It wasn't til I lifted the snake out of the grass that I realized that what I had in my hands was not, in fact, a rat snake. It had a diamond shaped head and an upturned snout. I was holding 10" of venomous god-knows-what!
I just stood there in my garden for a minute trying to decide what to do. Put it down? No, there were way too many animals wandering nearby to release this potentially deadly thing. Kill it? With what?! If this thing bit me, I was home alone and kinda screwed. What to do? What to do??
I finally stopped spazzing out and carried it over to the poultry house where I found a big waterer that screwed shut. I tossed the thing in there and slapped on the lid!
Just to be doubly safe I put it in one of the cages, locked the door, and waited for Big Onion to come home so that if I got bit at least there would be someone there to bring me to the hospital!
We did some research and decided that the snake was probably a cottonmouth and that the best course of action would be to dispatch it.
I rallied my courage and grabbed a pair of tongs and my trusty kitchen scissors. It wasn't long before Mr. Snake was no longer sharing the same address as his head.
WARNING: Graphic dead snake picture below...
I left the body sitting out on the driveway and within 24 hours the ants had picked it totally clean.
Pretty impressive, eh?
From what I can see it looks like a cottonmouth, although the young ones always give me a little trouble telling them from water snakes. When they get big they get really black and the mouth really stands out. Biggest one I ever killed was had about a 4lb catfish it was trying to eat. That thing hung off both ends of the tailgate on a full size truck.
ReplyDeleteThe only other poison snakes you can see are easily identified. Several species of rattlers, copperheads and coral snakes.
You all need a 410 around there to dispatch the varmits safely.