[puttytat41]

I have lived in Colorado all my life and would like a change so I had been thinking about Florida. My son has a friend who used to live in Fl. not sure what part but according to her there are snakes everywhere, Okey if this is true I want no part of it I hate those things.

[007.5]

Im afraid there are , probably moreso in S. Florida. In the Panhandle here, we have 3 poisonous ones . They key is to stay away from woods, remote lakes/ponds , and tall fields from June thru October and especially August . I havent seen the poisonous ones yet but non-poisionous Black Racers are very common . You sometimes see them crossing the roads or smashed on the roads in the summer. Had a baby Rattler, 15" long, get into the crawlspace last summer and took him out on a shovel ; I tossed him on the next vacant lot and told him not to come back.

[doggiebus]

There are snakes no matter where in Florida you move. Obviously you may see more snakes in a more rural area than in a city. My parents had a house in a rural part of Miami, and I went to clean out the skimmer basket of the pool. And when I lifted up the lid to to the skimmer there were a bunch of baby snakes swimming in the skimmer. Ohh did I run and scream. To this day I don't open the skimmer lid to my pool with my hands, I find some sort of object to open the lid. Another day at my home in Miami, I needed to run by the house to pick something up fast. So I ran into the house, got what I needed and then left two minutes later. When I opened the front door, there sitting on my door mat was a black snake, oh I screamed and shut the door. It obviously slithered away, but for a few weeks I was nervous walking in out of the front door. Its Florida we have creatures here ... I have seen scorpions in peoples homes ... Something just you get used to or learn to deal with.

[flkingfan]

I've seen maybe a dozen snakes in the 40 years I've lived here. But then again, I don't go looking for them either. I had a water moccasin in my yard once. Nasty little bugger followed(chased) me because there was a nest near by. I honestly don't think the snakes bother me as much as the roaches do here!

[Miles Vineyards]

flkingfan, I guess you are the first person I have heard talk about "roaches" as to have them means you are not clean. When we first moved to Vero we rented for almost a year and it was not a shabby neigborhood. The only time I say "roaches" was at Fort Leonarwood, MO. Believe me our barracks were spotless so it has nothing to do with clean. While in Vero I woke up one night and thought we had mice as I could hear all commotion in the kitchen. I saw what I thought were mice droppings on the top of the cabinet and assumed we had mice so I set traps. This was a futile attempt so I stayed up one night and when I heard all the " crunching" going one I crept into the kitchen and turned on the light. What a surprise, there were roaches 3' long and they all scurried. I talked to the neigbor and he explained they were "Palmatteo Bugs" the same as a roach but these guys were big. I tried some home treatments but when I woke up one night with one of these 3" bugs sitting on my chest with his face brushing up against mine, I sought the exterminator. SPOOKY.. They jump or fly at you also. Ugly bug. When we bought our home the first thing I did was sign up for a exterminator to come out periodically. I do not think there is anything more gross than a Palmatteo Bug sitting on your face.

[1coolcustomer]

Originally Posted by 007.5

Im afraid there are , probably moreso in S. Florida. In the Panhandle here, we have 3 poisonous ones . They key is to stay away from woods, remote lakes/ponds , and tall fields from June thru October and especially August . I havent seen the poisonous ones yet but non-poisionous Black Racers are very common . You sometimes see them crossing the roads or smashed on the roads in the summer. Had a baby Rattler, 15" long, get into the crawlspace last summer and took him out on a shovel ; I tossed him on the next vacant lot and told him not to come back.

A similiar situation to what I have here, a vacant lot overgrown and not maintained by the owners up North right next to my property. I found a huge garter snake in my yard and threw him over the fence in the lot, but a rattler? Man, you like to live dangerously, If I found a rattler he's getting dropped off 20 miles away minimum or wildlife control is getting called and if he's a baby, makes you wonder where his momma is hanging out!

[Rabflmom]

There are snakes in Florida and you do not have to live in rural areas to see them. Even in cities and sometimes even in the garden shop of Walmart (g) people have gotten bitten by rattle snakes. You don't see as many as you did 20 years ago but they are still out there. Every once in a while in the spring you hear about someone working in their flower garden getting bit. I always use a rake around everything first to make sure no snakes are in places with lots of leaves etc around the plants.

I say there is a big difference between Palmetto Bugs which do fly by the way and roaches. Roaches like you see up North are smaller and really don't resemble the palmetto and they are so much harder to get rid of than the palmettos. Moved into an apartment down here once and we had real roaches. The complex and neighbors said the people that lived there were slobs and they had to replace everything in the apartment before we moved in. They figured they brought the roaches down from NY in their boxes of household stuff . Took about 3 months for the apartment to get bug free.
Palmetto bugs have a distinct smell, too. Yuck....

[Nomadicus]

Snakes? Yes we have snakes. From the little Pygmy rattlers to the big Burmese pythons and supposedly now Anacondas in the southern parts. Snakes are city dwellers as well as county creatures. That is the way it is. We have snakes big enough to eat alligators.

[RedJacket]

Snakes everywhere. Bugs and spiders everywhere. FL is a swamp -- especially S. FL. So you're going to have lots of swamp creatures everywhere. Lived there once for four years. Never again.

FL is hot. FL is humid. FL has lots of storms. FL is crowded. FL is a haven for things you don't want crawling around in your yard or home.

[MovedfromFL]

If you are the type of person who is going to see a tiny, harmless snake and hack it to pieces in your yard, then please don't move to FL.

There is almost no chance of a snake harming you in a subdivision in FL. 99% of them you might see are going to be harmless. Just leave them alone and they will go on their merry way.

I spent my childhood years tromping through the swamp behind our house in Central FL (hundreds of acres leading back to a large lake). I did come across 2 rattlesnakes and 1 cottonmouth. Dangerous? Heck yeah, but I was in deep, swampy woods A LOT and only saw these three. One rattler was in a pile of wood/ debris that my cousin and I were playing on. We heard the rattle and looked down into the pile. I remember seeing the diamond pattern. We ran away and that was that.

I would be a lot more concerned with your fellow humans down in FL these days over a few harmless snakes.