Greetings, readers. Today we learn about the dreaded SNAKE as we continue our series, Caring for Mother Nature, by my friend, author and naturalist, Peggy Sias Lantz (click her name to visit her website).
Snakes
by Peggy Sias Lantz
Okay, it’s time to address the hateful things — Snakes and Insects. Snakes this week, Insects next week.
Snakes and mosquitoes are not good only when dead. Snakes are actually very helpful to humans.
Here’s one of my many snake stories
We were living in Titusville and had built a house with nothing between us and the St. John’s River but a couple miles of grass and brush and wetlands. Nothing on the north side of our house but wild grasses, nothing on the south but palmettos and bushes.
Birds, sunsets, longleaf pine trees, armadillos, opossums, room for horses and for me to ride. And snakes. Including an Indigo snake. (Click the name for more info about it) A beautiful animal – maybe five feet long, glossy blue-black with a rusty-red chin. Not at all dangerous, and protected by law because it is an endangered species. I saw it several times.
And then I didn’t see it any more. I wondered if someone had taken it home for a pet or if it had wandered farther away.
And then a wildfire started at the river and headed east toward our house. I called Don [Peggy’s husband] to come home from work and turned the hose on the roof.
But when the fire neared our acreage, it split and burned the grasses to the north and the palmettos to the south, leaving us unscorched. (Thank you, Lord.)
All was not well, however, because all the rats escaped the fire by taking up residence at our place, under the berry patches, in the pasture, and even in the horse barn and the feed barrel.
These rats were numerous, obnoxious, and omnipresent. I would take pot shots at them with the .22 rifle my brother had given me, eliminating a few when they came out in the evening.
I don’t remember how long it was before the indigo snake came back, but when it came, it dispatched the entire rat colony in short order!
So I kinda like snakes. At least I sure liked that indigo snake.
Harmless and helpful snakes
Red rat snakes, yellow rat snakes, coachwhip snakes, black racer snakes, hognose snakes – they are all harmless to humans and helpful in ridding us of animals and insects that can be harmful to us.
Yes, harmful snakes are among us, too. Would you believe me if I told you the venomous snakes help us the same way?
In Central Florida, there are only four venomous snakes (click the name to find out about them): Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, Pygmy Rattlesnake, Cottonmouth Moccasin, and Coral snake. Two other venomous snakes are found only in north Florida and farther north: Copperhead and Timber Rattlesnake. All of them prefer to be left alone, and will leave you alone if undisturbed.
Most of the nonvenomous snakes lay eggs. So does the Coral snake. The other venomous snakes bear live young.
How snakes grow, eat, live
Snakes shed their skins as they grow. Starting with its face, it will rub on grass stems or debris until it crawls out of its skin, leaving behind a thin translucent film that includes even the transparent eye covering.
Snakes can swallow prey much bigger than their head. The jaw joints can unhinge, and the flexible skin can stretch to accommodate large prey. It’s quite interesting to see a snake that has just swallowed an animal; it will have a big lump in its usually slender body.
Depending on the temperature, the size and age of the snake, and the size of the animal the snake has eaten, it may not eat again for days, weeks, or even months.
Snakes smell with their flickering tongues, hear by feeling vibrations with their bodies, and can see movement at great distances (but with little clarity). They are cold-blooded, meaning they cannot warm themselves, but rely on sun or warm sand when the weather is cold and shade when the sun is too hot.
Snakes, depending on their species, may eat insects, worms, frogs, birds, mammals, or anything they can overpower. Many species hunt during the day, some at night. Some small female snakes may lay or birth only two or three eggs or babies, while some large water snakes and mud snakes produce 120 in a clutch!
I can be startled by a snake just like anybody else, but I don’t run for the hoe every time I see one. I watched with curiosity when I saw a garter snake catch a frog in my pond and when I saw a long tan coachwhip snake dive into a rat hole near my chicken house. I was disappointed when it came up with nothing in its jaws.
Snakes are products of God’s grand design, and humans are leaving them with very little left of their place in this world. Think of them – if not fondly – at least respectfully.
—END—
Thanks for reading!
Your writer on the wing,
Charlene
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Kathleen Brandt
This was interesting! I’m not a snake fan either, but I’ll look at them differently now. Thank you!
Charlene
I feel the same way. Thanks again to Peggy for this enlightening post!