A Little Too Much Real Life

[cornerofmadness]

The bug lady was here to do the spring spraying today (roachs, another lovely part of living in Florida). She leans in the living room window to inform us we have a snake in the hibiscus. 'Is it Black?' SJ asks. 'Yep.' 'That's cool. He keeps out rats and other snakes' (our backyard abuts a county park so we have acres of woodlands and marshes behind us).

So, I go out and pick up all the branches that the wind has blown down so SJ can cut the grass only to find out our coachwhip is NOT keeping down the snakes. I look over and tryiing to get into the front door is another snake. I look closer to see if it's a king snake or the deadly coral (SJ lost a dog in Jan to a coral). Oh yeah, it's a coral.

Now I've gotten good at catching reptiles thanks to this eco-driven masters I'm doing. I've no trouble getting coaches or even gators. I know my nerve damaged hand is in no way fast enough to capture a coral and even if I did where would i put it? There are way too many young kids around and that park behind the house has too many hikers and kids in it.

I move him away from the door (long branches involved here). I go inside, 'SJ do we have a hoe? There's a coral snake as long as my arm outside.' (and it was. Corals don't get big. The one that killed the dog was this big too. They must love that park to be doing this well). Needless to say neither of us wanted to kill the snake but there was no other way. It's far too deadly to let live (and now all the Aussie's are laughing at me. Haha, corals can't even compare to the king browns and taipans). Long story short, the snake is unfortunately disposed of. What an exciting morning. It's not even 11:00 am yet.

Comments

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

*shudders* Ive got the eebie jeebies just listening to that. Im terrified of snakes, Id have been in hysterics.

*note to self, never go to Florida, perhaps move to Siberia, away from all snakes*

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Heh. I love snakes. Note to self don't show Esmerelda pictures of me holding coach whips or the one of me about to jump on the gator.

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

gators are okay, and any other reptile, I wouldnt want one as a pet or anything, but Im not terrified, its just snakes.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Spiders. For me it's spiders.

Oh and I love your new Connor Icon

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with snakes but roaches. Yuck. My one true fear in life. I would never live in Floridaa because you have flying roaches.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it. One was in my bedroom last night. I am SOOOO glad the bug lady came. I hate bugs. LIke snakes. It's bugs I can't deal with. Why do you think I want out of this state SO bad.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm just glad we didn't lose another dog to that since vets here do NOT carry anti-venom for coral snakes because of their rarity.

I like snakes. It's spiders I can't deal with and those flying roaches we have here.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Well yeah. Florida is riddled with Wes Nile mosquitos oh and fire ants. I really don't like living here

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Felt so bad for the snake but something that size could take us, the dogs, any of the neighborhood kids out.

Hmm. Why didn't we think to throw it in the neighbors' smelly truck?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yeah there's a question.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

We're idiots?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

entirely possible

[emmyaward.livejournal.com]

Nah, not laughing. Some of us are wusses about snakes. We generally don't get them where we are in the city (we just have lots of cane toads - urgh) but we did get this green tree snake in our front yard over Christmas, and Mum pretty much freaked. She hates snakes. It's funny, because like you said, we've got the king browns and the taipans, and here's my mum freaking over a green tree snake. I thought it was cute. I've got a friend though, who lives further out in cleared busland, and they used to have big bush houses that they'd find taipans in all the time. We had a party there in year six, and a couple of the boys were poking around the bush houses when my friend's mum shouted out the kitchen window that there were taipans in there. I'd never seen those two guys run that fast. It was pretty damn funny, and just goes to show that yes, even Aussies are wussy when it comes to snakes.

[mzzgoddessblue.livejournal.com]

we just have lots of cane toads - urgh)

cane toads........aaaaaaaargh I hate them!!!! funnily enough, up here in Malanda, I haven't seen many cane toads lately - it's all green frogs which I am absolutely terrified of! Spiders I can handle (unless they are crawling on me...), cockroaches are disgusting but not scared of them, snakes..well..*shrug*...I ain't goin' near em but they don't terrify me (taipans and the rest of our lovely country's deadly snakes different matter of course...LOL)..but green frogs???? Hate em, despise em, loathe em, totally terrified of em.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

You're afraid of a frog? Trying not to grin. I know, I know, that's a bad Dana

Oh quite frankly Oz has some of the most digusting spiders I've ever heard of. If I saw a funnel web I'd probably faint.

[emmyaward.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I love green frogs. They're oddly cute. Cockraoches are gross, but I've learnt to live with them, and spiders I'm fine with, but no red-backs please.

And yes, over the last year in Townsville, there's been significantly less cane toads. I'm not sure why, but it seems weird, espeically since we're told all the time their numbers are just multiplying.

Seriously, the only thing to do with a cane toad is to it hard with a cricket bat and watch it fly. *g* Or you can race them. They have toad races over at Magnetic Island, and people bet on them and everything. They're like a cultural icon, and also amazing to watch.

And, while we're on the topic of cane toads, this is just for you Yanks who are possibly feeling right now that Australians are really weird: a cane toad's skin has hallucingenic qualities, and some very very weird people actually take the cane toad's skin and smoke it. Ergh.

Ahem. Will go now, and stop making our nation look weird with ramblings about cane toads when all I really meant to say was that green tree frogs are oddly cute. *g*

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I'd be wussy when it comes to the taipan. The corals are nonagressive. That's why I was willing to mess with it.

I could do without the cane toads.

[emmyaward.livejournal.com]

Cane toads suck, but can be entertaining (see above post *g*). They used to always get into our cat's food, and you'd go out in the morning to feed her, and there'd be this big disgusting cane toad just sitting in the water dish. I hated it.

I'd be wussy with the taipan too. I'm wussy with possums. I'll pat them, but I'm always afraid they're going to scratch me or bite me. *g* Possums may be cute, but they can be nasty little freaks.

[mzzgoddessblue.livejournal.com]

How deadly are corals? The only coral I know of is the coral seasnake - is that it?
And where are these pics of you jumping on a gator??? (that would be alligator, would it??) (and why would you want to jump on one??????????)*shudders*

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Coral snake is different from the seasnake. They're deadly. There is anti-venom but they are deadly.

Hmm I could put up a pic of the gator and me and my friends shadows. Did I mention I'm getting a masters in biology to go with my doctorate? Think Steve Irwin. That's my new life.

[mzzgoddessblue.livejournal.com]

Say 'crikey' and I shall smack you.

[purple-smurf.livejournal.com]

and now all the Aussie's are laughing at me. Haha, corals can't even compare to the king browns and taipans

Guilty ;) I'm going through my f'list from the most recent to the older stuff -- normally I do it the other way around -- and so I've read Sharon's take on this already. And yeah, if we see a snake out at my grandparents or here? We kill it. 99% of them are aggressive as all hell, and all of them are deadly. There's black snakes, brown snakes, and tiger snakes there. The only ones we let live are the black snakes, because they eat the baby tigers. Black snakes are less aggressive than the tiger, who will attack you even if it doesn't feel threatened.

I don't like walking alone in the summer when I'm at my grandparents! And I always watch the trees, because they can climb *shudders* My grandparents don't let vines grow around their sheds any more, because snakes would climb the passionfruit vines and would setlle in with my grandfather's tools. Which is good, when you're reaching for a hammer and wind up with a tiger snake.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Like I said if I lived in Oz I'm sure I'd be far less complacent than I am here. the corals aren't as deadly as the taipans or the browns but they are in the top 10 I believe