I used to let the ones in the yard run amock. Now I am discouraging them, sometimes forcefully. They eat the lizards. I need the lizards - they eat mosquitoes but more importantly the lizards stalk the caribbean fruit fly that attack the papaya.
Let the snake go find some rats to eat instead!

It's a snake eat lizard eat fruitfly world out there...hehehe

I'll share my black racer story, while not at home but at the zoo. I was planting out a snake box exhibit thinking all snakes were out of the box however a 4ft. racer was up at the top of the box needless to say he wanted to see what I was doing I had a weird feeling and looked first left snake head 6ins form my face looked right snake tail cascading down my shoulders (snake boa) people still laugh about my reaction lol.

Katie

I know black racers are harmless but they really give me the creeps. I have one living in my yard too. If I was ever in Katie's situation, I would likely drop from a heart attack.

LOL...I'd have a heart attack too! And, I thought today's event was surprising enough to do it! I can't even imagine
having one draped over my shoulders. (shudder!)

I like snakes - from a distance. The Black Racers do seem to have quite the 'personality' for a snake.

I just came back from Home Depot and (go figure) the snakes are still at it in my yard. The Big Daddy snake quickly crossed my yard to safety back under the fence.

That's all I need is to step on one while taking out the trash....

Maybe I'll swap you for my black racer Maurice (pronounced MO-REESE) who lives in my front yard garden. Last year Maurice hatched baby Maurices (oh well-but he/she is still Maurice). I know when Maurice is out hunting because of the screams from my wife and daughter when they see him (her I guess) sunning himself on the front walk.

OMG I would have had a heart attack too!! I have severe snake phobia!! I alway's make sure I look at the ground when I go out because I'm afraid that one will be resting on the doorstep eeks !! I know they are good but I really like to keep a big space between them and me !!

Sunday a neighborhood cat came tearing around the corner into my carport in hot pursuit of a black racer. He was just about to pounce on the tail when he saw me and ran the other way. The snake kept going toward my husband's bike. I went over and looked around the bike (stooped over) and snake dropped right past my ear. He must have been on the handlebars. He sat their coiled up with his head in hunting position for a couple of minutes watching me. When I turned my back, he left.

I have a black racer story too. I was walking down the path bare foot and in shorts as the snake crossed the path and he coiled aroung my leg and ankle. I was hopping on one foot shaking the other trying to get it off and screaming for all I was worth. lol I think he was screaming too!

Another time I watched 2 play tag all over the grass for at least a half an hour. I was amazed to see them "play" and it made me think about them in a different way. :o)

I love snakes...but also, from a distance. LOL

A couple of years ago, I went out to the mailbox.
On the way back to the house, I felt something brush my ankle.
A rather large black racer and I evidently crossed paths.
So, I thought...always look down when walking around the yard, right?
Wrong!
One must look up as well...LOL
Found that out when one dropped out of my Reclinata right in front of me!
I tell ya...its exhausting just walkin' around the yard!
LOOK UP!
LOOK DOWN!
LOOK TO DA LEFT!
LOOK TO DA RIGHT!
SHEESH!!

I presently have two that reside in the dilapidated railroad ties that line my circular driveway.
I call them Hanky & Panky because well...you get the picture. :)

Am still waiting on the paver guy to come in, remove those old railroad ties and put in paver edging to my shell drive.

Dunno where Hanky & Panky will go then...and personally, I don't care. They're certainly not large enough to consume rats.
The "lizards" can stay and help with the skeeter population.

Two days ago there was another large racer in my back yard.
Like your situation, St Pete, it slithered along the fence right behind my pool chair. Ugh!

You could tell, too, 'cause all the "lizards" were as high up on everything as they could get.
Those little 'look-out guys'.........

PFFFFTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!

Don't forget that they not only eat rats (when the snake is large enough) but they eat MICE, and other noxious pests that carry disease. They also eat large insects (including roaches and/or palmetto bugs) and other snakes. They are extremely important to the environment and don't even make a dent in the lizard population compared to Cuban tree frogs and brown anoles. (It's been my observation that the lizards are usually too fast for them, though they do get a few.)

Just saying...don't underestimate the good that these snakes do in your garden.

Personally, I love seeing them chase each other during mating season. When their little snakey minds are on LUV, they don't even SEE people.

Marcia

Two days ago I actually had one come right up to my shoe, stick his tongue out to smell me, and then sloooowly make his way north. Crazy, considering these guys are usually so fast I can barely see them. I love my snakes, and they've all been so active of late!

I have seen so many snakes this year! We have a black racer called "Monster" but I've also seen rat snakes, ring-neck snakes, a stripey racer type, a green snake, and even, gulp what could have been a pair of cavorting coral snakes. Or not, I didn't stick around.

I like to be outside even in the heat, so I am trying to get used to it! I like them, but they also startle the heck out of me, every time.

Oh My goodness I almost fell off my chair Katkin when I read your post and Lellie's !! Snakes dropping out of nowhere !! EEKS!! I had goosebumps just reading your posts !!. Oh I really needed a good laugh, perfect timming !! Rainy

I have a couple of snake stories too.....

We have black racers and rat snakes going on in our yard....

We have a wood deck with metal roofing cover on the back of our house. As my husband was going out the back door, a rat snake dropped from where it was climbing over the back door, right on the top of his head. He screamed like a girl. It's a family joke. Funny now, but when you don't know what it is....scary.

Another time, he went out in the dark to throw garbage out. He put his hand right on a large rat snake that was going across the lid of the garbage can.

And it's true Lellie....you do have to look everywhere. Black racers like to hang out, dangle down from our orange tree.

Not many people enjoy snakes more than I do, but I have to say, even I would not be happy to have one fall on me out of nowhere before I knew what it was. My story along those lines involves a cat house we built on the back of our home years ago, with a kitty door going out to it. A little verandah for our indoor cats, so they could lay on the cat shelves out there and enjoy the fresh air. Unfortunately, it wasn't screened in, but rather, enclosed with a wide mesh wire fencing. This meant that lizards and snakes and many other creepy crawlies could take short cuts right through it. (Though why anything would WANT to cut through a small enclosed area with three large cats hanging out in it is beyond me.)

Suffice it to say, many snakes were cat nabbed and carried proudly back through the cat doors over the years. My husband at the time had a phobia about them, and would end up standing on the chairs or the sofa hollering at me to come get the snake (which was almost NEVER injured in any visible way) and take it outside. It was a funny sight.

But he got the last laugh. I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night once and stepped right on top of a black racer in my bedroom...in my bare feet...in the dark! There was MUCH screaming and hollering and hopping about coming from ME that time! This one was injured, but definitely still thrashing about. *shiver* THAT will wake you up right quick!

Marcia