By Mike Isbell
Georgia Extension Service
Volume XXVII |
Why is it that some people lose control and go berserk at the sight of a harmless snake?
A good friend of mine discovered one on her front porch as she and her three children were going inside. The funny part was that all the other doors were locked and there was no way in except through the front door.
So what does she do? Well, instead of simply taking a stick and guiding the snake off the porch (I can all but assure you it was more than willing to leave), she locks her screaming kids in a van, runs a good 200 yards to a neighbor's house, comes back with her gun-wielding neighbor who kills the harmless snake.
My wife is just like her. I found a king snake crossing my yard when the girls were little. It was lost and just happened to be wandering around trying to figure out which way it should be going.
I caught it and showed it to my daughter (she was 4 at the time). I let her pet it and then turned it loose. After all, it was harmless. Well, my wife didn't like it one bit, what with letting her daughter touch that vicious serpent.
Which just brings me to my point: the fear of snakes is a learned thing. Kids learn to be afraid of snakes from their parents. The more you learn about snakes, the less there is to fear.
Snakes go wherever there is a suitable habitat and adequate food. Most people don't have suitable habitat and food in their yards to attract snakes, so they don't need anything to keep them away. As it is most of the time, the snakes just happen to visit your yard by accident.
But if you're worried about snakes, among things that will help keep them away are keeping the grass cut close and moving the rock garden, compost heap and woodpile.
If you do these kinds of things, you lower the odds of finding a snake in the yard. But there are no guarantees.
Sometimes a venomous snake comes into an area and presents a danger to people. It may need to be killed. Of the 39 species of snakes in Georgia, though, only six are venomous.
Most of the time, it's just a harmless snake -- and I might add, a beneficial one that, if you learn to identify and leave it alone, would happily move on its way to wherever it was going to start with.
A few years ago, my daughter Jordan, who was 9 at the time, found another king snake in our front yard. It was about 3 feet long. Again, I caught it and after handling it for a few minutes gave it to Jordan, who proudly and without fear carried it coiled around her arm to show her friends. I went into the house.
About 45 minutes later I heard all this screaming coming from outside. I ran outside and found out that the snake had bitten Jordan on the arm and she'd thrown it down.
Her friends were the ones doing all the screaming. Jordan quickly asked me to catch the snake again, which I did, and we walked back to the house.
On the way, our conversation went like this:
"Jordan, did the snakebite hurt?"
"Nah."
"Well, if it didn't hurt, why did you throw it down?"
"Daddy, I'm just a little kid. What do you think a little kid would do?"
The next day she proudly carried the snake to school and showed it to five classes. Jordan's not afraid of snakes, because she's learned not to be.
