Snakes?
 

Every night we eagerly anticipate the posting of the new listings at the Villages website. Every night Mr. Judy is attracted to the houses with lots and lots of "landscaping." The bushes and palm trees and vegetation are very appealing to him.
It all looks downright "snakey" to me. :yikes:

We live in rattlesnake land now, so I'm interested in whether or not there are any poisonous snakes in the Villages? I truly don't mind non-poisonous snakes, but Mr. Judy is getting mighty tired of hearing me say, "Nice house. Looks snakey" every night.

Has anyone had any experiences with poisonous snakes in the snakey-looking vegetation? :o

Re: Snakes?
 

If you live on or near water or back up to the golf course you are more likely to come across more dangerous snakes. We have encountered two cotton mouth snakes in our lawn. One was 31/2 foot and the other 2 foot. I have not heard of rattlesnakes in The Villages, but that does not mean they are not out there.

With the water levels depleted in many of the retention ponds the critters are moving throughout the villages for larger sources of water. The alligators have been moving quite a bit as their water hole is depleted because my neighbor insist on watering 5 days a week.

In four years I have only heard of one dog being taken by an alligator and I have not heard of any snake injuries.

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What does one do when one encounters a three and a half foot cotton mouth snake on ones lawn? :o :'( :dontknow:

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The landscapers next door killed the 3 foot snake with a shovel. The other snake just left the yard before we could find someone to kill it. Neither snake was aggressive towards anyone. The landscaper came over to look at it then went back to his truck and got the shovel, calmly walked up to the snake and chopped its head off. At the time we did not know what kind of snake it was, so we googled florida snakes and found a website. The site had pictures and we matched up the picture to determine the type of snake.

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I have had a couple of racer snakes in my boston ferns. they are harmless and afraid of people. They sure scared the :edit: out of me!!! That was 2 years ago and haven't seen any since. I probably scared them more than they scared me? :dontknow:

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They just run across the GRASS? Ay Carumba! :yikes: I thought they might hide in all the snakey-looking undergrowth... but the GRASS??? Maybe I'd better start looking at those all-concrete villas!

Cottonmouths, rattlers, and racers... OH MY!

PS: Not intending to hijack this thread, but based on the good advice of Muncle and others, I don't go anywhere near the politics forum. Sounds snakey to me. ::)

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Let me tell you...there is NO ONE on earth MORE afraid of snakes than ME. When we first started talking about moving to FL...I had visions of snakes, cockroaches, etc., etc. HOWEVER, I can honestly say that the only snakes I've seen down here were "squished" ones in the road...and always by a pond. I do not consider a house on or anywhere near water, preserves, ponds, fields, woods to be premium lots and I wouldn't even look at or consider a house on any of these types of terrain. I'm sorry, but the last thing I want to see is a snake in my yard. We have other houses all around us and that makes me happy 'cause there is NO reason for a snake to come anywhere near my house. One house on my street had a big black snake in their front yard...but they live on a "pond". We do have a lot of landscaping but I've NEVER seen a snake in any of it. Be assured that I would tell you if there was a "snake problem" and I'd be out of here!!!

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Whew! That's good to know! OK, inside lot, no water nearby, make friends with the neighbor who has the black snake.... (We have dangerous, deadly mice here, so SOME snakes are beneficial, aren't they?) :o

Thanks for the reassurance, JKP! :bigthumbsup:

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Back in March a big yellow rat snake appeared near the entrance to Palm Villas in Duval. It was reportedly disposed of. I'm told that they can ride into villages wrapped up in palm trees and in the bales of pine needles used as mulch. Both had been added near the Palm Villas right before the snake appeared. It wasn't very friendly and was over 4' long. Be careful when you untie your palm branches.

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OH BROTHER. I just decided not to feed the birds and not to get a palm tree....or at least not try to plant a palm tree by ourselves. What is a big yellow rat snake? Do they kill you by biting or some other devious method?

YUCKO.

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Up north we had snow snakes, the only way you could see them was with their little beady black eyes.

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Is not a snow snake about the same as Big Foot?? http://www.cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-r...an-snow-snake/

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As I've noted in previous posts, I hatehatehate and fearfearfear snakes Big Time! What concerns me is that in other posts on TOTV, many Villages' residents have stated they have "small black snakes" on their premises. I just viewed a website which describes Florida's venomous snakes, and the adult Cottonmouth is a "small black snake". While there are non-venemous "small black snakes", I don't plan to get close enough to any snake to be able to determine the difference. All I can now say is YIKES! :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes:

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Now, we live in a CYV and I haven't seen a snake around here in the three years we have been here. We were told to keep the area around the a/c unit clear because snakes like to hide there. None yet in our yard.

As you can guess, some folks who have a lot of overgrowth and that very scruffy looking ornamental grass might have snakes. They do have them on the golf course but only in the water areas and that scruffy looking ornamental grass.

I have seen one gator and that was in a pond. Saw one snake on 441/27 near a furniture store.

Guess I feel really comfortaable in the CYV and the fact that we have rocks all around the house and then grass which we keep at a reasonable length. We have lovely bushes but keep them trim.

I really don't think you have to worry if you keep your landscaping trim.

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Most of the small black snakes in TV would be black racers. http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology...onstrictor.htm An adult cottonmouth would have a thicker body and probably would not be all black. http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology...E/Venomsnk.htm

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There are rattlesnakes here..pygmy rattlers for one...and certainly cottonmouths..I personally had an encounter with one on the 2nd hole of Heron last summer..and he was a big mother. I chipped up onto the green and went to remove what I thought was some kind of vegetaton when it moved....we played though.

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OH NO! That is NOT the answer I wanted to hear!
I wanted to hear that there are NO venomous snakes anywhere near the Villages.... The developers don't allow them, there's a law against them, the sheriff's office actively persues reports of snakes.... LOL :yikes:

Tal, thanks for the links... I think. :o ::)
This is probably WAY more information than I need.

The way I understand this is..
Any snake with a pattern, run like crazy in the other direction
Any black snakes, try to get them to open their mouths so you can see if it's white?
I'll stick to the sidewalks, the town centers, and the golf cart paths. Those all-concrete villas are looking pretty good to me! ;D

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Ditto, Ditto, Ditto. OH yes Ditto. The only good snake is a dead snake. Like the line from Fiddler on the Roof, AND KEEP HIM FAR AWAY FROM ME!

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Snakes are very dangerous but you have to realize we have them in every state
THERE CALLED POLITICIANS

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Be careful on the cement too, snakes like the sun as much as we do, and in south Georgia, we have killed more then a few moccasins, sunning on our patio and a pigmy rattler, climbing the brick wall at the back door. Just watch where you step..always.

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We've lived here 7 months and have not seen a snake yet. Thank God! We did take out all the pine needles and put in beautiful landscaping with polished Carolina stone. The one thing I'm afraid of even more than snakes is that Brown Recluse Spider. Now, our landscaper did say those spiders do hide under those pine needles. The Brown Recluse Spider is very deadly or so I've heard. :yikes:

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I had to kill one today he set up housekeeping underneath the lanai door I shooed him away yesterday but I guess he didn't take the hint. Had one get in the garage last year guess he was looking for a warmer spot. The wife goes into histerics if she sees a gecko that would have given her a cardiac had she seen the one in the garage. These were all small grass snakes fortunately haven't had any run ins with the big guys.

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I can't even watch "Snakes on a plane" much less see them in a zoo!!!! Oh yeah, forgot, I don't like zoos anyway, I haven't been to one since I was 5 so no danger there. I get squiffy seeing snakes in print and on web sites; thanx Tal. I'm a SCUBA diver and almost drowned myself when I had a close encounter with a big fat green Moray Eel; well that is a bit of exaggeration.... I just screamed into my regulator and bit down on it so hard I had to by a new mouthpiece before the next dive because I practically bit clean through the old one. A humiliating experience and I'm glad no one but Victoria saw me... it would have done serious damage to my image as a "Gorilla" diver. Truth be known she did the same thing lol.

Snakes and Brown Recluse spiders in the pine needles?!??!?!?!?!?!?! :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: I was stomping around in the pine needles when we were down in April looking at property! OMG I feel faint!

Oh yeah I forgot, some of our friends who have dogs say that the pine needles harbor Ticks! YUCK!!

As if Ophidiophobia isn't bad enough now I can obsess about parasites too.

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Sorry Judy, I saw one on my last visit. It was in the lanai, I think I screamed so loud the neighbors thought I was being murdered and the poor little thing, I scared it half to death. I found the name from Tal's link.

Virginia valeriae valeriae: Eastern Earth Snake

Description: Adults average 7-13 inches. A small brown or reddish brown snake with a plain white or yellowish belly. who's gonna look under his belly???
May have tiny dark flecks on back, either scattered or in 4 rows. The head is small with a somewhat pointed snout. There are 15 dorsal scale rows at midbody. The pupils are round.
you must be kidding, look at his pupils?? :yikes:

Yes, Chels, the brown recluse spider is very dangerous. Don't know how deadly but it makes you quite sick. We have them here in LA and many people have become severely ill from them.

Are there black widows in TV? We have them here also. I hate them so much, yewwww!

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So, what I want to know is do citrus trees attract snakes? My son-in-law, a native Floridian, swears they do. And could a snake really get into a courtyard surrounded by a stucco wall? I so desperately want an orange tree, but I'm afraid.

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Yes Kathie, my landscapper said there were Black Widows too. They also can make you ill, but not as bad as that Brown Recluse Spider. No pine needles for me! :o

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Another Linda,

My daughter has 35 citrus trees in her back yard. In the 8 years she has lived there, we have never seen a snake in any of them. Hope this helps.

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The first time we met the woman who mows our lawn, she warned us, with a shudder, that there's a snake living under a concrete pad behind our house that comes out to sun itself periodically. We've never seen it. She's terrified of snakes, so there was no point in asking her if she had made the snake's acquaintance long enough to find out if it's poisonous. Frankly I doubt it, but I did mention to her that we both like snakes not only for the creatures that they are but for keeping down the rodent population (that we've never seen either, maybe because of the snakes...). She seemed horrified that anyone could LIKE snakes, but to us the idea of killing them arbitrarily simply because they are snakes is distressing....

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Sidney,

My hubs feels very much like you do regarding snakes. He said they are a part of nature that do quite a bit of good on this earth. He is slowly swaying me over to his way of thinking.

However in the past, I was totally creeped out by anything that didnt have legs and didnt blink its eyes,but I am trying to accept them for the creatures that they are.

My 5 year old grandson has a pet snake that he plays with and handles like a kitten, Its hard for me to show no reaction when he plays with it. :yikes:

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Sidney, as much as I hate them, I feel the same way. I felt so sorry for the poor little thing being stuck in the lanai with a screaming crazy lady (meee!) but thankfully, he found his way out. I couldn't do anything to it, no way. I even pick up small spiders in my house on a piece of paper, and put them outside where the doggies can't get them. I think I'm getting like Nonie more every day, gee I hope so....

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I used to catch the small garden snakes for my son, until he could catch them. Only for short term observation, then we let them go. But we had a white rat, a tarantula, always dogs, hampsters, guinua pigs(sp?), rabbit, snakes outside and did I mention the blue crabs that chased me around the back yard?? Better than that was the time I found dead worms in the washing machine, because my darling son forgot them in his pockets!!ewwwww

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Oh Boy!
On the one hand, I'm sorry I asked! I'm freaked out now! 024 :P :yikes:

On the other hand, I feel the way many of you do... I don't want to hurt any snakes, but I don't want them to hurt ME, either! :yikes: :yikes: :yikes:

I also take the spiders outside! I didn't know anybody else did that! I use a special paper cup and hold the fly swatter over the top so she can't accidentally run up my arm... It's a two-handed operation, so I need somebody to open the door for me. :) ;) I love talking to you folks. You're so full of helpful information, and you save the spiders too! I can't wait to get there for a meeting at Crisper's and meet you all in person!

Thanks again for the wonderful information! :bigthumbsup:

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It remains to be seen if my fear of snakes will be overcome by my desire for citrus trees, but thanks for the encouragement, Nonie.

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Hi Everyone! I live on the oldest side of the Villages, I don't like snakes, but as some have said in this post, they are very good for our environment. I have seen big black racers and yes they are very afraid of people, actually they will rear up and stand like a cobra in defense but I have never seen one attack anyone or anything. Then we have the Florida brown snake, very small, the adult is usually about 9 inches, and they have a bit of orange on them, they are non-poisonous and like to sun themselves on rocks in my garden. Sometimes they are so camouflaged that I don't see them. I just go about my business and try not to think about it. They are just plain scary. The water moccasin will defend itself so if you see one, walk away, or for you guys, you could be like my husband, scream like a woman and run like heck!!! Hope this info helps!!! ;D

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Beth, do you have citrus trees? My son-in-law still maintains that the oranges fall to the ground and attract bugs, that attract rodents and birds, that attract the snakes. Since we won't be there all the time to make sure no fruit stays on the ground, ... (My son-in-law needs to give it a rest!!)

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Hahahaha! Thanks for the great laugh! Now my husband is practicing his scream while running through the kitchen! :yikes: :clap2:

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Linda, my mother-in-law in St. Pete tells the neighbors to help themselves to the oranges and grapefruit while she's gone -- and they do! She's not worried about snakes, but she says they have "fruit rats" in St. Pete. Fruit rats are actual rats -- not a term for the neighbors. ;) ;D ::)

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Funny! But somehow I don't think I'd like fruit rats either! Neighbors would be much better.

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Gee, I thought everyone saved spiders and took them outside. Well, almost everyone -- there are a few bullies everywhere. Even my best friend in California, who is truly terrified of spiders (she'll call me at 3:00 a.m to get the spider out of her house) insists I take them outside, across the street and let the live.

As for snakes, I really do like them. Once met a cottonmouth -- now that's a scary snake! Fortunately, that was in Kentucky, not here. Rattlers would prefer not to attack (except the babies and they think they need the practice). The racers are just beautiful and will do almost anything to get away from those nasty humans who DO hurt them.

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My state must be full of bullies, because almost everybody here thinks I'm nuts to take the spiders outside! ??? I signed up to have the backyard certified as a wildlife habitat through the NWF, so at least now I have a good excuse. LOL :bigthumbsup: Nope, no killing here! We're certified! I have a sign that says so! wav

Speaking of snakes (and staying on topic... :cop: ), one day the hummingbirds were at the back door, peeking in the window and flying up, down, and sideways. They had that frantic look they get when the feeder is empty. I went outside to check the feeder and there was a HUGE corn snake hanging from the tree and drinking out of the feeder! :yikes: I told the hummers that mommy couldn't help them. They were on their own! ::) :) :-*

PS: Maybe it wasn't a corn snake. It was one of those big, plain-looking snakes. Mr. Judy assures me that they're not poisonous.