Siouxzi wrote:

[snipped part about snakes, fear of, dealing with same, etc.]

I'd suggest you try gently handling one if the
tiny, pretty little earth snakes that I have living under timbers
everywhere in my yard. They're no bigger than an earthworm, with
iridescent brown bodies and salmon-pink bellies, and a head smaller
than the pinky toe on a newborn baby.

Aha! Sue, those must be what I've seen in my compost pile! They really
look like overgrown "nightcrawlers" (worms, bait for fish), but they
moved WAY too fast to be a worm. I've only seen a couple, but dealing
with them was clearly not a problem, as they were not at all happy to
see me, and all they wanted was to get away from me ASAP. They weren't
all that "tiny" though, as I guessed they were maybe 6-8" long.

Alas, I can't say that I was all that happy about seeing the snake who
was hiding (or trying to) under the rim of my tiny "water garden" --
OTOH, I now have a sorta-valid excuse for not handweeding there!

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh