I'm no fool, I don't like the poisonous ones. But other than that I'm not afraid of snakes. But I do understand phobias since I have one with cockroaches (go figure that I stay here in Florida!) Anyway, last week while in the veggie patch, I noticed the dog growling and jumping at something. Sure enough, it was a HUGE striped rat snake. I made her stop since it's harmless and I don't want her messing with snakes since we have killed rattle snakes here. Later on that afternoon I go to the chicken coop to gather eggs, I opened up the hatch to the nesting boxes and this snake is inside one of them, trying to swallow a golf ball, with a real egg laying right beside it. So I grab a stick and try to sweep it out of the coop, the stick is brittle and keeps breaking off. I finally get it out of the coop on the ground, still the golf ball is in it's mouth. So I go to look for the pitchfork only to pick it up and move it off the property - when I get back it is gone - the golf ball lying there where it finally managed to spit it out. So I'm searching for it, can't believe it disappeared so fast. Then I looked up in a close-by tree and there it is, out on a limb, sticking it's tongue out at me. So I gave up for about and hour and went back to check the coop - it's back in there AGAIN trying to swallow another golf ball. I chased it back and forth all over that chicken coop but it got away through the chicken wire and into another tree. The next time I will get a pair of gloves on and snatch that sucker up and dispense with him to the neighbor's property.

Below is my favorite site for identification - it's fairly general but is a good way to start. I don't know of any natural repellants other than: human/animal activity in the yard, removal of food sources and removal of cover. I've found that the more time I spend out in the yard, the fewer snakes I see. When there is no fruit on the ground at the neighbor's house, there are fewer snakes - no rats for them to eat. If I keep the leaves raked in the back, same thing, fewer snakes - no where for them to hide. The brown and white striped one was likely a glass lizard recently identified on this forum. Actually a legless lizard rather than a snake, they still look snakey to me. They are slow movers and I've noticed they have a tendency to "freeze" when frightened. I've gotten a couple of them with the weed whacker and mower, much to my chagrin. I've learned to live with the snakes in our yard, it's not been so bad except when they sit up and beg for a treat when I'm out in the garden, they like to help me with my work *wink* My husband didn't realize there were so many until I moved in - I look for them all the time. I can completely appreciate your feelings of "creepy" with them and look forward to the day when you will be more at ease. manature (Marcia) has been an invaluable resource for aiding us in our quest for snakey knowlegde - thanks again Marcia! Hope this info helps, Terri Here is a link that might be useful: Online Guide to Snakes in Florida

"All other snake encounters I've had, all I had to do was step back a few feet and wait and the snake would wander off to the brush." This is a great strategy for snake encounters. With cottonmouths (and also copperheads to some degree) I find that they will often continue to stand their ground until they think you have left the area. This is easily solved by simply continuing to back away (paying some attention to see that there aren't other snakes around as you are backing). Most species I move off roads..I can just chase off the road, but with cottonmouths I will gently tap them on the tail with a stick and then back away. They leave once they think I am gone but they usually won't flee until they think the threat is gone. "A female cotton mouth protecting her nest will go after any animal that comes near it... including humans. If you've ever accidentally dropped anchor over one or walked by one on the sand near it, you'd experience it first hand." Cottonmouths give live birth to a litter of anywhere from 1 to 16 young in August, September or sometimes early October (the average litter is 6 to 7). They typically give birth in upland areas and do not have nests in the sense that birds or some mammals do. "Out of all the snakes in Texas, the moccasin is the only one I turn tail and run when I see it." Moving away from the snake is, indeed, a good idea. The most common recommended advice is to back away slowly rather than sprint away. The primary reason is that you can pay better attention to your surroundings if you are moving slowly. Once you've seen a venomous snake and are more than 1/2 its body length away..the snakes you don't see are a bigger danger than the one you can see. Since cottonmouths are locally abundant in places, running away quickly can lead to running so fast that you step on another cottonmouth 15 feet away (this probably matters more in a wilderness area than in a yard where chances are the one you see is the only one around). I don't know of any cases of this happening with cottonmouths, but I do know of an unfortunate case where someone saw a rattlesnake a good distance away and freaked out and took off running so fast that they ran smack dab full steam onto a different rattlesnake that reacted instantly to being trampled on and tagged them. Of course the odds of this are still pretty low, so there probably isn't really much practical difference between turning tail and running and backing away.

Unfortunately for folks who would like to keep snakes away from their living quarters, there are no effective snake repellants (I have my doubts about the effectiveness of Snake-A-Way too). The best ways to limit the occurence of snakes in an area are to reduce their habitat and prey but that isn't possible (or desirable) when the habitat is a lake. There are no venomous water snakes in upstate NY and the snakes are almost certainly harmless Northern Water Snakes so she should take at least some comfort in the fact that they are harmless. But, of course, I realize that for most folks the fact that a snake is known to be harmless is of only little comfort if they are startled and frightened by all snakes.