Kudzu, sorry about my previous post, I had had a couple glasses of wine and was feeling pretty brave, (just show the snake the door, lol). I do know how you feel though, it's such a shock to come up upon one in the house and you can't shake the feeling thinking it might still be there. Especially with little ones around. You know those 3 tier hanging mesh baskets you use for potatoes and onions- in a different house (yes, close to the water) I came into the kitchen one day to find one hanging off of it, another time one was under the kitchen counter. Another place (yes, close to the water) was bad for moccasins, big ones. The barn had a concrete floor and they liked to come stretch out along the corners. Had to be real careful moving things. I've had a little ringneck in the bathroom at this house, so far that's all, though. You've got me snakey just thinking about it, now. Anyway I hope you find your snake, or don't find your snake, lol, whichever is better. And don't forget to take a picture like Patti did! Now there's a brave soul.

Krista, I already had had a lot of encounters with snakes in trees before I saw one up on a tomato cage and also up in a tall tomato plant, so I was sort of prepared for it---though there is no way to describe what was going through my mind when I looked at a tomato plant and saw snakes eyes staring right back at me. There is a Murphy's Law specifically for snakes and guns and it goes like this: If you carry a gun with you, you will not encounter a venomous snake, but if you leave your gun in the house, you certainly will see a snake and wish you had your gun. I've learned to call someone to come shoot it and I know my job is to not take my eyes off that snake and let it get away. (It is embarrassing if a friend comes over to shoot the huge, venomous snake you just saw and you've let the snake get away because you turned your head for only a second.) About 98% of the timber rattlers I've seen are not the black phase ones--they are the standard ones with their background color varying from tan to almost a pale yellow fading to white, and then their marking are black. Around here, folks call them "velvettails" because their rattles have a velvety black outer layer. Usually the ones I see are 3-4' long, but I've seen two that were around 5' long and one that was about 6' long. By the time they have grown to be 5-6', they are very big around and are a horrible sight. It was a black phase one that bit Duke on the bridge of his nose about 6 years ago, and to this day anything tubular and black (a water hose, for example) scares him. He also remembers the exact spot where he was bitten and for several years afterwards would walk around that area, not through it, when we were out walking and got close to that location. Carol, I'm glad that your son's dog made it. I don't know why the snakes are so bad this year, but they surely are all over the place. Kim, I love lizards and toads and we have both in the gardens, but snakes will eat them, so keep that in mind. If you have something around that snakes will eat, sooner or later the snakes will show up looking for it. Amy, That is horrible and there would have been a time when I would have thought that couldn't happen. I know better now. One of the guys who works with my husband was taking a shower one day and one came up through the drain thing in the floor of the shower. He was quick and grabbed his cell phone and took a photo of it. It was so creepy. Bon, Eventually you'll encounter a snake you will wish you hadn't seen. I am stunned at how many we are seeing this year. We see snakes all the time....in the woods, in the pastures, in the roads, etc. and have a fair number of them in the yard and garden. This year, though, we are having tons of them in the yard and garden and even have had one in the garage. This is our 16th year here and the first time we've ever seen one in the garage. Long ago one of my neighbors mentioned to me that once he had one come slithering out of his vehicle's A/C vent while he was driving up the road. To this day, I cannot look at an air conditioning vent in the car without thinking of a snake slithering out of it. I kinda wish he'd never told me that story. We used bird netting with very small squares to try to keep the snakes out of Maddie's little Peter Rabbit Garden, and it worked but not the way we intended. We thought it would keep them from entering the garden. It sort of did, but it wasn't that they reached that mesh and turned away. Oh no, that would be too simple---I think they must not have been able to see the mesh or something and they'd try to squeeze through it and would get stuck and there we would be with either a live or dead snake stuck in the bird netting. It was not a pretty sight. Dawn

Scott, The coral snakes are "supposed to" stay on the Texas side of the Red River, and we're surrounded by the river and by Texas to our west, south and east....and in 16 years of living here, and 18 years of owning this land, I've never seen a coral snake here in OK yet. I hope those coral snakes understand that they are supposed to stay over in Texas and not come here. Still, I remain conscious of the fact that the river (which often is pretty much dry in places for much of the summer) will not stop the snakes, so we still could encounter them here. I hope if I ever see one, it is from a great distance so I have time to recite to myself "Red on yellow, kill a fellow, Red on black, venom lack" and then I can study it and decide if it is venomous and if I should be worried. On our property, we have had, at various times, encounters with western diamondbacks, pygmy rattlers, timber rattlers, copperheads and water moccasins. The water moccasins weren't a problem very often since they stuck to bodies of water. However, after Extreme and Exceptional Drought continually dried up most of our ponds and our creeks, they moved to the ornamental lily pond in our back yard. After fighting them there for several years, we let the pond dry up last year and this year we filled it in. I miss my lily pond but it wasn't worth the risk. My closest encounter with a snake was with a pygmy rattler, which was about 2" from my hand. I rarely see those, though, unless I venture into the woods, and I rarely see a western diamondback other than sleeping on the rocks in a sunny spot alongside the creek. The copperheads often are found on the 'edges', like where the grassland meets the woodland and we most often encounter them while mowing. The timber rattlers, though, are a very persistent problem. They come out of our neighbor's woodland to our south, travel across his cow pasture with grass waist high or higher, and then come onto our property, where we most often encounter them in the driveway, in the veggie garden or near the chicken coop. They seem to travel the same little trails that the deer and rabbits use, so at least I know exactly where I am most likely to see one. Over the weekend, one of my neighbors asked me if I had a snake-free summer, because normally he is the person who will come and shoot a snake for me if I am home alone and encounter one when I don't have a gun with me. I told him that I had plenty of snake encounters, including the one with the timber rattler last week, but this year the snakes scheduled all their visits for days with my husband or son were home. When we first moved here, my experience with venomous snakes was fairly limited and I would run into the house and grab a gun and come back out to shoot it, and of course the snake wouldn't be there. I laugh at myself now when I think of that because I guess I thought the snake would just sit there and wait for me to come back and kill it. Obviously, they don't do that. It has taken me a long time to accept the fact that snakes always will be in my garden at times, but I just try to take it with a grain of salt when I see a non-venomous snake in the garden. I know they are good garden helpers and aren't going to hurt me. We often have rough green tree snakes in the garden where they like to sit wrapped around the canna leaves waiting for something delicious to come along for dinner. They also like to sit up in tomato cages and will travel across the shade cloth I put over tomato cages in the worst heat of the summer in a drought year. It is sort of disconcerting to be picking tomatoes and to look up and see a green snake at eye level, but I've gotten used to it. Dawn

There are NOT baby "water moccasins" (Cottonmouths). Your friend clearly doesn't know much about snake identification. This is a hatchling of either the Southern Black Racer (Coluber constrictor) or possibly the Eastern Coachwhip (Coluber flagellum) (the babies are difficult to distinguish from just the head. These snakes are harmless lizard eaters. The Southern Black Racer is one of the most common snake in Florida and that is the way I would lean on this one based on this photo. This post was edited by FHFchrish on Mon, Sep 16, 13 at 8:25