In behalf of all the people who are scared of rats, please stop killing snakes! Snakes are beneficial creatures who kill rats, mice, and a lot of other critters who are far more harmful. There was a period of time when I used to kill all of them too, but then I learned about the "beneficial" ones that are not poisonous, so I stopped killing them. But guess what ... they're all beneficial! You just have to watch out for that pesky poison thing!
I found this guy on my deck a couple of weeks ago. He's a corn snake, which looks like a copperhead, but does not have the triangular head. Milk snakes look very similar. In the US, all poisonous snakes except coral snakes have triangular heads, which makes them easy to spot.
Even coral snakes have imitators called "false corals", but corals are not easy to find outside Florida, they are very shy, and their mouth is so small they have trouble biting, but if they do they are very poisonous since they are related to the cobra family.
Now if you still feel uncomfortable having a poisonous snake in your yard, I can't say that I blame you. Even though they are mostly shy and would rather be left alone, you can surprise them and have a bad day. However, please stop killing the good guys. They may have tempted Adam to eat the apple, but they're not all bad!
Comments(3)