Your Neck of the Woods 2015 Part 4

YEAH! You have a Black Snake--aka a Rat Sake.
You don't want it indors--but you are lucky to have some of them outdoors.
They will take care of all your little rodents for you...

In all the years I have lived here (46)--I have only seen a snake twice.
Saw one in 2006--and one last summer-- briefly.
I was watering my big clump of Shastas in my YUK bed--
and this skinny black snake scurried away as fast as it could.

Three days ago--I was entering my shed, and as I opened the door--I saw the
tail end of a pretty big (I think) black snake scurry inside the shed.
It must have been 'resting" behind my big Hosta pot just outside the shed door.
Lots of places for it to hide inside my shed.....endless pots and things sitting on top
of small pallets. Besides--the bittom of my shed door is all chewed up--years ago.
Any small critter or snake can get into it--and also out of it.

I am glad to have one of these snakes in my garden. They are good hunters...
Unfortunately--they may also take some of the birds.

Oh, well--that is nature, G.

Your are right Gita, We like black snakes here I just don't want them in the house. He or she can eat all the mice and chippies it wants. We are so over run with Chippies this year that I thought we might have lost our resident black snake. Lots of places here for them to hide.

Holly--I have not seen a Chipmunk here in a couple of years. Don't know why?
Maybe I have had a snake and never knew it.....

This year--I have seen ONE! It is kind of small--like a juvenile.

Back in 2010 or so--I had loads of them.

I just hope "my" snake does not venture into my Pakistani neighbor's yard.
She will kill it for sure---any way she can. Ignorance....???
Or maybe back in Pakistan--ALL snakes were poisonous or harmful .
She does not realize that some are beneficial.

Glad the snake is back outside where he belongs! Cool. I found a little garter snake outside last week and brought it in for Joyanna to meet, then took it right back out... He was under some pulled weeds where he'd probably spent the night, just chillin' out, and he didn't warm up enough to get active, but I did have a pretty good hold on him to make sure he remained an *outdoor* snake LOL. He was a cutie, but I didn't have a free hand to snap photos, so you'll just have to picture Joyanna petting him with one finger.

I don't know, if I had a snake in the yard, it would probably be caught and relocated to somewhere several miles away. I understand they eat small rodents but there's no way I'd want one in my yard, shed, or house.

I am standing Sally as I do not have water in my house. That really stinks for anyone who does though. I'm so glad we don't have that issue. We didn't even get rain in the house during tropical storm Lee and Hurricane Irene in late August, early September 2011. We got 12" of rain in less than a week.

GT, that agastache is enormous! I would totally have let it grow too. Maybe you can cut it down for Christmas and decorate it inside for the holidays...

Sequoia, you undoubtedly have snakes in your yard, you just don't see them. :-)

Maybe the Agastache will qualify for a record for tree species in American Forestry Magazine.

You think I have snakes? Creepy. That could explain why I've NEVER seen a chipmunk in the 5+ years we've lived at our house. Maybe they aren't in my yard but in a close neighbor's. Eww...that's creepy to think of a snake being in the yard.

Yes, I'm certain any snakes will totally respect your property lines! If you see any long and skinny shapes, no worries, it's just a piece of rope or some such -- no need for a closer look.

What I meant by that was that their nests or whatever might be in neighbor yards. Geez I hope I never see one, that's really going to give me the creeps.

I'm not afraid of snakes but unexpected encounters aren't necessarily fun. Found a snake skin in the garage. There was one living in the patio a few years ago. God only knows what all lives under the raised brick patio and there have been several encounters in the barn, Ric had a particularly heart stopping one a few years ago searching in a box in the top of the barn. We don't have a basement we have a crawlspace and it isn't sealed so the idea that some creepy crawly things can get into the house isn't farfetched.

Tongue tucked firmly into cheek, above... I did know what you meant, Sequoia :-)

I agree, no matter how "live and let live" you are about snakes, spiders, etc., they can give you some startling moments!

For most, they are probably easier to deal with behind glass... Saw a BIG anaconda at the National Zoo yesterday... and our more local Catoctin Zoo has an impressive collection of reptiles! Joyanna and I think snakes are way cool. My DMIL shudders at the thought of them but did go into the zoo building last summer because of Joyanna's enthusiasm -- and because she wanted to see the colony of meerkats, oddly housed in the same complex.

I was raking some nice decomposing leaves tonight and found a ring neck snake - I think- all I could see was the pink belly and dark brown back, I tried to grab him but he got away from my clumsy leather-gloved hands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diadophis_punctatus

We had a baby rat snake in our basement once; for all I know there could be snakes in there now. I'd actually rather have snakes than mice in the basement.

y one "fear" would be having a family of snakes somewhere in my house.
I would NOT want that--and would be freaking out.

They can live in my yard and 'do their thing"....
Usually--they quickly flee as soon as someone gets near...so Ll I see is the tail
disappearing..
g.

I'd rather have mice Muddy. Mice are cute, snakes are gross.

I vote mice in the house. Not logical, I suppose, but there it is.

Me too. Rather mice than snakes and I have an ongoing battle with mice. Now if the snake would like to stay in the crawl space where I don't have to go (poor Ric) and eat the mice before they get into the house that would be great.

Yes, great for you but bad for Ric indeed.

I think I'd rather have the snake than the mice. Mice make so much mess everywhere. Even a single mouse means hours and hours of cleaning and disinfecting from their urine, droppings, and whatever they've shredded up - so many drawers, boxes, shoes, and whatever else they get into. The only mess a snake makes is an occasional snake skin left behind.

Yep, what Terri said.

My MIL was once politely furious with me (she's very Southern) when I would not promise that I would never have a pet snake. She declared she would not set foot in our house if I had one. This was early in our marriage, so I filed that tidbit for future reference if needed. LOL

Honestly, I have a wonderful MIL, which anybody following the group buys etc could probably guess just because I'm always buying bulbs and plants to put in her garden. I told her once that if everybody had a MIL like her, there would be no mother-in-law jokes. She took a moment to work out my meaning, then gave me a happy hug. :-)

I had the Crocodile Hunter on this morning while stretching... he climbed up a mango tree and caught a half-size specimen of the biggest snake in Australia, 3rd biggest in the world, really a gorgeous creature! She was in the tree waiting for an unlucky fruit bat to start eating a mango near her.

Don't snakes urinate or leave excrement about?

That's a good question, Jeff....
IF a snake woofed down a young rabbit--there should be plenty to excrete....

I am sure someone will be looking this up and post a link....Yooohooo--coleup!

All animals have excrement, but the mice excrement is excessive as to how widespread they leave it.

From the internet:

Like most reptiles, the snake's kidneys are designed to conserve water. The waste filtered out of the blood by the kidneys is converted into uric acid. That waste is then deposited into the snake's cloaca, where most of the water is reabsorbed, leaving only a thick white paste.

Snakes generally swallow their prey whole. After being swallowed, food is digested in the stomach and intestines. The digested food is absorbed through the wall of the small intestine. Remaining residue moves through the large intestine into the upper chamber of the cloaca, where some water is reabsorbed. It then passes into the posterior chamber of the cloaca to mix with the uric acid waste, says Reptile Magazine. The resulting substance is excreted.

Snakes eat and drink infrequently, and consequently excrete waste infrequently too.

What interesting critters. I'd still prefer to be surprised by a mouse than a snake.

When I was outside earlier, I saw a mouse dash under the siding...I guess I know one way they get inside the house!

eek! They can go through very tiny spaces

Yeah really. I remember there was a mouse in the bathroom at work but I didn't discover that until I sat down to do my business and he ran out from under my legs. Sure gave me a fright. I captured him in a cup and took him outside afterward.

a mouse needs only a 1/2" space to cruise through...

edited...to correct "muse" to "mouse"....

OOPS! The "Muse" would be a Poet--and none of our resident Poets
could even stick their pinky through a 1/2" hole.

This message was edited Jul 1, 2015 1:16 PM

I'd rather know a snake and that it is sleeping on the other side of a wall than be subject to these:
"Many rodent species can be infected by the plague, and rodent species vary in their ability to tolerate the plague. For instance, mice and voles don’t tend to die when infected with the plague,"
and from the CDC: Diseases for which rodents are both directly and indirectly vectors.
Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome expanded
Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome collapsed
Lassa Fever collapsed
Leptospirosis collapsed
Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis (LCM) collapsed
Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever collapsed
Plague collapsed
Rat-Bite Fever collapsed
Salmonellosis collapsed
South American Arenaviruses (Argentine hemorrhagic fever, Bolivian hemorrhagic fever, Sabiá-associated hemorrhagic fever, Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever) collapsed
Tularemia
Babesiosis expanded
Colorado Tick Fever collapsed
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis collapsed
Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis collapsed
La Crosse Encephalitis collapsed
Lyme Disease collapsed
Murine Typhus collapsed
Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever collapsed
Powassan Virus collapsed
Scrub Typhus collapsed
Rickettsialpox collapsed
Relapsing Fever collapsed
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever collapsed
Sylvatic Typhus collapsed
West Nile Virus

So we know a snake is a snake, know thy enemy (derived from Sun Tzu's The Art of War) but a cute little furry rodent could be face of painful death in many forms.

Yikes! I guess I'd better work on trapping the mice in my basement.

You know you're flower-crazed when you look at a photo like this - my oldest biking in Park City, Utah - and first think how great it is that she's having fun, then immediately start wondering what that purple wildflower on the bottom left of the photo is and think about asking her to take photos of it : - )

Somehow this has morphed into the "critter" thread.

On a different note I took some photos of all the pots we have on our deck. Much of what was in bloom has been pretty beat up by the rain, but what amazes me is that just a few months ago almost all these pots had nothing showing. What a transformation the seasons produce.

Muddy - wow what a view!

awesome scenery- both of you!

David, how is the bottlebrush buckeye doing?

Getting ready to brandish its brushes, thanks.

Really, gonna bloom? that's great.

Weather permitting, I'll be seeing those Utah wildflowers in person in a few weeks!

Greenthumb, I really like your (or ecnalg's) idea of grouping those glazed pots by color. That's a beautiful display even without flowers.

Muddy, wow, mountain meadows in bloom! That's not a bike path, though -- that's a goat trail! LOL

David, that's quite a container garden!

What a beautiful view and a great pic of your daughter.

GT the deck looks great. Beautiful display.