Spiders and Snakes and Ticks, Oh My!

Tuesday was an eventful day, critter-wise.

I was weeding by my rushes when Loren walked over. 

Loren's interests run toward cars and computers, so I was pretty sure he wasn't going to inquire after the achillea.

"Are there any snakes around here with rattles?"

"No....wha...?"

"There's a snake inside the car, under the hood. It's making a rattling noise."

Hmm. This sounded like a nice diversion from spade-work induced sciatica.

"Probably a hog nose. They're kinda tricky, that way. They like to shake their tail in dry leaves and sound scary."

So we walked back to the Corolla and sure enough, coiled up in a mess beside the battery was a snake. Ominous rattling sounds ensued. But the markings were that of a hog nose.

"Wow....that is something....I wish we had a stick with a loop on the end....hmmm....I know, my kitchen tongs!"

Ma scuttled inside and came back with the tongs, clicking them occasionally to summon her snake-catching karma.

"Ok! Now.....".....*tries to grab head, snake pulls out of tongs*...."Oh c'mon"....*snap*...Ma tries to catch snake without tearing apart wiring in car....

He was a clever serpent, by I managed to grab it with my hand around his mid section, then, because he kept pulling away, tried to spook him backwards by poking the tongs at his head.

Finally extracted that dude and started walking toward the road. As an extra precaution I placed the tongs just behind its head. Trevor and Nolan were close by so I gave them a looksee before letting it loose in the ditch. It seemed a bit stunned, but eventually moved.

Back to weeding, and.....out popped the creature in the photo.

Who knew spiders produced egg sacks in the spring? But then, most of my knowledge of arachnids comes from "Charlotte's Web."

Figured they had to go to a state fair and save swine before spinning out a magum opus.

When I took the camera back to the ditch, the snake was gone.....oh well.

More weeding toil and then I was looking forward to a nice, hot bath. And that's when I felt something crawling up my back....a tick. The second one in two days, but it was large and unattached, so basically benign.

The work of an animal control officer never ends.

Tweet