Tag Archives: critters

Wildlife: Black Snake

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The door in the photos below is to my tool room in the Annex. Guarding the door is our resident Black Snake, Murray. 
Wikipedia assures me Murray is a “good” snake (my word, not theirs);

Rat snakes live in a variety of habitats; some overlap each other. Rat snakes are excellent climbers and spend time in trees. They live in habitats ranging from a rocky hillside to flat farmland. It prefers heavily wooded areas and is known for having excellent climbing ability, including the ability to climb the trunk of large mature trees without the aid of branches; the snake is also a competent swimmer. During winter it hibernates in dens, often with copperheads and timber rattlesnakes. This association gave rise to one of its common names, pilot black snake, and the superstition that this nonvenomous species led the venomous ones to the den.

While Black Snakes are harmless, I give this guy a wide birth because… well, he’s a snake. Like the article says, where you find Black Snakes, you’ll find copperheads. I killed at least a dozen last summer. Fortunately, they tend to stay on the ground. Like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes. But they’re part of rural living, so…

Wildlife: Snake!

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Surrounded by woods, we usually seem some Copperhead snakes every spring and summer. I hate snakes. And when I see ’em, I kill ’em, lest they bite one of our dogs. Not that hard to chop off a head if you happen to have shovel or hoe handy (you never do). By the time you drag the dog inside and find an implement, the snake has escaped.

A couple of years ago I bought a “snake grabber” and keep it next to our deck since that’s where they tend to hang out. You can grab the bastards and lock the grabber while you find something to send them to snake heaven.

It’s an unpleasant experience and a while back I purchased a .22 revolver and loaded it with snake rounds. Instead of a single lead slug, it’s like a tiny shotgun shell filled with little pellets. Can’t miss, right? Well, yeah, you can. Once a year I take the pistol out and fire a round, just to keep in practice.

This was less than three feet away and I managed to miss the snake’s head. So our first line of defense will probably be the grabber and a shovel.

UPDATE June 5, 2021: Riley spotted a Copperhead early last evening. About 2 feet long. Used the snake grabber to hold the thing while I sent it to snake heaven with a shovel.

Scorpions

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From a friend in Bisbee, AZ: “It’s been the worst year for scorpions either of us have seen. I got stung, a year and a half ago… my first time. I was picking up some scrap wood in the garden shed, and BAM, the little bugger was under a piece of wood. Classic scorpion story, and 24 hours later, I was fine. Taylor had never been stung, either, but some time in April, under the covers, she moved, and one got her on her leg, three stings. She jerked away, which sent it on to my leg, where it hit twice. I threw the covers down, found it, swished it onto the floor, and hit it with my shoe. Three rattlesnakes later (out by our cat cage…one got away, but the next two didn’t), we have found scorpions in every room of the house. On walls, on rugs, under blankets, coming out of sink drains, two in light fixtures! (cooked to death). So four nights ago, another one got Taylor, under the covers, on her belly. She jerked her arm, and… near as we could count, we found five or six stings on the end of her thumb.

I had trapped one, coming out of the sink drain, by closing the stopper on its arm. Its tail went into machine gun mode, and hit the stopper ten times in a second…so that seems to be how they react to being trapped.”

Wildlife: From the kitchen window

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Barb took this shot from the kitchen window. Seems like all of the critters are coming closer to the house these days. Hattie and Riley go nuts until Barb lets them out. The deer bound away but not in a panic. We think they know where the “invisible fence” line is and the dogs don’t go beyond.