New Neighbor

[Subrosa]

I met one of my neighbors on the way to the lake this evening

[Dollythehun]

And that is a....?

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

And that is a....?

A long, skinny piece of evilness. In a harmless way. A black racer, not venomous but definitely has a hair trigger. He struck at me at least a dozen times in the time it took to get 2 pics.

[Leafmite]

What a beautiful creature! It is always good to have them around to help with rodent control.

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

What a beautiful creature! It is always good to have them around to help with rodent control.

Indeed, but a bit gratitude wouldn't hurt either! I had a canoe in my truck and it took a bit of fancy maneuvering to avoid turning him into road pizza! And then he shows his gratitude by going for blood.........

[camille1585]

What a rude neighbor, greeting you like that!

[Optimist]

I lived in a house with hundreds of little garter snakes living in the rock wall and under the house. No crickets at all. They were very polite and seemed to like it there.

[Mountaineer370]

Non-poisonous snakes don't bother me at all, and I leave them to their business. We have garter snakes, mostly, but I did meet up with a very large blue racer in our woods one time, and an interesting-looking milk snake in my barn. What did scare me was my husband telling me he saw an Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake while mowing the grass right next to our house over the summer. I wouldn't go outside without wearing over-the-ankle shoes and watching every step I took for a long time.

[Fishkeeper]

Pretty fella! Nice find, rude or not. And a fast snake like that would definitely be good for rodent control.

Medium-to-large nonvenomous snakes seem to be more prone to biting, since it benefits them to show aggressiveness. It's actually a decent measure of identification with one particular snake: cottonmouths. They look a lot like several dark-bodied species of nonvenomous snake, but, where most similar water snakes will strike or bluff-charge, cottonmouths either retreat or curl up and display their mouths. If it comes at you or acts aggressive, it's not a cottonmouth. There are, however, a couple of similar-looking water snakes that will charge you in an effort to startle you into letting them escape.