Tuesday Husband and I took the dog to the groomer in a little town about 10 miles west of us. I drove, and on the way back I had to swerve to avoid running over a very long rattlesnake that was slithering across the highway. We estimated it to be about four feet long. We have Prairie Rattlesnakes out here. Their markings are unmistakable. We have seen them all lengths, from tiny ones no thicker than a pencil to the long one on Tuesday. The weather has been so warm here I suppose it was a good time for the snake to check out the available mice in the ditch. We have never seen any in town.
I had some clients years ago who had to move out of their rental home on the south side of town because there were dozens of garter snakes in the walls of the basement. The house was later condemned and torn down. We heard that the lot the house was built on was a noted breeding ground for garter snakes. No other structure has been built there.
The town of Narcisse in Manitoba interlake region is well known for the tens of thousands of garter snakes that emerge from their nests in the spring and return in the fall. I guess it is quite a tourist attraction. We never visited there when we lived there. Snakes aren’t my cup of tea. I have a second cousin who I love dearly who lives near St. Peter and who loves snakes. He has bred snakes for commercial sale in the past, and loves it when his cats find garter snakes in the basement and bring them upstairs.
What are your experiences with snakes? Do you have any friends or relatives with interests you find odd?
Trail Baboon 
I come across snakes daily as I watch the Trump administration.
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A worthy metaphor, to be sure.
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I disagree. Snakes are much maligned. We need more snake advocates.
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Happily, I have very little experience with snakes – remember seeing some when hiking in Rocky Mtns. Colorado…
Not terribly odd, but I have a few of friends who are very involved with animal rescue, animal adoption, etc. I wouldn’t mind fostering a cat at some point, but not this week.
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OT. The Southdale library is absolutely gone now the last retaining wall that was up last week is now completely gone and the site is just mountains of dirt.
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Really? That is a landmark. What is going in there?
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A new library
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I am the friend or relative with the odd interests.o
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Snort.
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Rise and Slither on, Baboons,
When I was about 12 years old, our family moved from one house to another quite new house 3 blocks away. The advantage of this new house was that it was built to accommodate my dad’s wheelchair, although it was actually built for another family who lived there only two years. While it was being built my friends and I walked around the foundation of that and several other houses (1964). The development was on the edge of cornfields and undeveloped property. Which meant that plentiful garter snakes resided there, and occasionally would get into the basements. At first I would scream and shudder, then my uncle took me aside and told me not to act like that, and that he would teach me how to catch and hold on to a garter snake. All he did was grab it right behind the head and hold it firmly and gently. Then the rest of the snake wriggled behind my hand. Easy Peasy. So I became the official basement snake catcher. Later a gully behind the house was filled in and smoothed out which vastly reduced the population of the snakes and they no longer lived in the basement.
Later in 1983 my mother and I went out to visit my sister in Western S. Dakota on the Montana border. We drove 90 miles to visit Devil’s Tower. While walking on the paths with my 20month old son in a stroller I heard “rattle, rattle” at which point I hauled us out of the way. I never did see the snake, but the sound of the rattle was unmistakable. I was afraid for my son’s safety because he was lower to the ground and in snake range.
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We also have Northern Scorpions in the ND Badlands. We saw one scuttling around once on a hike.
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I have touched snakes three times on purpose in my life. I didn’t want YA to be as squeamish as I am. I think this has worked, but I’m not sure as snakes aren’t too common in our life. But I don’t like snakes at all, in fact, closing my eyes that I don’t even have to see the header photo today. Heebie-jeebies big time.
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In the old farm house (torn down in 1967) word has it we often had snakes. I am too young to remember, but mom learned to chop their heads off with a garden hoe I guess.
I know I was scared of them when I was little. No doubt learned from Mom. But these days they don’t bother me so much. I used to get good sized, like 4′, Fox snakes in the machine shed. I’d find them along the 2×4 wall girts and the steel siding. I’m sure it was warm there. And I’d find skins later on.
I find skins down in the pole barn too.
Nothing too unusual in my family.
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I had lots of garter snakes at my house in Waterville. There seem to be lots of garter snakes in Waterville; a friend who lived about three blocks away from me when I lived there has lots in her yard too. She is not shy about hitting them with a lawnmower or chopping them up with a shovel. Her behavior absolutely freaks me out. I don’t love snakes but I try not to hurt them.
I used to collect them at my house in Waterville, yes, picking them up right behind the head or just picking them up and putting them into a bucket. They like to hiss and flick their tongues at you. They might even bite if they feel really threatened but that has never happened to me. I’d put them in a bucket and haul them two miles away and release them at the fish hatchery. I got into trouble with my nasty supervisor over this. He said I was moving exotic species (not true), and called it my “snake stocking program.” He forbade me to do it again. So I took them to a gravel pit not far away. Like I said, I don’t love them, but I don’t want to hurt them, and I’d rather they lived somewhere other than my yard.
Once, as a barefoot child, I stepped on a snake in the long grass at the cabin on Cannon Lake. This was before we built our house on the lot. It was in the spring. The lawn hadn’t been mowed yet. The innocent snake wrapped itself around my ankle and I completely freaked out, screaming and running straight into the lake where the snake let go in the chilly water. I was not bitten. I don’t know what kind it was, but probably a garter snake.
Your cousin is my good friend… I don’t think he’s odd, really. Maybe eccentric, certainly highly intelligent, and very talented! He really doesn’t seem to understand why most people react the way they do to snakes. He lives with them in his house.
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I’ve met TJ only once, but we’ve been FB friends for years, and I’d say that we need more people like him to educate us about snakes and other reptiles and amphibians.
I literally cringe when I hear about people who deliberate harm or kill snakes, especially harmless ones. Wasband once killed a small snake with a spade. It was such a violent way to dispatch a creature that posed no threat to us; I still feel sick to my stomach when I think about it.
I salute you, Krista, for simply relocating your unwanted housemates.
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His dad was of Danish heritage. TJ’s grandpa and my grandpa were brothers.
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There is a song for everything.
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Gosh, it’s been decades since I’ve heard this song!!
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Yes, me too – had forgotten it…
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I’ve been fascinated by snakes since I was in grade school. I read everything I could get my hands on about them, much of it, I later learned, perpetuating the disinformation that most people still believe.
Only two species of snakes are native to Denmark, and only one of them, a common European adder, is slightly venomous. It is also rare, so it’s protected. It’s illegal to collect, kill, or move them. I never saw one in the wild.
On a visit to the Dublin zoo when I was eleven, I was thrilled at the opportunity to hold a large boa constrictor. I was surprised at the heft and cool feel of its skin.
One of my friends from college, had a pet tarantula. She was a tall, soft-spoken woman with long blond hair, the last person you’d expect to have such an exotic pet. She offered to let me hold it, I politely declined.
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I think rattlesnakes are rather polite- they at least warn you -nicer than those sneaky Australian snakes. I really value the snakes that catch mice and rats (and sometimes poisonous snakes). My dad taught me how to recognize them and if needed, how to hold garter snakes. If I had a farm I would want a resident bull, fox or black snake or two.
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