NILES STAR (Michigan) 17 April 08 The blue racer isn't the demon it may appear (Larry Lyons)
Last week I delved into our needless fear of snakes and talked about our most common ones here in Michigan, garter and ribbon snakes. As long as we're in a snake mode, let's look at one of our snakes that is probably most responsible for instilling fear in the unknowing, the blue racer. They are not venomous but they're pretty big. An adult blue racer averages four to six feet long, making it the second longest snake in Michigan topped only by the black rat snake.
They're actually quite beautiful, as far as snakes go. Most are a shiny, bluish-gray color, though color variations include dark gray and grayish-green as well. Their chin and throat area is white and their belly lightens to light blue or even white. Juveniles have darker spots that they lose with adulthood. They are a slender, lithe snake befitting of the name racer.
Blue racers have good eyesight, which lends them another trait that can freak us out. They often travel while hunting with their head raised above the grass in order to see better. To encounter a snake as long as we are tall coming towards us (unwittingly) with its head poised above the grass and tongue flicking could be unnerving at the very least. Should it sense something is awry it may raise up even higher, cobra like, to see better yet. You'd have to be a pretty devout snake hugger to not put some distance between yourself and it. Of course, there's nothing sinister about the snake's behavior. He's just trying to see what's going on. As you exit stage left he's surely doing the same stage right twice as scared as you are. In your mind, though, you just barely escaped a vicious snake attack.
Another blue racer trait that freaks us out is their escape tactic when they're startled. You're just be-bopping along enjoying the wonders and magic of the great outdoors and paying attention to nothing in particular. Blue racer is dreamily basking in the warm sun also paying attention to nothing. All of a sudden this huge, hulking human thing stomps down right next to him, scaring the bejeebers out of him. His first reaction is to thrash wildly about, presumably to confuse the predator's initial attack. After a few of these confusion thrashes he switches into escape mode to put distance between himself and this God-awful monster that almost got him. The confusion thrashes are effective and you again exit stage left post haste. However, blue racer doesn't know which way you exited and exits stage left also. Now you're being chased by a big snake which, of course, doesn't know he's chasing you. He'll go 30 yards or more at top speed hoping to save his hide. Wow, you just had a harrowing foot race with a snake bent on your destruction. In reality, top speed for a blue racer, one of the fastest snakes, is four miles per hour. Granted, that's a fast walking pace but break into a jog and the snake is handily outdistanced. Better yet, just stop and let him go by.
Blue racers are natives of the upper Midwest, from central Michigan westward to Minnesota and south into Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. When I was a kid I came across them all the time but in the last two decades I've only seen two live ones and a shed skin. Their numbers have declined, in many areas severely. They inhabit grasslands, open woods and weedy wetlands where they eat rodents, frogs, smaller snakes, birds and insects.
They don't mix well with humans. Conversion of wild lands to agriculture and suburbs is taking its toll. Simply being a snake is cause for many people kill them on sight. Perhaps more devastating, the young are susceptible to pesticide residue, which comes part and parcel with agriculture. It's just one more example of the foot print we are leaving on planet earth. Carpe diem.
The blue racer isn't the demon it may appear