In warm weather snakes like a black snake will move VERY fast. Too fast to grab usually. Open a door and use a broom to encourage it to leave. You will have to be fast to direct it!

Not here in TV Land, but I once shot a 4 ft rattlesnake with an arrow. It curled around the arrow and lashed out at me so quickly that I could not hit it in the head. I did not have a shotgun. It took about a week to die.

Living in apartments in Miami, I encountered many roaches. They can get almost 3 inches long and crawl straight up walls. And the big ones can fly. I don't remember seeing any in TV Land. They would be here except for the poison treatments.

I have seen rattlesnake skins on the bushes around some pools. Have never seen an actual rattlesnake in TV Land, but they are here!

News flash! Snakes up there also. Now if you move to North Pole? 98% any snake seen in villages harmless in residential area. Actually all or majority snakes are beneficial to humans, they keep rat and mouse populations down. I would rather have harmless snake in my house than rat.

All roaches can fly and crawl up walls. Turn over some rocks in you’re yard or scratch around bushes, there there. I take it you don’t shop at Walmart? Or some of the really old grocery stores?

How can you tell rattlesnake skin from any other snake skin? I have never seen rattlesnake in villages. I seen young juvenile Black racers which looks like pigmy rattlesnake. But you can’t tell difference from the head and eyes. All vipers have slit eyes.

Commonly Confused Snakes in Central Florida - Natural Resources

Speaking of insects in Miami. I once turned off the lights and saw 2 small glowing headlights crawling up my wall (and I was NOT doing drugs). I turned on the light and the headlights went away. I turned the lights off and the headlights were back. So, I turned on the lights and walked over to the wall and there was a small beetle-like insect that had 2 areas on its back that were able to produce light. I was curious, but NOT enough to do extensive reading on this subject. I know that deep water fish and other animals can produce light. And fireflies, of course. I often wondered what possible advantage those lights gave to that little insect - maybe signaling for mating? I have never again seen an insect like that. Has anyone else?

Use leaf blower to persuade snake to vacate garage.

It had diamondback spots on it and the tail of the shed skin looked like rattles were there.

Nope, the top one is a rat snake, just like in my story about the one who lived near our chicken coop back in Texas. They come in red and brown, and back East they call the red ones Corn Snakes.

We had copperheads, too. One time I bent over the big philodendron off our back porch to pull a weed, and afterwards I noticed a little copperhead curled up in the middle of one of those big philodendron leaves. I didn't notice him until I stood up, but he'd been about 2" from my belly and didn't do a thing. But I can't have poisonous snakes around my grand-kids, so I shot him with my pellet gun, but I just managed to wing him and he got away.

A few weeks later, I was on hands and knees pulling weeds again in the flower garden. The foliage was thick, so I couldn't actually see what I was pulling down at the ground level. All of a sudden I felt a sharp sting, like a bee sting, and my hand felt all tingly. But I couldn't see a welt or anything, so I figured it was just a spider or something, and finished pulling weeds. By evening, my hand had swollen up twice the size and there was a big red ring around two little holes, right where I'd been "stung". I looked it up on the Google and discovered that's what a "dry" bite looks like. Apparently, they always have a little venom on their fangs, but venom is expensive to make, so they reserve it for killing mice and things, unless they're really threatened. He'd just given me a warning shot -- probably payback for putting a crook in his tail.

About a month later, I was headed out to lock up the chicken coop, and there he was, just curled up in the middle of the sidewalk to the barn, enjoying the warm sidewalk in the cool of the evening. I'd stepped right over him before I noticed him. I could tell it was the same snake from the crook in his tail from where I'd shot him. This time I fetched a hoe from the barn and finished him off. But I sure felt bad about it, after he'd cut me so much slack, three times, now.

All the neighbors reported copperheads that year. It was a big year for the "cicada's" that have been in the news lately up North. Apparently, they're a copperhead's favorite delicacy.

Are snakes really that prevalent in The Villages. I am deathly afraid of them.

Not in my area, seen 3 in 7 years. All non poisonous and harmless.

Put moth balls along the bottom of your garage door

Made the mistake of going in our pool last night without first doing a snake check. Shortly after entering I noticed a black snake slithering around in the water. This old boy hasn’t moved that fast in a very long time. Scooped it out with the pool skimmer but it got out of the skimmer before I could throw it outside. After several attempts to catch it, with it lunging at me trying to bite me, it was time to get the shovel from the garage. Today’s project is to touch up the paint on the pool deck that got dinged up by the shovel when crushing the snake. Note to all snakes, stay the f out of our pool!