roguequilter

usually i just wander and lurk. have several Board threads bkmarked to follow. but for the snake i needed to log in

bubonic plague was carried around this planet by fleas on rats from cargo ships. aprox 1/3 of world population died. snakes eat rats. some varieties, like king snakes, eat venomous snakes, like rattle snakes. pretty little garter snakes eat bugs and insect larva like those of mosquitos - mosquitos that carry west nile virus that kill our horses & our elderly humans. snakes eat mice - hanta virus is in mouse urine & feces. hanta virus kills humans. fellow quilter here locally, lost her beloved sister-in-law last summer to hanta virus. she was sick for a week or so. lived in beautiful gated retirement community in northern washington state.

my puppy almost trampled young snake yesterday. stretched long in freshly watered grass in cooler afternoon sun. beautiful glistening skin of motteled brown and tan. i carefully examined it & of course it's tail. not a rattler. i really would rather that the rattlers continue thier important work of clearing out the overpopulation of desert rats, rats, mice and the aggressively reproducing california quail that is overwhelming and taking over forage and nesting of native game birds here in eastern washington state.

i could go on & on, but bottom line - snakes, our first line of defense against insects and rodents that carry deadly disease, eat our grain supplies, cause fatal electrical fires from eating insulation off the house wiring, eat roots of our food producing fruit and nut trees. snakes, much maligned & misunderstood beauties of our natural world.

all that said, i don't want to be close to and am most wary of and respectful of venemous snakes. the SE USA is incredible...won't live there, i need to be outside all the time. coral snakes, cotton mouths, the largest of the rattlesnake family - the eastern rattlesnake, copperheads... a few more pit vipers than we have here in the hot dry arid west.

and yes, rattlesnake is excellent skinned and grilled over open camp fire. excellent source of clean fat free protien. no bones. and it doesn't "taste like chicken" anymore than blue fin shark does, tho much easier to skin.

my brothers and i captured & played w terantulas. friends kept them as pets. another useful and important creatire of our natural world in insect control.

i don't like arachnids - probably because they are quiet and i don't know where they are. difficult to be wary of the unseen. i have loved and been fascinated by snakes since teen years when moved out of city enviornment into rural farm country and encountered my first snakes. even kept them for a while at times, to watch and observe, then release.

i don't ask or expect anyone to like or admire them as i & many others do. but i do ask that they not be used as target practice...just because you don't like them. with the man & natural change in our planets enviornment of rising temperatures etc, reptiles of all kinds from frogs to snakes are on decline due to heat & increased intensity of UV rays. we need them...we need to protect them. i don't eat rattle snakes anymore. my hiking bpacking days are in the past. and they aren't as plentiful now anyway.

which is so sad.

my newest love in my local reptile world. i knew bullsnakes in new jersey, huge and wonderful. but not as small & beautifully marked as the local variety where i currently live.

bullsnake native to SCE Washington State