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#31
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Black ratsnakes for vole control?
On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 21:16:57 -0400, "Scopata Fuori"
wrote: Black snakes, in the US, are harmless, beneficial creatures. The only exception I am aware of, are the notorious cottonmouth snakes, found near water. Black snakes look scary, especially big ones, but just let them go their way, and they will not bother you. They won't bother you, in fact, unless you insist upon bothering them, and they are unable to escape any other way. Yes, this is why I like snakes. I thought maybe black snakes were indigenous here because they were in northern VA where my grandfather lived while I was growing up. If I had black snakes, and they were eating vermin, I'd make sure to let them have a nice safe place to hide, like the woodpile, so they wouldn't be tempted to try to come in the house to nest. We have a nice comfy woodpile, as I do not make many fires--too lazy, save it for company! Also, their presence tends to discourage copperheads, which *are* a bad thing to have around. You make me want to do some research on NC snakes. We have a nice little science museum here that treats the topic quite well from what I understand. Scopata Fuori ObRoses: Climbing Peace is throwing up vicious, 3/4" thick basals, but is not blooming again. I think I will end up moving it, since the telephone pole I was going to wrap it around really does need to be taken out. |
#32
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Black ratsnakes for vole control?
"Scopata Fuori" wrote Black snakes, in the US, are harmless, beneficial creatures. The only exception I am aware of, are the notorious cottonmouth snakes, found near water. Black snakes look scary, especially big ones, but just let them go their way, and they will not bother you. They won't bother you, in fact, unless you insist upon bothering them, and they are unable to escape any other way. Around here (N. pensinsular Florida) it's something called the black racer, and what's either a subspecies or a rare color variant called the indigo racer. Powerful, fast-moving snakes (they don't call them racers for nothing!), graceful of motion and arguably beautiful, and harmless. I saw one on almost every piece of land I considered buying, and have come to consider them a good luck charm. I have never seen any venomous snake on my property: maybe the racers eat them. Everyone else I've talked to in my church has killed at least one cottonmouth or rattler or coral snake near their house; there's even a place that buys freshly-killed snakes for their skins. Ob. roses: the Romanticas and other Austin wannabees I bought 2/3 to 3/4 off from Wayside as bare-root grafts and potted up are mostly doing well, except for one I transplanted into the wet and seem to have killed. Gina Lollobrigida (spelling?) has done nicely, with good crops of nicely smelly blossoms, but looks to be too small a bush for my tastes, and "Handel" (modern climber, white flowers with pink to red edges) has been growing well if blooming a bit fitfully, in spells. Beales writes of Handel, "An excellent rose, but somewhat `pretty' for my taste," and he has a point: at least it hasn't a hybrid tea look to its blossoms. Handel is also old enough (1956) to be out of patent, so perhaps I can try it on its own roots here. Mark. |
#33
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Black ratsnakes for vole control?
Mark. Gooley wrote:
Around here (N. pensinsular Florida) it's something called the black racer, and what's either a subspecies or a rare color variant called the indigo racer. Powerful, fast-moving snakes (they don't call them racers for nothing!), graceful of motion and arguably beautiful, and harmless. I saw one on almost every piece of land I considered buying, and have come to consider them a good luck charm. I have never seen any venomous snake on my property: maybe the racers eat them. Everyone else I've talked to in my church has killed at least one cottonmouth or rattler or coral snake near their house; there's even a place that buys freshly-killed snakes for their skins. When we lived in FL while I was growing up, we kept the neighbors son's pet indigo racer at our house. His mom was deathly afraid of snakes and my mom loves 'em. He was the absolute coolest snake. Coral snakes, OTOH, were greeted by an immediate call to the MPs to come kill them. The coral snakes had a bad habit of crawling up between the jalousie windows and screens on our house for the night time warmth. Beautiful snakes as deadly as they are gorgeous. So far, I've been watching my Granada vigilantly. It's doing quite well so far. Perhaps because it was a potted Weeks rose that I bought locally at Witherspoon's. It's also all by it's lonesome right next to the patio so it also has minimal exposure to the black spot that has been my curse in other parts of my yard. Like Shiva, I've pretty much given up this year due to the deluge we have experienced this year here in NC. Susan - who's s.o. is highly enjoying her temporary credit card-less state. The s.o. thinks this is the longest period of time I have ever gone without buying *something* for the yard. *smile* As I reminded the s.o., it's *temporary*. *evil grin* shsimko at duke dot edu |
#34
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Black ratsnakes for vole control?
Mark. Gooley wrote:
Around here (N. pensinsular Florida) it's something called the black racer, and what's either a subspecies or a rare color variant called the indigo racer. Powerful, fast-moving snakes (they don't call them racers for nothing!), graceful of motion and arguably beautiful, and harmless. I saw one on almost every piece of land I considered buying, and have come to consider them a good luck charm. I have never seen any venomous snake on my property: maybe the racers eat them. Everyone else I've talked to in my church has killed at least one cottonmouth or rattler or coral snake near their house; there's even a place that buys freshly-killed snakes for their skins. When we lived in FL while I was growing up, we kept the neighbors son's pet indigo racer at our house. His mom was deathly afraid of snakes and my mom loves 'em. He was the absolute coolest snake. Coral snakes, OTOH, were greeted by an immediate call to the MPs to come kill them. The coral snakes had a bad habit of crawling up between the jalousie windows and screens on our house for the night time warmth. Beautiful snakes as deadly as they are gorgeous. So far, I've been watching my Granada vigilantly. It's doing quite well so far. Perhaps because it was a potted Weeks rose that I bought locally at Witherspoon's. It's also all by it's lonesome right next to the patio so it also has minimal exposure to the black spot that has been my curse in other parts of my yard. Like Shiva, I've pretty much given up this year due to the deluge we have experienced this year here in NC. Susan - who's s.o. is highly enjoying her temporary credit card-less state. The s.o. thinks this is the longest period of time I have ever gone without buying *something* for the yard. *smile* As I reminded the s.o., it's *temporary*. *evil grin* shsimko at duke dot edu |
#35
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Black ratsnakes for vole control?
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