The other day I decided to do some yard cleanup, and figured it would be easier to load the debris onto a tarp and drag it around to the front of the house than to carry small load by small load. I had seen a few days earlier that the previous occupants of the home had left a tarp on the shelf in the shed, and determined it would be easier to use this than to find my own tarp buried in the garage amid all of the boxes from my move.

I went into the shed, pulled down the tarp, and tossed it out onto the lawn. Awhile later I decided to open it up and make sure that there weren't any spiders or anything "unnerving" for me hiding in it (I don't like bugs. I know, then I shouldn't be trying to garden. I'm trying to come to terms with the bugs and creepy crawlies...)

I flipped open the tarp, and I noticed some little white "balls" inside of it. I took a closer look, and noticed that one seemed to be broken, and realized that I was looking at eggs! The broken egg had a little yolk coming out of it and causing it to stick to the tarp. A couple of others had rolled off into the grass. Upon closer inspection, I found four unbroken eggs and three broken ones.

It didn't take the ants long to feed on the broken eggs. Within minutes there were a number of them climbing in and out of the broken egg in the grass.

I felt bad that I had disturbed these eggs, and knew that they probably had little to no chance of hatching now. However I figured I had to give them a chance. So the four viable eggs I placed in a sheltered corner of a bed next to my deck. I tried to find a spot that I expected to be a little shady, since the eggs were in a relatively cool spot in the shed, and I was trying to duplicate their natural environment as well as possible.

Then I covered them over with some leaves and debris.

I figure they probably won't hatch, but at least I tried. I know that reptile eggs tend to be pretty "particular" in regards to temperature and positioning. We'll see what happens with them.

I figure they have to be snake (too big to be a lizard), but they seem to be from a small snake. They aren't very big for a corn snake or black snake. I have to worry that they could belong to a coral or pygmy rattler, as I am not familiar with any "non-venomous" small snakes.

If they are venomous snakes, here's to them remembering who helped to bring them into this world by finding them a nice location to incubate and creating them a nesting site!