VICTORIA ADVOCATE (Texas) 20 June 08 When snakes strike - Drier weather has snakes more visible, but they aren’t all dangerous (Brandon L. Leonard)
Consistent dry weather and a drainage creek have created a slithering problem for one Victorian.
Walter Franklin, who lives off Hiller Street, ran across a snake about three weeks ago – literally.
Franklin, who was walking in his yard late one afternoon, stepped on what he thought was a water moccasin. To keep the snake from moving, Franklin used his feet to pin the snake, stretched it long and yelled for his Mom to grab a shovel. She swung it between Franklin’s legs, chopping the snake in two.
“I’ve never dealt with snakes,” Franklin said.
The Victoria native lives beside a city drainage ditch and has encountered snakes before, but during the last couple of months he has seen more than usual, he said.
Franklin killed four in the last month, two cottonmouths and two rattlesnakes, and grew concerned other residents would happen upon one unexpectedly, and could possibly get bitten.
“My main concern is when grass is left out in piles at the road waiting to be picked up and a city worker getting bitten by one lying there,” Franklin said.
The area is seeing more snakes, said Heather Kern, who has worked for Victoria’s Animal Control for nearly three years. They are seeking a water source.
“It’s a scary thing for people, I realize that, but snakes are everywhere. You usually just don’t see (them, but) they’re there,” the assistant supervisor said.
A snake being in your yard is not sufficient reason to kill it or call Animal Control for removal, Kern said.
“It’s considered in a natural habitat if it’s just in your yard,” she said. “Snakes will move on.”
With almost 24 years of experience in animal control and related fields, Kern has seen a little of everything. She has even received calls asking for snakes to be removed from trees. That is considered its natural habitat too, she said.
What should you do when you see a snake?
Kern had a simple answer, “Leave it alone.” The best thing to do is walk around a snake and stay away from it.
But what about when a snake is some place dangerous to you, like on your porch or in your house?
If a snake is in a dangerous location – on a porch, in front of an entrance to or exit from a home, in a home or doghouse, for example – people should call to have it removed, Kern said, but not if the snake is just lying in the yard.
Post office employee Alfredo Rosas killed a Texas rat snake Monday as it tried to come into the Main Street post office.
Rat snakes are non-poisonous and eat rodents, birds, lizards and frogs.
Herpetologist Doug Hotle, director of Texas Zoo, said watersnakes are less likely to go into yards, unless the home is next to a creek or a swamp or a river way.
“Cottonmouths coming up into your yard is very unlikely,” Hotle said. “Cottonmouths and water moccasins – they’re the same snake – usually stay right at the water’s edge.”
Water snakes, commonly misidentified as cottonmouths however, do travel around, he said.
Southeast Texas has three common species of venomous snakes, but for every venomous snake there are 300 nonpoisonous snakes, Hotle said.
Instead of trying to identify whether a snake is venomous or not, the safest thing to do is stay away from it, Hotle said.
“Most people who are bitten, it is simply their own fault,” he said. “They’re harassing the snake or trying to kill the snake, and it bites them.”
These bites are known as “illegitimate bites,” which occur because a person is trying to kill, capture, remove or harass a snake. Roughly 99 percent of these bites occur below the knee.
Snakes are not all bad.
They feed on small animals that reproduce frequently, from earthworms to rabbits, and keep those populations at supportable levels, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Web site.
But remember this the next time you see a snake:
“If you put yourself in a direct confrontation with a snake, while not an aggressive animal, it will sometimes defend itself aggressively,” Hotle said. “They really have no other recourse but to bite.”
Drier weather has snakes more visible