I Learned Something New Today….

@Atlotto I lived in a rural area that had old chicken pens in the backyard. They got tore down and piled up in the backyard. One day after I had time after moving in I got a hoe and took each board to burn in the burn barrel. Each one had huge black widow spiders on it, several on each. I had to look at every side and smash them before carrying them one by one to the burn barrel. Killed over a 100 I’m sure, got almost to the bottom of the pile and heard a buzzing sound. Black widow spiders wasn’t enough, there was a rattlesnake at the bottom of the pile. I tried lifting a board three times and got the buzzing each time. Decided it was a good time to take a long break and came back and it had left. One time we had a long autumn and the leaves didn’t fall off of the trees till November. It was the day after Thanksgiving and I started raking up the leaves. I caught two snakes in the tines of my leaf rake, both striped but one was way bigger than the other, think it was a bigger garter snake. They were staying under the leaf piles staying warm. I am always wary of raking piles of leaves now.

@cherokeepatti Yikes! I've only seen two garter snakes and one rat snake on my property.

@Atlotto we have a lot of striped grass snakes here, small ones not the garter snakes. I have seen a baby rattlesnake years ago here after lifting a sheet of plastic that I had used on the car window shield before an ice storm, took it off and threw it in the back yard. One morning in the spring I went outside before work and decided to pick it up and fold it up and there was the snake. It got away before I could shovel it. I have also seen a worm snake, only once. It was bigger than an earthworm and accidentally stepped on it with my bare foot. They aren’t aggressive so it didn’t try to bite. And have smelled snakes several times….once while pulling tall grass between the fig bushes and the fence. It was a strong smell and figured it was a big snake. Another time while I was weed-eating around the shed, which is on risers. Could smell it even with the weed-eater going whacking weeds. And another time I was in my kitchen and bent down to get a baking pan out of the drawer under the oven. Smelled a slight smell and thought it was a dead mouse, no mouse around. Couple days later found a dead snake in the sticky trap in the laundry room, right next to the kitchen. It must have been struggling and still alive when I smelled it earlier. The smell is like a dead mouse, bigger snakes more smell. One minute you’re doing something and then suddenly smell it, you better back away and get up and get out of there.

@cherokeepatti I know that smell.

@Atlotto I never smelled it till I moved here. My friend lived in a rural home some 35 years ago. She said one evening she went into her bedroom and it smelled like a dead rat in there. She walked out and told her husband she thought that a copperhead snake was in the bedroom. They got a hoe and a flashlight and found it under their bed. Got it out and killed it. I told her that if it was me holding the flashlight I’d have to run and take a shower after that. Would scare the crap out of me not to mention feeling paranoid after a copperhead getting in the house. Yikes.

@Atlotto at least it’s a warning. I would hate to lose my sense of smell even just for that reason alone.