I hear a lot of coworkers that live in slightly larger more populated cities say, “the only good kind of snake is a dead snake”. Well that’s just cuz you live in a more landscaped developed area and you dont have a bunch of wide open tall-grass areas and you have little need of their services. If someone saddled you with about 6,000 field mice you might think differently on that. garter snakes, rate snakes, grass snakes, hog nosed snakes, they’re all good in my book. Let them come. I actually transplanted a bunch of baby snakes here when i took a load of rocks from a friend’s property in a neighboring town to build the rock wall around the chicken pen. She said we were taking too long picking up individual rocks and so she dug the shovel in and just kept shoveling the loads of rocks into my suv, baby snakes, wolf spiders, scorpions and all. I drove the load to my property knowing i had at least twenty baby snakes riding in there with me. And all but one came out when i unloaded the rocks. That one rode around with me for four more days before i shooed it out the trunk upon discovering it. Most of them were garter snakes. When i see one thats about twice the size of the babies that day i assume it may be from that carload but i’ll never know for sure; just guessing.
In hindsight im going to guess that this is either a flathead or rough earth snake because its all brown, not that big, and shiny. However, i have no idea what it really is. If anyone knows, id be grateful for the feedback just out of pure curiosity. Most of the time im looking for signs of a rattler or a copperhead and if its not one of those two i assume the snake is friend rather than foe. Even the rattlers, i leave alone unless they post up in one of the animal pens. They live here. Im living in their habitat. If i tried to kill every last one i’d go insane from the impossibility of the task. The better thing to do is keep the grass short and the den-like areas scarce. That means they’ll move through and keep going. They dont like a lot of commotion anyways and i make enough of that between myself and the dogs. The rattlers out here dont rattle anymore. They’ve evolved to avoid wild hogs. They’re silent. And i find that even when i find them they have exercised restraint with me whether it was only releasing a small amount of venom when biting the dog in the face (i mean she was trying to kill it when she stuck her face in it to be fair) or sitting still when i threw a dog bowl at the metal fence beside it 6 times to alert the stupid chicken to move from a centimeter from it, or the two times i discovered one in the grass feet away from my foot and they each just went the other way…rattlesnakes are more assertive than other snakes and their behavior is unpredictable at times, so dont ever sleep on that, but i find, given the opportunity, most of them would rather turn the other way and go about their business than spend time on me. That may be because i dont make any aggressive moved towards them and i generally give them their space. I have rules about engaging animals in hand to hand combat while an ambulance ride to the nearest hospital would be a solid hour long endeavor from and to the hospital…dont try to kill it unless you know you’ll win. That’s pretty much the hard fast rule. Rattlesnakes are fast, assertive, and have a striking distance thats more impressive than mine. So unless the snake was drunk or i was wearing a full body steel toed boot…im probably gonna just stay out of its way until its gone on through. I note where they are, keep track of them while im doing chores, and then give them time to move on before i let the dogs out. I have a coworker that boasted, “no, im a mother. Anytime i see a rattlesnake i grab a shovel and that thing’s dead.” You can afford to feel that way when you live across the street from the hospital and your yard is in the city. Rattlers passing through are a more rare phenomenon and not a lost cause to handle and if it goes south, you’re very close to anti-venom. I have to think about the cost of a helicopter ride and the insanity of trying to eradicate them from the wilderness which is their own natural habitat. Just encourage the population of road runners and keep the grass short. They’ll move towards the taller grass where the food and cover is. Now if i had a gun, that might be a different story. You could shoot the snake from afar without guaranteeing a bite if you miss. However, that gets into the weeds of my “was it necessary” argument with myself. A raccoon or coyote that has been trying to raid the chicken pen needs to die because it will be back. A rattler may or may not bite me if it feels threatened but how often is it going to cross paths with me in its life and how often is it going to feel threatened? Maybe never. They dont really bother us unless a dog sticks their face in one or i step on one. I think a lot about animals as if i was in their shoes. A rattlesnake didnt ask to be born a rattlesnake. Its just doing its thing. What if a certain species wanted to kill me just because i was a human and could sometimes be dangerous. Id rather that species evaluate my right to live based on individual actions. So, if its an aggressive snake i should probably find a way to kill it, and if its not, maybe i just stay out of its way, because who am i to say all rattlesnakes should die because they have the potential to be dangerous to me? Its a weird way to think but i consider myself an animal, not apart from animals. As a human, i feel like im just another animal out here, and i try to live amongst the existing animals in this ecosystem more than conquer them. Its a lot less stressful.