like the photo I had to run inside to grab the camera and was afraid he would have disappeared before I got back. Since he was up so high on the wall, I had to stand on a mounting block to get high enough up to capture him on film.
I like the ones that have these saddle patterns. They are alot prettier than the solid grey or black ones we see alot of.
__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
|
04/02/11, 06:38 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Lake Station
Posts: 14,761
|
|
|
I bet he's keeping the mice poppulation down.
__________________
It's not that I don't like mankind, I just like nature a whole lot more.
|
04/02/11, 06:42 PM
|
|
Banned
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 139
|
|
what a cutie and i agree, great for the mice pop.!! 
|
04/02/11, 06:59 PM
|
 |
Animal Addict
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Maryland
Posts: 12,211
|
|
|
I love snakes!
__________________
Becky
|
04/02/11, 07:15 PM
|
 |
hating the 'burbs!
|
|
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: N. IL, wishing I was in W WA
Posts: 1,044
|
|
|
oh, nice one!
__________________
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
The Cloud
Percy Bysshe Shelley
|
04/02/11, 08:10 PM
|
 |
My kids have hooves
|
|
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Central Virginia
Posts: 2,224
|
|
|
Ew, ew, ew. i hate being surprised by snakes. A few days ago the goats were standing out in the pouring rain, refusing to come in the barn. I imagine it was *our* first snake of the season. Bleh.
__________________
Beth ~ Old Church, VA
3 Nigerian Dwarf goats, 4 cats, 3 Pekin ducks and 7 chickens. One very patient husband~
|
04/02/11, 08:19 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Hill Country, TX
Posts: 720
|
|
|
Thanks for the warning. I don't like to be surprised either. I think you aren't too far from me as I am Austin-ish too. I thought about snakes as I was gathering eggs this evening and thinking I'm going to have to check real careful before reaching in the nest boxes.
|
04/02/11, 09:10 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 4,624
|
|
|
DD saw our first big snake of the season eating eggs the other day. Evidently it was back again today, because there were only four eggs. Usually we have about ten.
|
04/02/11, 10:53 PM
|
|
Guest
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 7,799
|
|
|
How do you catch a snake in the nesting boxes? I killed a black snake in our chicken house last fall, but I have a feeling he's got friends visiting. Our egg production is down too.
|
04/02/11, 11:15 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Hill Country, TX
Posts: 720
|
|
|
Can you smell the snake? I can always tell when there's one in the hen house.
To catch a snake - we have a grown daughter who is very brave. I hold the pillowcase and try not to scream while she wrangles it out of the nest box (with gloves and long sleeves) into the pillowcase and then she takes it for a long drive to the river bank and releases it. She's done it a number of times for me. She thinks its the same snake coming back. I think it's laid a bazillion eggs and these are all offspring. I think rat snakes eat rattlers so I don't want to kill any of those. Just the rattlers, which I have a nifty little gun for.
|
04/02/11, 11:50 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 3,398
|
|
|
Sorry, I just can't love them. I know they eat mice but still I can't love them or even like them. Picked a little one up once in a bunch of stuff I was cleaning out of a flower bed. Saw it wiggling in the compost & like to have had a heart attack.
|
04/03/11, 02:26 AM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
|
|
Hey, at least I warned you that there would be a scary picture before you opened the thread!
The only thing that bothers me about snakes is that I have a very strong startle reflex and they get me good sometimes, lol. I'm not actually afraid of them, they just tend to show up in the unlikeliest of places, such as under the kitchen sink two years ago!
__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
|
04/03/11, 06:51 AM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 8,839
|
|
About a week ago, I found the prettiest 3' garter snake halfway up the handrail, where the anole lizards like to warm in the sun. I said hello and tapped it lightly, at which point it promptly fell into the flower bed. Haven't seen any cottonmouths yet but there was a story in the local paper about being on guard as a woman in a neighboring town found a big one in her flowerbed....the 3rd this spring. 
|
04/03/11, 07:27 AM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: northern maine..
Posts: 103
|
|
I am SOOO glad I live in Northern Maine after reading the rest of this post That big bugger over my head might have caused the heebie jeebie dance...
We grew up playing with snakes here because we don't have any poisonous species here so I am not often surprised by them enough to scream....Garter snakes hibernate in bunches and that can be a bit scarey in the compost pile but they are so docile that you can just cover them up......
Glad to know that there is an up side to the surprise....just shoveled 14" of snow off the deck, so i'm not expecting to see any snakes soon.
|
04/03/11, 11:28 AM
|
|
Guest
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 7,799
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Linda J
Can you smell the snake? I can always tell when there's one in the hen house.
To catch a snake - we have a grown daughter who is very brave. I hold the pillowcase and try not to scream while she wrangles it out of the nest box (with gloves and long sleeves) into the pillowcase and then she takes it for a long drive to the river bank and releases it. She's done it a number of times for me. She thinks its the same snake coming back. I think it's laid a bazillion eggs and these are all offspring. I think rat snakes eat rattlers so I don't want to kill any of those. Just the rattlers, which I have a nifty little gun for.
|
I don't have a very good sense of smell so I wouldn't smell it if it were right in my face. The one we had last fall I just decapitated with a hoe when he tried to get down from the nest box. But he'd been coming for MONTHS before I caught him. Is there a trap or something you can use to catch a snake that only comes when you're not there? I don't usually kill non-venomous snakes, but I refuse to share my eggs with a snake!
|
04/03/11, 03:28 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Hill Country, TX
Posts: 720
|
|
|
Moth balls are supposed to be a snake repellant. I put some in a panty hose so the chickens wouldn't eat it and stuck it in the hen house last year. I can't remember a snake last year either, I hope it was because of the moth balls. I think I'll get moth balls again at the store.
|
04/03/11, 03:53 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Central IL
Posts: 1,700
|
|
|
Leaving the snakes alone was a marriage issue that DH and I worked out years ago. He can't stand them and would kill them any time, and I don't love them but would rather have them than rodents any day.
He doesn't kill them now but insists that I don't show him any I may find.
I did have to show him a garter snake a couple of yrs ago though. It had a big toad in its mouth, the toad was bleeding and shiny with excretion, and the snake was actually foaming at the mouth. I had the snake by the tail trying to shake the toad loose without killing anybody. The excitement of the garden!
My barn cats will kill snakes. I am occasionally grossed out when I find a still living snake that is partially eaten from the tail up.
Last edited by SueMc; 04/03/11 at 03:55 PM.
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:47 PM.
|
|
