Frank's thread about finding a snake made me realize that I have seen only one snake in the eighteen years that I've been in Maine. I know we have snakes in Maine, although no venomous ones, ordinarily, but I haven't come across any, other than that one. For the more than twenty years that I was in Texas, I saw only one snake. Hearing my neighbor's daughter screaming, I went to help and found a rattlesnake coiled up by their front door. She was home alone, with a friend her age, so I ran it off using a cane, and then killed it. I was just going to run it off because I didn't really want to kill it. However, the girl was only eleven or twelve and was home alone with a friend the same age, and I didn't want to find later that it had come back and bitten one of them. When I was in California, I lived on the grounds of a horse stable near Corona for a year or two and would see a lot of rattlesnakes while I was there. Overall though, I am not seeing many snakes. Are there fewer snakes today or is it because I am no longer a kid, overturning logs and rocks and stuff? We didn't have any venomous ones in Michigan but I would see snakes a lot when I was a kid. I am not overly afraid of snakes. They're kind of creepy when there are a lot of them but, on a one-to-one basis, snakes are okay. When I was a kid, my cousins and I went into the barn of a vacant house, where there were a lot of very old bales of hay. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized there were pine snakes everywhere. They were slithering on the floor, in and on the bales of hay, and hanging from the rafters. That was creepy.
Ive seen a few by my daughter's house...even a rattler. They live in an area that has lots of canyons behind them....you'll see an occasional bobcat also. The most snakes I ever saw were in Illinois in a house we had near the Fox River but those where harmless snakes but gave me the creeps anyway. You'd always run over a few when mowing the lawn. There are rattle snakes in Fresno but not in the subdivisions thank goodness but Ive heard there's plenty in nearby foothills.
As a newcomer to the Desert Southwest, i soon discovered the Red Rocks area west of Las Vegas. After leaving the service station one afternoon in the capable hands of my two high school senior employees, I ventured out for a hike. In a wash, I heard, then saw, a small Rattlesnake, perhaps two feet long. Managed to capture it, took it back to our apartment, put it in the bathtub, which safely contained it. Upon my wife returning home, I anxiously took her in the bathroom. Her reaction, I'll not discuss! Snake quickly was released back in the desert! Frank
We are lucky here we have two snakes both constrictors nonpoisonous. There is a green tree snake that is so well camouflaged that unless you see the head or if he is on something that is not green you would miss him/her. The other is different grades of brown and can get quite large I have seen 7 foot long ones but I guess they get bigger. Never hear of any hurting anyone. Friend brought one up to the house about 6-7 feet long and thought he would get a reaction my daughter about 8 at the time walked out and started touching it without any help.
When we lived in Nevada, my son’s mother had a terrarium of sorts loaded with scorpions and a couple of sidewinders. She wasn’t afraid of the things and even played with the critters but then again, except for when she realized she was pregnant, a bottle of vodka was always close at hand.
Wife and I were walking to our vehicle, parked in the Contestant Parking Lot at a rodeo, when I happen to look down in front of us and seen this snake slithering thru the grass in front of us. It was going away from us, but when I noticed it, I grabbed my wife's arm and we switched directions the snake was going. We went another way to get to our vehicle, but didn't see the snake after we turned about from following it.
Years back a good friend of mine worked for the city Parks and Recreation. One day he came to my house with a huge snake in an aquarium with the whole snake habitat. I was like - "What the ..." He wanted to keep it at my house couple of days before a showing at one of the recreational centers close by. Did I like the idea, not really but I said okay. It never left the house as soon as I expected it to. Then my friend came over with a couple of mice and I said, "Oh, no, no, no." "Take it away..." was a start of a very heated arguement.
For a number of years, I had a Common Boa as a pet. She travelled a lot of places with me--even a road trip across the U.S. for a month. I tired of having her around and gave her away in Minneapolis and replaced her with a large dog--which I had for 15 years until his death. No particular fear of snakes, but there are no snakes in this part of Alaska except those kept in captivity. We had lots of snakes in South Georgia when I lived there, but none spooked me other that the Cottonmouth Water Moccasin. When canoeing, the snakes would actively pursue the craft and sometimes crawl over the side where it was bonked with a paddle.
Another Desert Denizen, though rarely seen, the Gila Monster is the only venemous lizard found in the United States. They are fairly large, ~ 2 feet long, I believe, and generally move about sluggishly, unlike the commoner, small lizards such as the Whip-tail, which actually can run very fast, on it's hind feet only! Here is a whip-tail running, with detailed analysis of it's abilities. We've watched them in and about our gardens and plants for years both in Phoenix and here in Fort Mohave. They are excellent insect-eaters,
No snakes in this picture but since I came across this old photo of myself in the canyons near Corona, I thought I'd post it here. It's not a great picture but, as you can see, my beard used to be dark although my hair has always been blond. Rattlesnakes were thick there. In the canyons that is, not my beard.
My late sister had a large boa constrictor, very calm, that enjoyed being handled. One Halloween, I was togged out in an elaborate outfit I had picked up in Morocco and borrowed the snake to drape around my shoulders. Since it was so calm, a lot of people thought it was a fake snake until they got close and saw it moving. I've never seen a room clear out that fast...…..
This seemed to be the best place to put this, so here we are. I have more more snakes around this year (mostly around my foundation) than ever before (garters mostly, I think, and some bigger than I've ever seen) and I've been here 40 years. I'm wondering if anyone else here in the northeast is noticing this. What has changed for me: Had two cats, there were no mice around here anywhere other than dead ones they brought home. One cat has been gone for 2 years now; her brother is still here but he is 17.5 years old and doesn't hunt much any more (he is the equivalent of 85 in human years). I have (?) a feral cat that friends gave me in February, but I've only seen it once about a month after he was here. He has a food hopper in the barn and can go in or out at his leisure. Something is eating the food, but I don't know necessarily that it's him. So, fewer cats = more mice = more snakes. My biggest fear is getting snakes in the basement. I have mouse traps in the basement but no takers, although I could hear one (?) at night while I was trying to sleep. I did catch one mouse last week with a bucket trap, so I don't think there's any left inside now. When the cats were young and a mouse came in, he had a VERY short life ahead of him. But there's more to it, cuz a few of my friends have noticed more snakes this year also; they live mostly within a few miles of me so conditions are similar (all woods). So if there's very few mice around now, why are snakes all around my foundation? I got some of this stuff (below) from Lowe's a couple weeks ago, and sprinkled it around my foundation -- no snakes! There are other brands but I suspect they all have nearly the same chemical in them. But I saw one again the other day (big) and spread more around, so I guess I'll have to do it every couple weeks. Then I saw another big one yesterday. There's enough for probably 6-8 applications, and it was only about $15 so I'm good with that. The stuff messes with their sensing/smell function and is so strong I can smell it while sitting on the porch for a couple days after application, and there isn't any near me for 20' or so Living in the woods is a constant battle against nature, and it's getting tiring: Carpenter bees drilling my porch, brambles/brush/saplings/trees constantly encroaching into my yard, now an excess snake problem.
We live in a subdivision on a river that backs up to a wooded area, so we have plenty of critters. Snakes around here are mostly ribbon garters or copperheads, and every year there's at least one copperhead in our pool so it's wise to check the skimmers before getting in. A few years back I found a 4' long snakeskin hanging out of one of the weep holes in our brick (right above the foundation slab under my kitchen window) and got so freaked out that my husband bought steel wool mesh and spent a day stuffing it in all the weep holes. I will kill any copperhead I see but the garter snakes can go about their business. Oh, and there's a big old rat snake who lives in my mother-in-law's barn. He has lived in there for years and keeps the rat/mouse population down.
I've only seen a few snakes since I moved to Maine. I know we have snakes but, although I do spend time outdoors, I just haven't come across them.
That is interesting @Bruce Andrew I saw more last year here than ever before. Even though rattlesnakes are around here, they are seldom seen except in more remote and rocky places. I saw my first rattlesnake last year crossing a hayfield road over to the railroad tracks that have rocks. I also saw several huge bullsnakes crossing that road. The ag agent said it was because years before the alfalfa hay rancher used poison to control the gophers. With a big housing development moving right up to the field, environmental concerns and the safety of pets eating poisoned gophers, became an issue so poisoning was stopped and gopher snakes or bullsnakes were brought in from organic farms where there is an abundance of them. This year I have only seen one rattlesnake that the rancher shot on the road. The bullsnakes have multiplied and it is impossible to walk that road without seeing a bullsnake or the tracks where many baby bullsnakes have frolicked in the sand. I think the babies must take sand baths with all the twisting and looping tracks. Even though the bullsnakes are an asset, a six-footer marked much like a rattler, makes me jump and reverse my path. I haven't seen a small green garden snake in my yard for years. After my cats died at 20 years old, I made friends with the neighborhood cats that patrol my property nightly, so no mice. I see them on my Ring camera videos.