This conversation about snakes reminded me of another joyful experience
I had while living in Florida during the winter months.

My neighbor across the street decided to clean up a big pile of
construction debris left from the construction of a large horse
shelter that had been built on his property by the previous owner. The
debris had been sitting there for several years.

So, when he decided to clean up the mess, I went over to give him a
hand. He had a Kubota tractor and attacked the pile with the
front end loader. Within a minute at least a gazillion little pigmy
rattle snakes started zipping out of the pile, heading in every
direction. My neighbor knew what they were and yelled out to me to
watch out ... they were rattle snakes.

I could have won an Olympic gold metal in the 100 yard dash.

On Sun, 13 Dec 2015 06:08:48 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

This conversation about snakes reminded me of another joyful experience
I had while living in Florida during the winter months.

My neighbor across the street decided to clean up a big pile of
construction debris left from the construction of a large horse
shelter that had been built on his property by the previous owner. The
debris had been sitting there for several years.

So, when he decided to clean up the mess, I went over to give him a
hand. He had a Kubota tractor and attacked the pile with the
front end loader. Within a minute at least a gazillion little pigmy
rattle snakes started zipping out of the pile, heading in every
direction. My neighbor knew what they were and yelled out to me to
watch out ... they were rattle snakes.

I could have won an Olympic gold metal in the 100 yard dash.

I started appreciating snakes during my brief foray in Arizona with
IBM. I was really trying to embrace the desert experience and I became
familiar with the local flora and fauna. It became apparent that the
saguaro cactus, the trademark species of the south west deserts was
under attack by rodents. That was attributed to the successful
elimination of the rattlesnakes. By killing the snakes, they have
endangered the whole environment of the desert since that plant is a
keystone species that other plants and animals depend on for survival.

The black racers are actually pretty interesting. They do make
somewhat harmless attacks until they really get scared. Then they roll
up in a ball. My previous dog, Auggie, went after one I was trying to
corral in the screen room. When I was grabbing, somewhat
ineffectively, the snake had the threat display going and striking in
the air. When Auggie went right after him and actually presented a
real danger, the snake rolled up in a tight ball with nothing but the
tip of the tail sticking out, shaking like he thought he was a
rattler. I picked it up like a hockey puck and tossed him out in the
yard.

If you pick one up and it is not threatened, no problems but it is
really scared, they excrete a horrible smelling stuff from the skin
that is pretty hard to wash off. I assume it tastes bad. If they do
bite you, it is unlikely that it will even break the skin unless they
hit a very soft spot. I can barely feel it on a finger but the inside
of my arm may get a little red spot, still not bleeding or anything.
You never know. Sometimes they just go along quietly, sometime they
try to bite you and sometime they give you the stink bomb.
The rest of the non-venomous snakes I have dealt with are pretty
docile. An adult rat snake can get a little frisky but the ring necks
and scarlets will let you play with them.