slithering surprise: parts 2 and 3
It wasn’t long ago that I first wrote about our first encounter with snakes around the house. Since then, we’ve been frequented by two more. Snake #2 really had the element of surprise, being curled up on the doormat in our garage. Each of the subsequent visitors went the way of the first. (And while time to completion was much quicker, I was just as terrified and disgusted as the first time around.)
I am proud to announce we have a winner. Brent, from my first post, correctly identified the intruders as the Northern Brown Snake. With the increased frequency of these visits, our neighbors also started to think we should investigate them more thoroughly. (Most neighbors were positive they were baby copperheads. Our immediate neighbors now have replaced all the grass in their yard with moth balls. Or at least it smells that way.) The Animal Control took the most recent snake I killed and confirmed Brent’s suspicions. Apparently the trick to properly identifying copperheads is not so much the pattern on their backs, but the shape and color of the eyes (which is much easier to see once they’re dead, I might add).
Apparently the Northern Brown Snakes in Virginia only have litters of 3 to 26. Why do I get the feeling we haven’t seen the last of this litter?
I think I like our lizards better. They are usually running away when I see them.
It’s taken a number of years, but my appreciation of your CA lizards has grown quite significantly. All it took was a little perspective …
Neither one (snakes or lizards) sounds too good to me.
Hey Brian,
I just recently found your “new” blog. I had a similar snake story a couple months ago. I don’t really share your fear of snakes, but this was creepy. My 8 year old son James and I were walking around an exercise path at a local park (Hillendale Park in Harrisonburg, VA). We stopped at one of the exercise stations for a minute and I saw a garter snake about 10 feet off the path, I told James about it and we walked to a rock about 8 feet off the trail to get a better look. At that point I realized that there were a *lot* of leaves moving. I proceeded to count at least 8 snakes in less then a minute. Since the entire area was leaf-covered, I can only imagine that there must have been more. Thankfully, I was almost certain that they weren’t poisonous, so it wasn’t terrifying.
We still need to get together at some point.
Mark
Hey Mark,
Great to hear from you!
I must say, that is a truly disgusting story. Had I been there with my son, that “better look” would likely have resulted in me passing out and falling face first in the midst of all those moving leaves. Eck.
And yes, we do still need to get together. I blame Jay. He moved here first, so surely it’s his responsibility to get us organized, right?!
oooo, now I have to tell my snake story. There’s a lady where I work that has been a tent camper with her husband for about 30 years. They’ve finally decided to switch to truck camping, one of those little camper things on a pickup. Her kids and grandkids live in Louisiana, and there isn’t room in the house for them, and the hotels are too far away. They suggested tent camping on the lawn, and her kids said “oh no no no. The fire ants would eat you up, and besides, the baby cobras are out this time of year (the springtime)”.
That’s when they gave up tent camping in Louisiana.
Topher,
I think that’s grounds for giving up visiting Louisiana all together.
Just awful …