[uujudy]

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?

[thegreenerside]

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.

[graciegirl]

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

[thegreenerside]

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.

[Rokinronda]

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:

[uujudy]

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. :

[GERALDINE]

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!!!

[uujudy]

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?)

Thanks for the reassurance, JKP! :bigthumbsup:

[Lucko]

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.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Lucko

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.

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.

[inda50]

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

Originally Posted by inda50

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

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

[bestmickey]

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:

[Frangyomory]

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.

Originally Posted by bestmickey

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:

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