Marcia, Please help me find out what kind of snake I came across today. While I was at the local dog park (near Orlando) I came across a yellow with black stripes snake. It looked to be between 3.5-4 feet long and did not appear at first glance (that was all I gave it out of fear) to be shiny. I was about 3 feet from it and didn't know it until my dog almost stepped on it. She obviously didn't see it either. The snake seemed a pit peeved about the whole thing but it decided not to attack and to slowly slither towards ME to get away from my dog. Needless to say, I took off in a different direction real quick and hollered for my dog to follow. I am not like you or others on this site. I am not a fan of snakes and am extremely afraid of them. Although, I don't mind the black racers that seem to have taken up permanent residence in MY back yard and they love to procreate often (or so it seems). I have seen a lot less field rats since the racers moved in and that makes me very happy. Anyway, can you help me figure out what this snake was? I have spent hours and hours online tonight trying to find it and just can't seem to find anything that looks like it. I am guessing that it is not dangerous to me or my dogs??? I am scared to take my dogs back through those woods that they so dearly love. As soon as I told them, "No more woods until the snakes are gone again," they "told" me to find it if it was dangerous or not and if it isn't that they want to go back again. So that is mostly why I am asking you for your help. We all love the walks but I am afraid of the snakes. Please help me feel safer about going back. Thanks in advance for your help.

You guys demonstrate my theory that cottonmouths are "passive-aggressive." Dangerous in that they don't move out of the path, often, and people who are not alert can step on them. Tales of them chasing people are usually highly exaggerated. This isn't to say it can't happen. Just that it's not a common behavior. My best cottonmouth story involved canoeing by myself on Rock Springs Run. I was in an area we call the Flats. Very shallow water, with a lot of grassy vegetation. Makes for slow canoeing as you try to glide through without digging up the bottom. I spotted a cottonmouth in the water, about 2 1/2 feet long, and close to the shore. It had a dead fish in its mouth. I don't think it killed the fish, but I can't be sure of that. But the fish looked REAL dead. It was a panfish of some type (bluegill, shellcracker, one of those) and quite wide, and this snake was trying its best to figure out how to swallow it. The snake worked its mouth slowly around the body of the fish, which was way, WAY too wide for it to swallow, and even tried to force it down sideways. The fish was probably ten inches long and no way was that snake going to get it down sideways. I let the canoe drift over fairly close, as I was enjoying the show. The snake finally began working its way towards the head of the fish, where it would have had the best chance to get it down, but suddenly noticed me or my canoe slowly nearing. If snakes could change expression, this one's eyes would have bugged out and his mouth would have dropped open. If they could talk, he would have been yelling "Holy Sheepdip! Where'd THAT come from??" He did a backflip away from the fish and took off for the weeds like a streak! It was so funny looking, I almost fell out of my canoe laughing at him. I always wondered if he came back later to finish working on the fish. But I didn't wonder about who was more scared by our encounter. He definitely was! Still...I am very careful on the river or in places where cottonmouths might lurk. They normally don't care if you approach them. I admire them, but I don't want to step on one or come face to face with one at any closer range than what I just described. I'm not NEARLY as brave as Wayne! Marcia

Thanks for looking in and for the comments. I've only just arrived back home today. The climate statistics for Cooktown are on the Weather Bureau site, URL as follows: www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_031017_All.shtml There's a number of H. australis subspecies, the ones in the photos are most likely ssp tenuipes as I believe ssp sanae is a bit further north. (Ssp. australis is a lot further south whilst ssp oramicola and ssp rupicola are much further north west.) The only one that I can visually distinguish is ssp rupicola as it's the local one where I live. Having seen at least 3 of the subspecies in habitat, it would be a fair guess that H. australis likes rocky, more exposed environments with a very dry winter (Dry) season. You can see in the last photo of the H. australis how the plant is yellowing and wrinkling from the harsh dry conditions. However, as with all the others, it will come back really healthy when the rains set in. It tends to seek out these conditions. So it's probably one of the Hoyas that would most likely be killed by kindness rather than by neglect. Our local ssp rupicola is even more extreme in its liking of harshness. The H. pottsii is pretty much opposite. It thrives under a heavy canopy (shade) on the sheltered side of the mountain. In this situation it would be in a more humid environment than if it was on the windy side of the mountain. The mountain is only 431 metres tall but one side drops steeply straight into the sea. That's the side that gets the south easterly trade winds during the winter/dry season. So the lesson here would be to keep pottsii in bright light but out of continual direct sun, keep it on the dry side during winter but maintain some degree of relative air humidity. During the summer/wet season both species are subjected to frequent torrential rainfall and constantly very high humidity. Further up the coast (northwards) are H. australis ssp sanae, H. sussuela and H. macgillivrayi. But this trip I didn't get up that far. Maybe next time, and I'll come back with in habitat photos of those species. :O)

Wow, qute a lot more responses here. Thank you so much. Judy. I think the fence measures approx 7' due to the fact that it mainly sits on a raised bed. That fence is not too long and because it was dividing two areas of the garden, we needed it to be quite decorative. But our main deer fence, you cannot see. This goes through all the evergreen trees and is approx 7 or 8 feet also. Sorry I cannot remember the size, but I have included a link below. We had it installed about four years ago and I have to say, it changed my life. We are right on a deer path with population getting larger and larger. By the time we installed the fence, our rose devistation was heart breaking, despite all my egg spraying every five days. I was ready to give up. It got so bad that many roses actually died because of the constant chewing and general weekening. So with the deer fence, we moved surviving roses to the back, and are developing this now, and adding more and more and hopefully MORE roses. :) Anyhow, deer are now welcome in the front and all the rest of the garden. They live here. But our front yard, is not as nice any more. They are eating many things they never ate before, including geraniums. So we have to rethink the whole thing and come up with a different kind of garden. I have substituted dahlias for the geraniums and I do not like them nearly as much. But I have to come up with something that works, because I will not chase the deer away anymore, we love them now, heehee! I am introducing a lot more peonies which are lovely. Hence I do not even think I have taken a picture of our front this year -just ain't the same. Pauline Here is a link that might be useful: Deer Fence