I’ve Never Seen a Snake I Didn’t Dislike

Snakes and people usually don’t get along. Folks who study why people are they way they are have suggested that we don’t like snakes because we have no defenses against them. Human beings can see a big predator. They can smell a skunk or see its color. They can run away from an elephant or other big slow critter, but a snake just hides in the grass and bites you.

Here above Sulfur Creek we have tangled with all four kinds of venomous snakes. Shortly after we started the house 13 years ago we were showing some friends around the property when one of them asked what the name of that beautiful snake curled in the cactus. It was a two foot long copperhead that all five of us had just stepped over.

One spring Barton Creek had risen way up after one of our seasonal gully washers. The crew came running into the kitchen and said a there was a boa constrictor in the neighbors chinaberry tree. Now I knew it wasn’t a boa but I wasn’t sure what it was, so I sent their father out with the shotgun. The boa was really a four foot water moccasin. My sure shot husband blew the head off without hitting a single chinaberry.

I’ve already told you about the coral snake that number two crew killed when he was small. We have had several of them in the area, but we don’t get too excited about them now that the crew is older. The coral has to chew on you to get any venom into your hide and it has a small mouth. They also are not very aggressive. In fact there are reliable records of small boys carrying coral snakes around in their pockets for hours and never getting bit.

Rattlers are different story altogether. The first one I ever had a problem with was in the backyard one evening. The crew was asleep and my husband was at choir practice. A noise that sounded like a motor was buzzing had sent me searching the house for the malfunction motor. I discovered the noise was outside and with a flashlight I saw the cat had cornered a large rattler. The cat was just out of striking range and looked as if he were trying to decide whether or not to attack. I called a neighbor who came over and shot the five foot snake. The cat had decided the snake was too large and left.

A couple of years later, number two crew was out in the hammock studying when his dog began barking frantically. A loud buzz originated from directly under the hammock. Looking down through the webbing he came eyeball to eyeball with a large rattlesnake. When he arrived in the kitchen his face was as white as flour. Another neighbor came over and blew the head off that one. Its hide is now a hat band. The buzzing of a rattlesnake is warning for humans and other large critters not to step on the snake.

Many animals have warnings or acts they put on to protect themselves or their young, but that’s a another story.

2021 Note: Venomous snakes are a native and essential part of the ecosystem here in Central Texas. They are not aggressive and only strike if they feel threatened. Stomping your feet let the snake know you are too big to eat so they get out of the way. We have a policy that unless the snake is close to the house and might endanger the fenced dogs, we leave them alone. In fact, we have a large rat snake that is very welcome on our back porch to keep the rat population down.

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