have you seen this snake? (Austin, Taylor: tornado, living in, move to)

[Deelightful]

Hello everyone,

I'm planning on being in Texas soon. I'm just waiting for my house to sell.

I have to admit that I freaked out a bit when I saw this picture. I live in Wisconsin. We could live our whole lives without seeing a snake in Wisconsin. Is this common for you all? Have you ever seen or been close to a poisonous snake?

Thank you in advance.

Dawn

[TexasHorseLady]

Most folks will never see one, venomous or otherwise. Remember, they're generally more scared of you than you are of them, and you make a LOT more noise so they can run away! run away! before you see them.

If, however, you move into a new subdivision where the habitat has been disturbed, you're more likely to see snakes and scorpions and such, wandering around wondering who set off the bomb and what on earth happened to the old home place (visions of War of the Worlds from the snakes' and scorpions' point of view comes to mind).

[Zzyzx]

Originally Posted by Epark2112

Looks like a harmless Black-necked Garter Snake.

That's it!
Eastern Blackneck garter snake

[CptnRn]

Odd coincidence I stepped out my front door this morning to find a snake that looked a lot like that in the middle of the sidewalk. It dashed off into the monkey grass before I could get a closer look at it. That is the first snake I have seen in 7 years at this house.

[love roses]

I saw a lot of harmless snakes last year, none this year. My husband has seen some but not venomous ones. I've yet to see a venomous snake around here, but when I lived near the gulf coast, I saw them quite frequently (corals and copperheads).

[HappyTexan]

I've taught my son to treat all snakes as poisonous and back away.
Killing a snake should never be the first action.

We have a corn snake that lives in the garage (detached) and knows where the chicken yard is.
We co-exist because he keeps the place free of rodents. For his job I leave 1 egg in the house every day as payment for a job well done. Last shed skin we measured was over 5 ft !

[Trainwreck20]

As a small child in the Houston area, contact with snakes was a given (much more so than here) so we learned early on how to identify them. We off and on had a snake as a pet (personally, I really like the hog nose snakes). To this day, none of us siblings really has an irrational fear of snakes although we still respect them...

[calel]

Have you ever seen or been close to a poisonous snake?

Been close to one? I nearly stepped on a coral snake once. Then again, I was admittedly walking in the dark without a flashlight at a girl scout camp in the Piney Woods. I've seen a number of venomous and non-venomous snakes in East Texas (copperheads, water moccasins, coral snakes, milk snakes, bull snakes...), but never seen a single one around here in the suburbs of Austin.

I think it's good that the OP is trying to teach their kid not to outright fear snakes. Just last weekend a hognose snake came slithering across my parents' backyard. One family member yelled about it and then everyone else came running out of the house just to see it. Snakes are interesting critters.

[love roses]

I remember seeing a hog nose snake when I was out picking dewberries one day. Scariest thing I'd ever seen up to that day! We were also taught how to recognize the venomous ones, but not all snakes were off limits. My favorite was the little green grass snake that pretty much looked just like the green lizards, except without legs

[marylee54]

This entire thread is giving me the creeps. the only good snake is a dead snake! Once a snake found its way into our house, had my little boy cornered, was coiled, flicking its tongue, my little boy managed to croak out "mommy" he was paralyzed from fear. Well, don't **** off a mother! I distracted that thing, it started coming towards me, I grabbed a shovel which was convenient and made snake jelly out of it. Don't mess with my kids, damned snake!