When my parents built their house in a field, for years frogs and chipmunks fell into the basement's deep window wells. The "pooper scooper" was perfect for lifting them out and returning them to the field and pond. But snakes? They would drive ME out!

More than once, a bird had gotten into DH's house via the chimney. He'd open the windows and shoo it out. When we got married we lived in MY house! no fireplace lol!

Bpathome- per the birds in the chimney... our fireplace is now outside:) We had a pair of raccoons get in that way in a previous house. One ended up in my master closet and one got up into the attic through a crawl door. We were fortunate to have a trapping service get them before one of them died up there... pee yew. The one in my closet had to be gotten out with a loop, snarling and hissing.

At my current rental, where we'll be until the house is finished, we have a host of interesting wildlife including rattlesnakes and tarantulas. Thankfully I have yet to meet any of those. We also have big horn sheep and sometimes as they wander through the yards they will go up an headbutt the sliding patio doors. I guess they see their reflection and get mad, lol.

Deer, wild turkeys, two coyotes and a copper head so far. Oh and don't forget the mouse that is in the house since our garage doors aren't on yet. DH ran over a nest of copper heads when he was doing the dirt work on our 650 foot long drive way.

I hate snakes with a passion and I am not looking forward to that part of country living. I love country music but I'm a city girl :)

Our 1st agenda item after we move in, besides our punch list, is to locate and get rid of the 2 coyotes since we have 2 yorkies and they are both under 7 lbs.

Lots of copper head sightings - that would scare the pants off me. Renee-my dog is large and dh TELLS me a coyote wouldn't mess with her but they still freak me out when I hear them howling in the night. Of course being the princess she is inside snuggled up on her bed but if she happened to be outside when I heard them I'd call her in every single time.

No, no, autumn, not more deer. They are like giant rabbits. Pretty...until they eat all your plants. My mom complains that this one Canada goose couple scares off all the other flocks...but before the Grouches she had so many geese it was getting scary.

When I was a kid it was a treat to see a chipmunk; now they are the bane (cute, but bane nonetheless) of my existence and the cause for two concrete stoop replacements.

The occasional coyote and fox, and hawks! When I was a kid we NEVER saw hawks (they need to get busy on the chipmunks). and we hear the owl, but never see it.

Life in the suburbs, would probably be even more exciting out in the country :)

Those are all outside, though. Inside just the occasional mouse. Hmm, maybe I need a snake to get rid of them?

Oh we have chipmunks they are sooo cute - but DH hates them and tries to shoot them with a pellet gun and squirrels galore. They do eat all of the bird feed we have out - rascals!

I suppose if I actually HAD a lawn with flowers planted I wouldn't like them either. Until then I do wish there were more. :O By fall, by fall........I hope.

Last year I had to remove a bird's nest from one of my dryer vents. I felt guilty because it had eggs in it, it was Mother's Day, and the bird was eyeing me from the roof of my garage! But I didn't want baby birds in my vent, and I didn't want a fire. Also, there's a tree not 10 feet away! They could have built there. (I now have basket-like covers over the vents. The louvers didn't keep them out.)

But snakes, esp. something like a copperhead? Yikes!

I will NOT complain about the little water bugs creeping under the door EVER AGAIN! :)

I had 2 wild turkeys land in my back yard last fall...the dog & I were on the porch and to say it startled us would be quite the understatement! I almost stepped on an apparently curious LARGE black snake that slithered up onto our porch...again, just the dog & I were home. The kids & DH miss all of this "fun." I literally never took my eyes off the snake until he finally slithered off down the steps and back into the woods from which he came. I had no interest in harming him (her?) but I also had no interest in being "surprised" again either!

Many deer, I once saw an entire deer family (mom, dad, jr) strolling down my street during my 5am run.

I've found a few snakes around our place, but none have gotten inside. Our house is so tight, I don't know how anything would get in, but we keep finding scorpions, which I'm not crazy about.

Scorpions? In South Carolina? I had no idea....

How could I forget about these? We had no idea we had anything like this in MI. Littlest man loves them!

Oh I remember finding salamanders like that in the woodpiles when I was a kid. I loved those things! I was a weirdo for a girl though :-). I also LOVED snails and got a kick out of those spiders that live in pairs and don't match each other (one brown, one black if I remember correctly). I used to HOLD them! EEWWW!!!

We've only spotted deer (I stumbled upon their bedding area last year and the buck was there and stood right up to take me on. I bet I looked a sight hightailing it out of there!!) and a fox.

We have a lot of those little skinks around here- I saw my first one of the season just today. Lots of other lizards, too. There are a lot of box turtles around here, too. But toads- My goodness do we have toads! Some nights the woods are just unbelievably noisy. Toads, tree frogs, katydids, cicadas, etc.

The scorpions are small- about an inch or so. I've been told that their sting is about like a wasp. I don't mind them outside, but (don't tell my wife) I've found them in the bed!

Lots and lots of bugs, too. Wasps, hornets, yellow jackets- it's a little scary sometimes. My favorites are lightning bugs. We discovered that right as it gets dark, they rise out of the woods en masse. It looks like a little city until they disperse.

Autumn- I remember those skinks! With the downpours we've had here lately, last night's entertainment was the frog symphony. Lookin' for love in all the wet places... On our walk yesterday we noodged a turtle out of the middle of the street so he wouldn't get smooshed. Saw another dead snake in the road. If our resident alligator makes an appearance, I will post a shot. Don't think he will bother to climb up the driveway though:)

Is that what they are called? Skinks? We haven't seen one yet this year but I suspect they are starting to wake up from the deep freeze!

Blue Tailed Skinks can make a dog or cat extremely high (in an LSD way) and sick for up to several days. Not sure if it can kill them, but I've had a dog and cat (several times) catch them. Don't have to eat one to get sick.

I killed many copperheads at our last house. Only a rattlesnake here. Rat snakes, corn snakes and water snakes are commonly mistaken for copperheads, but rat snakes are good to have around and not venomous.

We have deer, fox, coyotes, owls, bald eagles, frogs, toads, bobcats, wild turkey, geese, ducks, egrets, hawks, beavers, otters, hummingbirds, and more. I love living in a rural area!

We haven't started building but when we went with our builder and realtor to look at the lot our realtor claimed she saw two wild turkeys and a deer. We've bought 1.7 wooded acres with a small dry creekbed running through it. It's at the edge of one subdivision that's at the edge of town but another established subdivision backs up to our property. I'm sure that we'll continue to see wildlife though because across the street is a 5+ acre wooded parcel that has much larger creek running through it. Someone has already bought it and we think they're going to leave most of the trees for privacy.

allison0704-thanks for the tip - I had no idea and we do have a dog. She doesn't seem too interested in things like that - frogs and stuff. Can they make people sick from touching? We have rat snakes too. Give me the chills. We love the rural area too - it's so peaceful.

They don't like to be held and their tails break off very easily. I found this online:

"Lizard Toxicosis

Lizard-eating is popularly viewed as the cause of a constellation
of symptoms, including hypersalivation, vomiting, fever, loss of
appetite, loss of coordination and even death. The Merck Veterinary
Manual, however, attributes "lizard poisoning" syndrome to severe
infestation by Platynosomum concinnum, a liver fluke.

Vestibular Disease

Lizard poisoning is described by pet owners as the cause of
vestibular clinical signs such as dizziness, imbalance and head tilt,
but this is not the only cause of these problems. The same symptoms can
be caused by a respiratory infection, or even idiopathic vestibular
disease; "idiopathic" is a medical term meaning something that just
happens and we don't know why. In short, There is no scientific
documentation that blue-tailed skinks are toxic to cats, but there are a
lot of claims that they are."

I can tell you my cat Boo has gotten sick from the twice with many of the symptoms mentioned above. Our dog vomited a few times and didn't feel well for a few days, but didn't walk sideways like Boo.