My god man, you need a good scrub with some carbolic

Well this is the upside of living in Illinois - the winters might suck but they kill off anything that might otherwise lay eggs in your face

I need to be fumigated.

Hello Mr Seahorse.

I hope you check your little seahorses regularly for ticks...especially around their curly, wurly tails.

While I was debating whether to go in back and walk through my rose garden this am as is my custom before leaving for work or stay in and do last minute housework, I decided to do the walkabout. I was preparing to do a preliminary clean sweep of the pathway to clear out spiderwebs since they've been in overabundance. Looking around for a branch to wave a la Harry Potter I started toward one of the big live oaks about 2 feet from where I was standing. Glanced down and there stretched out in all it's 2 ft glory was a Copperhead. Discretion being the better part of valor, meaning no weapon within reach AND having Geordie Pup the Wonder Pup out with me (fortunately lying on the ground behind me), I beat a measured retreat. That got the old adrenalin going!!

Oh wow......I bet that got you on your toes!.

I had a nasty surprise myself this morning, Ive just been stung twice by yellow jackets and so was the dog. Discovered a nest and I am absolutly terrified of bees/wasps and the like. So there was me screaming like a banshee running around the front garden. I called my husband in tears and made him come home LOL.

Well had my DH been there I still would be the one to deal with it.

Im assuming he dont like snakes then. All ive found is a snake skin so far and thats enough for me!. The back of my house is ideal for snakes so Im sure I will come across one soon.

Have you been back out there since you saw it?

Yikes Cindy!
If it was me I might never venture out again.........

get some cans of Raid spray for wasps & hornets

Thanks Dolly!

We have several nests of snakes...mostly garters. The littles ones still hiss when disturbed. Always find snake skins around...especially near the house.

No, but I will have to. I went and watched him from the window after I came back in and he moved off. Just not sure where, and with cats and dogs about not a good thing. Next time though I shall be carrying a shovel.

Right, so there is now an ex Copperhead lying in my yard. My exterminator (irony) had just left and I went to do my walkabout in the garden, but this time armed wityh a shovel and damned if the bugger wasn't lying there, but this time with the head up. I hurried to get the dogs back in the house, and then went back and it was still there. Madame Guillotine they call me,

I have about 4-5 snake incidents a year at my place. It got to the point that rakes were not good enough so I bought some snake grabber/tongs and nab them into a trashcan rather than shovel to the head. I usually take them for a little ride about two or three miles to the other side of a river and drop them off in a nice marshland to let them live out there lives where they won't run into any other people.

The worst was a six foot black snake that shimmied up our back porch. I came home one day and the wife and her friend were in the front driveway jumping up and down with rakes screaming 'Snake on the 3rd floor balcony!' I couldn't quite figure out how he got 30 feet up, but sure enough, when I got up there he was just sunning himself. Those guys can go right up a pole and into the underworkings of a deck pretty darn easy (birds nest under the desk = snake food).

Snakes are generally active in the spring and fall. The ones in the Fall are what worry me as they are usually looking for a nest for breeding. The more effective I am in the fall the less I have to deal with it in the Spring.