KENS (San Antonio, Texas) 12 November 06 Country Scientist: Texas blind snake can do no harm
Photo: The tiny Texas blind snake drills tunnels through the soil and eats insects and worms. (Forest M. Mims III)
Years ago I caught a large bull snake at a picnic. Many people walked over for a closer look, and some stroked the beautiful reptile.
But others were clearly afraid. One man backed away and shouted, "If you bring that snake near me, I'll kill you!"
I'll never forget the look of fear and panic on that man's face. He had a bad case of an irrational fear of snakes, a syndrome known as ophidiophobia.
It's perfectly OK to be afraid of venomous snakes. I certainly am, even though they mean us no harm and will quickly leave if given the chance. Unfortunately, some people with a snake phobia kill even the harmless ones.
Writer Melissa Kaplan has an essay about ophidiophobia on her Web site ( www.anapsid.org) devoted to reptiles. She suggests people can overcome a snake phobia by letting someone introduce them to a small snake. So let's try Kaplan's approach with the smallest of all snakes.
Allow me to introduce you to the Texas blind snake. As you can see in the photo, this tiny reptile is smaller than many earthworms. It is dark gray on top and pink underneath. Its scales glisten in the light, for they are very smooth.
This little snake couldn't harm you if it wanted to. Place it on the ground and this very shy creature will poke its head in the soil and try to escape. Eventually it will drill a hole through the leaves and dirt. It's such an efficient tunneling machine that it's sometimes called the worm snake.
If you touch a blind snake, you'll notice its surface is quite dry and not slimy like the skin of a frog or salamander.
Look closely at its head and you'll see its miniature eyes and a tiny forked tongue darting in and out of its mouth. The tongue is harmless. Its purpose is to smell what's in the air.
Can a blind snake bite you? I've handled many, and so far none have tried to strike or bite. Their mouths are so small they would be unable to bite anything larger than a small insect.
I suspect anyone can be quite at home with the blind snake, for it is as defenseless as it is harmless. You might not want to handle a larger snake, though.
Now that you've become friends with a Texas blind snake, I have just one request: Please avoid killing them and their larger cousins. Snakes serve a vital role in nature, and as more of us move into their territory, we need to do what we can to live in peace with snakes that mean us no harm.
Country Scientist: Texas blind snake can do no harm