bananimal

Samantha, a.k.a. mskitty,

You don't need to freak out about harmless little snakes like the rat snake. If they bite, just use an antiseptic wipe and some bacitracin and a bandaid -- some folks are allergic to neosporin as I have so painfully found out recently.

You got to recognize the poisonous ones. When I lived in Charlotte, NC, I used to run my bass boat by Copperhead Island on the SC side of Lake Wylie. Let me tell you, that area is overrun with poisonous copperheads and it got it's name for a good reason!! I fished elsewhere, and right away!

Here in S Fla we have Pigmy Rattlers, Coral Snakes, Alligators and very, very aggresive sharks - which I fish for regularly. I always keep a sharp knife nearby to cut the line if I don't feel I can get the hook out by myself - or even with help. It's funny as heck when I hook one on the beach and the swimmers bail out like crazy when they see it in the surf. And I mean 50 feet from shore!!! They just don't know.

To answer your question about the pic, the snake was wound up in the dead male flowers beneath the fruit stalk. Some varieties don't shed the male flowers and they provide hiding places for snakes, as I have just found out, to hang out. You must love your non-poisonous snakes - without them, all kinds of critts would attack your plants, your house with abandon - and you too!

Dan the B'mal