Please, please stop sunning yourselves in the middle of the road.
Seriously. I’ve killed at least three over the years, and have gone to reckless lengths to avoid killing others. Today I met one on a steep slope…
…so steep that when I got the Jeep stopped, oriented so as not to squash the snake and then accelerated up the hill, my water bottles bashed against the back door. It flew open and two of my bottles went rolling down the hill. Which necessitated another emergency stop.
That translucent blue bottle in the foreground is the type I’ve used since moving here. They’re half as expensive as the good ones and available locally, but lately I’m transitioning away from them because they’re a false economy. They’re just too fragile. This is the third one I’ve knocked a hole in this summer, and I knew this one was ruined as soon as I saw it had left the Jeep. No way these survive that kind of landing.
The one in the background is fine. Cost twice as much, only a couple of weeks ago, and already paid for itself.
Why in the world endanger yourself or your water bottles avoiding a snake? I suspect there are many millions of them out there, and in absolutely no danger of extinction any time soon. Snakes can earn a Darwin award like anything else… and it’s all for the good of the species in the long run.
I definitely put on the brake for large animals that could destroy my car just from hitting them, but the little ones are on their own… I won’t take a chance causing any sort of accident because I’m trying to avoid them.
I don’t wantonly kill animals, though I wouldn’t endanger myself to save one. Had I known the back door with its very worn latch was going to fly open and cost me a $6 water bottle, I’d have run over this one. But bullsnakes are a special case generally, because unlike so many of our local critters they’re beneficial with no downside. It’s just a kneejerk impulse not to harm them.
Good on you for avoiding the snake. If there was some way you could get them to hang out at the lair, you’d avoid a whole lot of trap tending. They are about the best thing going for tending to excessive rodent populations.
When I was a kid in the fifties on the family farm, my grandfather deliberately gathered up bull snakes whenever he came across one and dropped it off around the barn and out buildings. He had one that came and went in the house that must have been seven feet long. It liked to go out and sun itself on the cistern top and while inside, lived in a cubby hole under the kitchen cabinet near the stove.
The fact that you have bullsnakes in your immediate vicinity speaks to the presence of a healthy rodent population.
Yes, well. We knew that.
I expect that Ghost and LB would not take kindly to bullsnakes in their territory.
Neither dog seems to know the difference between harmful and non-harmful snakes. They avoid and fear all snakes without prejudice or preference.
And I don’t know where that comes from. There are people around here who actually (professionally! For money!) give dogs aversion therapy to get them to avoid snakes. Both of mine are like that naturally.
Good for you, Joel, in not doing what so many idjits do by aiming for the snake. You already know the usefulness of the mobile mouse traps. I do not understand why so many people react so negatively to a snake when they have no idea if it’s a goodun or a badun. Apparently, our little lizard brains are hardwired to react strongly to the snakey profile, but that shouldn’t translate automatically into “kill it! kill it! kill it!”.
I have no desire to kill snakes, even rattlesnakes. My objection is to the serious damage to people that can result from trying to avoid running over them. I was in a wreck caused that way, and the driver who swerved to miss a damned rabbit nearly killed me.