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15 August 2008

Came home from a 4-day camping trip yesterday to find →[More:]A FUCKING SNAKE! IN MY FUCKING YARD!

It was emerging from the ivy on the fence and beginning to climb the almond tree. I was on the phone with my mom at the time. I yelled for the gf and made her scare it away. (It just went back into the ivy.)

There aren't supposed to be snakes here. With the exception of the Arboretum on campus, I've never seen a snake in town. Now there's one in my backyard.

I'm never going out there again. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

post by: mudpuppie at: 15:50 | 21 comments

Uh oh. I don't like seeing snakes either, mudpuppie. What kind of snake was it?

My father killed two coral snakes this summer. He's not usually a killer, but he is afraid they will kill his cats. I was just weeding my front bed again (I have a grassy weed problem there) and I was kind of afraid I might see a snake. I pulled a 14-16 inch snake skin out of the same area not too long ago. It's always scary dipping your hand in a bunch of tall grass.

My husband's grandmother has moved because she saw a snake in her yard. After about the fifth time I think she realized that she would see snakes no matter where she lived in Florida.

posted by LoriFLA 15 August | 15:56

My wife made up this lullaby for our kid, when she was a toddler. .

Slumber little snakies
Sleep tight, all you snakies
Slip out of your snake skin, snakies,
And have a snakey sleep.

I guess you'd have to have heard it. .. I still hear her signing it in my head.

posted by danf 15 August | 16:00

What kind of snake was it?

The snakey kind! And that's enough for me.

I'm sure it's harmless. I know this in my head. I just wish I could tell my adrenal glands to accept this.

posted by mudpuppie 15 August | 16:45

Don't you have a garden?

Better snakes than gophers.

posted by small_ruminant 15 August | 16:55

Circumcised or uncircumcised? ; )

(sorry... I read a lot of Freud in college)

posted by Pips 15 August | 17:43

Why did it have to be snakes??????

posted by Kangaroo 15 August | 17:54

We used to find these snakes often in our yards even in surburban Adelaide.

posted by gomichild 15 August | 17:57

OK. This is Davis where I grew up, and never saw a snake. Coming from the Ivy, I imagine it must have been a garter snake or something. Was it a skinny fucker? Or was it fat with a big head?

posted by eekacat 15 August | 18:28

eh- we don't have too many nasty ones here in NorCal. Just rattlesnakes, and they usually run if they get a chance. Plus they're pretty.

Unlike some certain, ugly water moccassins I could name, who not only chase you but can SWIM.

Fortunately those are on the other side of the Rockies from me and mudpup.

posted by small_ruminant 15 August | 18:30

≡ Click to see image ≡

Gopher snake. (I think they're pretty.)

posted by small_ruminant 15 August | 18:31

Northern Pacific Rattlesnake

≡ Click to see image ≡

Not as pretty, but not bad if they've just shed.

Lots of them don't have rattles any more, though. (The ones with rattles apparently got killed off more thoroughly than ones that went without.)

posted by small_ruminant 15 August | 18:33

(Sorry if I just gave people the heebie jeebies- I should have made them links instead. I just like reptiles.)

posted by small_ruminant 15 August | 18:34

danf, I'd love to hear that lullaby- I can't figure out what the tune must be.

posted by small_ruminant 15 August | 18:35

*turns off images*

Eeka, I didn't get close enough to get a good look. It wasn't a garter snake like I know garter snakes. It was probably about as big around as a carrot. A small carrot. And it was black. The only other snake I've seen here was the aforementioned gopher snake in the Arboretum, and it was yellowish.

Like I said, I know it's harmless. But it's a snake. That's my one phobia. And it's in my yard.

Do raccoons eat snakes?

posted by mudpuppie 15 August | 18:36

hmm- maybe a black racer? did it have a stripe?

Anyway- sorry to derail the thread.

I don't know if raccoons eat snakes. They eat just about anything, so if I had to guess, I'd say yes, but mostly what I see eating snakes are birds.

posted by small_ruminant 15 August | 19:01

Huh. Mudpuppie and eekacat, you've never seen snakes in Davis? I'm kind of surprised, since DavisWiki implies that they're not uncommon here. I've only been here for three years and have seen two gopher snakes on the sidewalk--one at 2nd and Mace, the other on Pole Line, near Cowell.

Also, yes, raccoons do eat snakes. :)

posted by kiripin 15 August | 19:41

Only snake I saw was up on Putah Creek closer to the dam. It was a big ass King Snake, and I was stoned out of my gourd, so I thought it was cool how it moved. I lived for 22 years in Davis, and 8 years in Napa, and never saw a snake where I lived, even when I was living out on a farm in Napa. I've seen more snakes here in Colorado at my house, all garter snakes, than I did in CA. Snakes are awesome, they eat stuff you don't want in your house. Good things to have around, but just not too close...

posted by eekacat 15 August | 19:56

...one at 2nd and Mace, the other on Pole Line, near Cowell...

See, those locations make a lot more sense, being so close to open land. I, however, am not near open land, and the snake has no business being here.

I keep hoping that it will get lonely and go find others of its kind. Then I think about all the other lonely snakes that might find the one in my yard, mate with it, and have lots of offspring. That's when I consider terminating my lease.

posted by mudpuppie 15 August | 20:32

Once when I was five, I was coloring with my best friend on some metal trailer steps. We're coloring away, happy as can be, and a green garter snake falls out of a tree and lands on our coloring book thrashing about. We both screamed and screamed. I ran in the direction of my house and she ran inside hers.

Once when I drove home from high school, I walked up to my front door, saw a huge black snake coiled on the welcome mat, immediately turned around, got back in the car, and drove somewhere else for a while.

posted by LoriFLA 15 August | 21:11

Unlike some certain, ugly water moccassins I could name, who not only chase you

I don't believe a snake has ever chased a person. Would you chase after a T-rex? An encounter with a human has got to be terrifying for a snake--no snake has a venom that could kill a human fast enough to save its own life.

Sigh. Elementary school teachers should be required to have pet tarantulas and snakes in their classes.

posted by Citizen Premier 16 August | 06:28

Hah! That's not a snake! That's a snake!

posted by dg 18 August | 03:12

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