Just a few snake stories in passing.
The Longboat Key Police Department did in a rattlesnake found on the island. Only took four shots from a trusty pistol to dispatch the snake. No word of where the bullets went after doing their thing with the snake. Of course Longboat Key is the elephant grounds for old rich folks and this experience probably hastened their trip as well. >P> This is not the first time that such method has been used by the police. They are reported to have been called to a restaurant that had a rat and snake in a stare-down outside the restaurant. Police arrived, shot snake with pistol, snake only became angry, so police called for reinforcements. A shotgun succeeded where the mere 38 didn&rsquot. Customer that was upset by snake and rat dance, didn&rsquot appreciate the police&rsquos antics as well and left without finishing desert. No mention of the rat who probably was grateful for intervention by police.
Local promotional paper insist there are only four poisonous snakes on the island (or in Florida for that matter). They list diamondback and pigmy rattler, coral, and water moccasins as our popular varieties. While they insist that the copperhead avoids Florida, I ran over a rather large one on Siesta Key. Hardly think he qualifies as a snowbird, but, when the Chamber of Commerce gets fired up, who knows? At any rate, it is time to talk about how to rid the area of snakes.
Old wives tales (from the west) talk of cowboys laying their lariats in a circle about the camp with the belief that snakes wouldn't cross the rope. Seems snakes seek out warmth and probably saw nothing wrong with coiling up with a nice warm body. Or at least warming themselves around the campfire.
Am told that snakes don&rsquot like mothballs. Don't know for sure but farmers in Texas once put glass eggs in nest to encourage hens to lay there rather than somewhere else. Net result was it made it easy for the snakes to find the eggs. So what to do? Share with Mister Snake or try to discourage him, addition of mothballs (napthlene) to the nest probably accomplished at least one unforeseen benefit, probably helped to keep the chickens, lice free. (As an aside, lice on birds do not infest man. Just picky I suppose. If you get lice from birds (chickens, pigeons &c) they will not survive. Nevertheless, you may be in for some scratching as you sense the critter crawling about in your tresses.)
Because snakes are companionable animals, they see no reason not to share their planet with the rest of us. Sometimes they do get a bit out of hand however. The Wall Street Journal in its July 1, 1999 article, reported on problems that the people in Guam and other Pacific Islands are having with a "Brown Tree Snake". The snake not unlike teenagers at the mall, just hang around until they find a good meal. Reported to be most anything that will pass through their gaping mouth (teenagers again?). Birds, cats, dogs and even small people (babies) have been seen as desirable appetizers.
And in Maine, probably because its winters are not so pleasant, the rattlesnake is on the endangered species list. It has been reported that a homeowner attempting to keep his home secure, erected a fence to ward of the intrusive snakes. You guessed it, he was in violation of the particular act and forced to remove his fence.
So if the cowboy trick or the mothball thing doesn&rsquot work, what to do? Here are a couple of suggestions. As the article in the WSJ concluded, snakes like mice, and certain chemicals are toxic to snakes so why not combine them into sort of a snack, like buffalo wings. Scientist found that by taking mice, dispatching them to their maker and then stuffing them with chemical, they had just the thing. Of course to make handling easier, they put the mouse in a paper tube and then froze it, sort of like the popsicle you buy at the grocery. (Warning: don&rsquot store them in the freezer with the real thing if you have kids in the house.)
The good news is that the manufacturers of Tylenol now have a new market for their product. Can't wait to see the television ads promoting the "extra strength mouse flavored product". The active ingredient is acetaminophen to which the snake has an "intolerance", i.e., it kills them, just as some of our modern medicines dispatch us as well when used not according to label.
And more good news, cigarette manufactures take heart, nicotine is extremely toxic to snakes as well. So now you can expect a message from the Surgeon General: "Warning, ingestion of this product by snakes has been shown to be injurious to their health."
But the best news of all is for the environmentalist among us, although it will cause some mixed feelings. Seems that racoons really like snake eggs. So if you destroy the eggs, in time you rid the area of snakes. But is this civilized? Have to await the pc people to rule on this one, (especially in Maine).
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7/2/99
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