CLAY SUN (Orange Park, Florida) 09 August 07 Snakes have as much right to live as much as we do (Raymond H. Zerba Jr)
"Is this snake poisonous?" they ask as they hand me a jar with a very dead snake in it, which smells very bad and is without a head. The sad thing is probably 99 percent of the time, the snake was just going about its business. Now they want to know if it was a snake they should have killed.
My task for the next few paragraphs is to try to change a few minds about our native snakes and the need to get along with them. I know for some this is a non-issue because, unfortunately, when they were very young (and impressionable), they saw someone go berserk over a snake and imprinted/warped them with the mindset "the only good snake is a dead snake!" Shame on that person and double shame on those who perpetuate that attitude in their children on down the line.
People seem surprised that most snakes will bite. Wouldn't you if someone grabbed you? Although that bite is unpleasant (not even drawing blood), it is very unlikely to be poisonous because the chance of seeing venomous snakes in most yards is very, very low. Just because a snake bites does not make it poisonous.
Don't want to get bit? The "Duh" response would be why grab a snake in the first place? Train small children to leave things alone that move; observe the snake together long enough to get its color pattern; then find out what the snake was rather than teaching them inappropriate action.
Snakes do everything they can to avoid people. Normally they are just passing through a yard or resting since their last meal; they are not "out to get you!" Corn snakes, rat snakes and pine snakes eat rats and mice; watersnakes eat fish, hognose snakes eat toads; green snakes and earth snakes eat insects; ringneck snakes eat earthworms; and kingsnakes and scarlet snakes feed on lizards, and other snakes. So how do you find out what snake you saw?
There are great books out there on the subject - just browse a local bookstore for a few minutes in the nature section. Do an online search or go to the Florida Museum of Natural History's Web site. Once there, click on "Key to Identification" and soon you'll know the snake.
Snakes have as much right to live as much as we do