**WARNING** This photo contains snakes! Corn snakes (non-native and non-venomous and orange as sherbet) and fox snakes (native and non-venomous) to be exact. While I usually mean that as a joke, in some cases it is truly necessary. Ophidiophobia, or the fear of snakes, is a real and terrifying mental state for many people around the world. Of course, a fear of being killed by a venomous snake is fairly logical...isnt it?! Believe it or not, a staggering SIX (thats right, six!) people are killed in the U.S.A by venomous snakes (on average) every year. MORE PEOPLE ARE KILLED YEARLY BY LIGHTNING THAN BY VENOMOUS SNAKES! In fact, you are NINE TIMES more likely to be killed by lightning than by a venomous snake. How about that. In Ohio, we are very lucky because, while we certainly do have snakes, we only have three native venomous snakes and only ONE of those can be found up here. Timber rattlers and copperheads are southern species that depend on the hillier areas of Ohio to find their hibernaculum (places they spend the winter) because they are a little more sensitive to cold weather. Now I know what youre all thinking, one venomous snake is more than enough thank you very much! Wait, thats not what youre thinking? You were wondering when will the new season of American Idol FINALLY get here? Well then Sir or Madame, we are on the same page. The Eastern massasauga rattlesnake is indeed venomous but it is a rare find in these parts. As far as venomous snakes go, this little (and I mean little!) snake is a shy and rather unlikely to bite reptile. Rather than defend their area, massasaugas choose to get away as quickly as possible. On top of their propensity to flee instead of fight? They prefer to live in wetlands type habitats so unless your yard is a swamp, you are not going to find one in your yard. Here is a great website with some very interesting information about this very misunderstood scaly creature michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12201-32995--,00.html. During the warmer months, we get tons of phone calls about rattlesnakes in peoples yards. Not a single one of those hundreds and hundreds of phone calls have resulted in us finding a rattlesnake (or copperhead). One of our very own Lake Erie snakes has developed a genius way of dealing with its predators. They pretend theyre dangerous! The non-venomous Eastern fox snake is a master at mimicking his far more dangerous distant relative, the rattlesnake. When they feel threatened, they vibrate their tails and put on a rather impressive display of aggression. The truth? Theyre scaredy cats! These craven, yellow-bellied (no seriously, they have a yellow checkered belly) slithering chickens have no intention of putting their mouth where their...well...rattling tail is. Instead they use their poker worthy bluff to try to scare you off and keep you from realizing that they are shaking in their boots. Well, socks...er...sock. Lack of limbs aside, fox snakes often find themselves on the business end of a shovel because of this very clever defense which, whether or not your like snakes, is a sad way to go. What I want you all to take away from this is that all of us, no matter how tough you think you are, have things we are afraid of. I am not particularly fond of spiders. However, every animal, every plant, every living (and even non-living) part of the nature on this planet has a purpose. We are all cogs in the great machine that is the planet Earth. Just because you dont like something, doesnt mean it deserves to die. Think back to that coworker you really, REALLY hated working with. If you had treated that person the way most people treat snakes (and spiders! *queue dramatic shiver*), you would be in prison right now. We dont have to like everyone we share our space with, but we have to respect their right to be there. I challenge each of our Facebook friends to name something that snakes do for us. Think about the big, scary monster that the media portrays (looking at you Mr. Anaconda the movie director!), and then think about the real story. Now, lets give our disease hindering (there is one good thing!) friends the credit they are due! Can you think of something else theyre good for? P.S.: As tempting as it is, please, no comments about how the only good snake is a dead snake or anything like that. Were here to build these guys up and show people that they have purpose and deserve our respect and protection. I would like to add that we have absolutely ZERO COTTONMOUTHS/WATER MOCCASINS in Ohio. I know there are many people who have thought they have seen one but our water snakes in Ohio are all non-venomous. Aggressive, yes, venomous, not even remotely.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 00:54:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015