"See? When you lay down the cardboard and then throw straw and leaves on top it all decomposes and softens the..."
While I was talking, SM was lifting some of the decaying straw and leaf mold off a juicy patch of ground when I heard him say...
"Snake!"
Now let me say here and now that I'm generally a "live and let live" kinda girl. But when it comes to snakes I tend to strike first and ask questions later.
"Die! Spawn of Satan! Die!"
I whipped out my shovel and beheaded the little bastard.
And little he was. Just a baby. Curled up and cold. Hardly a threat at all.
Over the next half hour or so I found 3 more of the little buggars and dispatched them all in a similar fashion.
By this time I figured my garden was a hotbed of snake-ish activity.
Just crawling with them! (shudder)
(Well Duh! Critters of all kinds will find a habitat in decomposing materials. Remember last years mice?)
So anyway, I figure that at some point I might have to deal with a snakebite. I mean I do work in the garden...you know weeding, stomping around and such. So like any good Girl Scout I goggled Copperheads to learn more about them as this is what I automatically assumed I had crawling in my garden.
Hm.
Doesn't really look like the snakes I killed does it?
I really have no idea what they are but I am grateful to conclude that these are likely not venomous snakes. As a matter of fact it's highly probable that these snakes are highly beneficial for my garden. (All you knowledgeable snake folk out there can tell me what it is.)
Oopsie....My bad.
In my defense, all I will say is that I am a daughter of Eve.
And after what that snake did to us girls, is it any wonder that I got all Samuel Jackson on it's ass? (Profanity alert...but it is funny. Cause Samuel Jackson ALWAYS acts like this.)
Suprisingly, I didn't dream about snakes last night. Although SM is doing Jake the Snake on me! (From Two and a Half Men.)
Looks like it might be a yellow rat snake.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but the only good snake is a dead snake. what ever benefit that it may bring I will get someother way. I don't know bout Samuel Jackson, but I get realy Backwoods and Southern when it comes to snakes. Folks ant never herd some of the words that come out when I gets suprised by a snake.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the snakes. Any snake will hirt you. At least in my case make me hurt me. I feel more secure knowing you are doin your part on the east cost to rid us of these very dangerous (to me at least) pests. I will do my part in Virginia.
ReplyDeleteFrank from Virginia
Well, I have to admit to having a soft heart when it comes to snakes; even going so far as to relocating the copperheads when I found them. But once Rhiannon came along, the copperheads are immediately relieved of their heads. We have a horrible mouse population so I figure as long as the snakes are eating mice (and not my eggs as an occasional black snake will), they are welcome here....albeit quite a ways away from the house.
ReplyDeleteI once stood in my back yard with a young rattle snake pinned under the rake. Hot sun, nobody around, scared to death to release the pressure because that snake might move faster than I could. It was probably an hour before my husband arrived and decapitated the critter. I'd have stood there all night rather than let him go. I'm so thankful we don't have snakes since moving into town.
ReplyDeleteI read some wheres to sprinkle cayenne pepper around your garden and it's suppose to help with small critters.Something to look into there.Even where we live we have rattlers,hubstead was cutting the grass and one was at the end of the trailer.Orion had been around there earlier!It was a baby.The locals here have found them around here too.We live next to a big field and when it's hot the mice come in for water so the snakes follow them.
ReplyDeleteI think you jinxed me. I pulled up some boards that were going to be my Herb garden and there were 5 baby snakes curled up under there. Now there are 100 snake parts for the robins. LOL At least now the herb bed is finished as well. Peas and onions planted and ready to start seeds any day now. There seems to be a perfect mix of warm days and rain here in Tidewater to give us a great gargening start. Good lick on your season.
ReplyDeleteYour Gardening Friend
Frank from Virginia
Twice when I've pulled the plastic off the compost pile I've found a snake. One was grown and look liked yours. The other was little, same color, but it coiled and "rattled" it's tail (no rattle!) Even the chickens backed down and they usually go for a small snake like that.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I hate mice more than snakes. As long as the snakes aren't poisonous, of course. Thing about snakes that always makes me squeal like a bitty little girl is that they sort of just appear! I usually relocate them - wearing my fang-proof Hazmat suit, elbow length leather gloves and using a very long stick.
ReplyDelete