I had my chance to kill this snake who was hanging around my deck yesterday. It was slow-moving; maybe it had just eaten something. I don't like to kill anything, except for mosquitoes that land on me and suck my blood. Mosquitoes can cause encephalitis and give my dogs heartworms. Obviously, I must kill them. Snakes and other things that aren't hurting me, but have the potential to, I leave them alone. Snakes emit a nasty odor when they are killed. This one probably is a water moccasin, aka cottonmouth. It's poison could cause local tissue damage one informative web-site said. When I showed it to my husband, he asked me if I was ready for him to kill it. I didn't want to make that call, so we both blew it off and went about our business. I don't know if we did the right thing, since I imagine that it is now living under my raised house and will bite my dogs, or cats, or aim for my ankles as I descend my steps.
4 comments:
Wasps, mosquitos and midges I have no hesitation in killing. Anything else I always hesitate and probably don't follow through with (did you read mouse slayer?).
Fortunately snakes aren't much of a problem in the UK - there's only one poisoness kind in the country - the adder - and that's more likely to be found on the moors, not in homes.
Still I guess your snake might help keep your rodent problems to a minimum...
I loved your mouse-slayer entry. It was good writing. I felt sorry for the mouse, and for the slow death you witnessed. No fun.
As for the snake, my Mom said the same thing about it keeping the rodent population down. My cats help out with that too. I have two cats that are very good mousers. Unfortunately, they catch an occasional bird at the feeder too.
I will have to look up what a midge is. I wonder if we have them around here.
Midges are a wee flying biting insect that make the lives of those livng in certan parts of Scotland an absolute misery.
A full description can be found here
http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.midge.html
You can even get a midge forcast here:
http://www.midgeforecast.co.uk/home/forecast.asp
And although they are generally very small, here's a picture of what everyone knows they're really like:
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usfeatures/midges/
That last link was a great picture. I now know what to look for. We do not have midges here, I guess. Thank goodness.
My sister(s), cousin, and a brother think I am wrong to not have killed the moccasin. One of them asked me if I am crazy. Now, how would I know that?
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