Snakes!

 Water Moccassin aka Cotton Mouth (image from internet)

This post doesn't have much to do with horses, but more about life on the farm.  Let me also preface this, by stating that I appreciate that snakes are a vital part to any ecosystem, but I have taken the stance that if I see a snake, I kill it, unless I can instantly identify that it is a non-dangerous type (like the green/black striped racers I see in the pond).  If I see a snake that is black, I don't take a chance on guessing about how dangerous it is.  I have a son who plays outdoors quite a bit, and I have taken this stance to make sure the snake population stays low around our house.  We also make sure that we have no leaf litter or any other debris piles near the house where they could hide.  We try to discourage them from coming near our home, in hopes of saving their lives.

Since I moved to this place in 2005, I have seen many snakes.  Being a non-Texas resident, the snakes were new varieties that I had never seen.  I had heard enough tales from people to make me beleive that every snake I saw was a water moccassin aka cotton mouth.  This breed is VERY venomous, and very aggressive.  If this breed has the choice of fight or flight, it chooses fight almost every time.

As the years have passed, I have begun to study the different snakes as I kill them and tried to determine if these snakes I'm seeing really are moccasins, or something else.  A recent trip to Utah was awesome for this.  We went to the zoo, and they had one.  I immediately noticed that this snake was a short and super thick snake.  The one in the zoo was around 3 foot long, and was as thick around as my forearm in the middle.  This specimen in the zoo was obviously a very old one.

This year has been horrible with snakes.  This spring, I have had 8 ducks, and 20 chickens that have been laying eggs.  This means I have had an over-abundance of eggs.  The snakes learned of this, and I have been battling them.  This week alone I have killed 4 rat snakes, all longer than 4.5 feet.  To help with this, I have now disposed of all duck nests, and I gather my chicken eggs daily.  I am trying to remove the food source, so that these snakes will take their appetites elsewhere.

This morning I opened the chicken coop, and found a poor frog stuck in the chicken wire of my brooder.  Inside my chicken coop, I have a separate brooder that the chickens cannot get into.  A big ol' frog had tried to go through the chicken wire and gotten stuck.  His head and front legs were through it, and his rear legs and midsection where stuck.  I have seen this frog in the chicken coop all year, and he was just a resident there.  I had compassion on him, and helped squeeze his legs together so he could finish getting through the wire.

So tonight as I was gathering eggs, I looked in the brooder to see this frog.  Instead of a frog, I found a snake, curled up in the corner.  Right away, I noticed that this snake was not a rat snake like I've been seeing all year.  This snake was much shorter, and he was pure black on top.  His nose was also more pointy than the rat snakes.  I also noticed a fat section in his body, which immediately let me know where Mr. Frog was now residing.  :(

My son was with me, and I took this opportunity to show him the snake, and explain what had happened.  We talked about why the snake was there, and what he had just done to poor Mr. Frog.

The next paragraph is of me disposing of the snake and some things I noticed.  It could be considered graphic, so if you wish to not know of this, please skip this paragraph.  I keep a spade shovel in the chicken coop just for snake disposing.  I told my son to stand way back, and then I grabbed the shovel.  First, I pinned the snake to the ground in the middle.  The snake began striking the shovel and I noticed two things.  One, was a milky fluid flying all over the place, and the other was a smell.  A very rank musty smell began to spread.  I had obviously identified this snake correctly, because the milky stuff was venom, and the musty smell was something I had read about.  I slowly worked the snake out of the brooder, always make sure I had him pinned so that he was in as much control as could be.  This lead to me pinning him right behind the head with the shovel and with one pound from my boot, the shovel did the job.  The snake was now head-less, and not as dangerous ( keeping in mind that the head was still dangerous!)

Snake Body:  Notice the texture of the scales.  Reminds me of a tire.  Not smooth.

This pic was to show the length in contrast to my spade shovel.

 Snake Head:  Click on this to see the texture.  Very amazing to me.

Underside of Snake:  This was a creamy yellow color.

I then took this opportunity to teach my son about this snake.  I showed him the texture of the snake, and it's colors.  I also used a stick to show him the inside of the mouth and how big the fangs were.  I swear, the fangs on this thing were as long as it's head was!  I also took some pictures just so I could know for myself what a moccasin looks like.  I taught him that we only kill snakes if they are interfereing with our life and that we try to do our best from discouraging them from interacting with us in the first place.  We then walked over to the pond and tossed the snake in it.  The snapping turtles we have do a wonderful job of disposing of these kind of things.

That's life on the farm.  I am very happy to now know firsthand what moccasins look like at our place, so that in the future, I will be able to readily identify them.  This may save a few rat snakes lives!  :)