Snakes give LOTS of people the shudders. After half a lifetime in Australia and nearly 19 years here in tropical Thailand, I have learned to develop a healthy respect for our serpent friends.
Have I ever been bitten? Sadly yes. Careless of me to rush out the back door here in Thailand in bare feet and a long sarong at almost dusk and startle him. Him? I'm sure a Her would have understood the need for a single mama to rush out and grab the laundry as the evening rains began to fall, and wouldn't have bitten. 😆🐍 He bit me twice, on the ankle. With an over-tired little girl finally napping upstairs, no one to drive me to the hospital and a fair knowledge of both snakes and high level first aid, I decided to treat myself, at home. A rough, sleepless night with an ankle twice it's normal size and a deep purple colour, but not life threatening. In the morning, when my then husband finally wandered home and finally drove me to the hospital, it was funny. "You not dead" said the Thai emergency doctor unceremoniously. "Not poison". 😆 It took 10 days for the swelling, deep bruising and pain to subside, and a herpetologist here was able to confirm the type of snake from the distinctive bite pattern & marks: an Oriental Ratsnake. Non-venomous (as in won't kill you) but can give a nasty bite. No kidding!!
Since then I'm careful to use the outside lights at night around the house, and to make a little noise on approach. But most importantly, I've learned that species identification MATTERS.
FFWD to a few weeks ago when I saw this beauty lying just a few feet from our Thai front door, one hot Sunday morning between rain showers:
I'd seen her several weeks earlier in the foliage around our porch. And my Thai business friend had suggested (a) getting a guy in to kill/remove her and (b) the possibility of snake curry.
He was bewildered by my No-Kill philosophy & my willingness to coexist with something that isn't furry. But, being a mama with snake bite experience, it was IMPORTANT to identify it as a non-venomous variety. I KNEW it wasn't a cobra (been there and relocated those safely in the past) but I had NO IDEA about this one.
And so I posted in a really helpful community group on Zuckerbook:
I was really pleased to learn that she's a Banded Kukri Snake - ชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ : Oligodon fasciolatus. Non venomous, and a good hunter of frogs, rodents and the gerzillion tropical critters we share a garden with.
And so having identified her as a helpful friend who is welcome t hang close to our front door, we named her. Serena. The snake. Cos she's VERY chilled and relaxed.
We tell incoming guests about her so they won't be alarmed if she slithers close. Our cats have been telepathed the message that she's OK and frankly can't even be bothered sniffing and staring at her anymore.
When we leave the house I cheerfully tell her she's in charge, but to please not tell our two boy cats who think THEY are in charge. 🤣
Identification is everything and enables us to give respect, and to coexist.
Would YOU be OK with Serena close to YOUR front door?? 🐍
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I have nothing against them at all, I jus don't want to be near one lol.
Once you get past the fear factor, it's just like being near a bee or a wasp that serves a function in your garden but not optimal to be bitten by. 😊
Wow, fascinating. Just reading the first few lines, and I was already engrossed and had to read till the end.
I'm not a fan of snakes, I get really scared. I honestly would coexist with them, but for the fact that they bite, it really puts me on the age. Unfortunately, where I am now, we have snakes everywhere, and anytime I walk down the road, I have a feeling I'd see them.
If you LEARN about snakes you will find most of them are rarely aggressive and that coexisting is easier after that. If you stomp the ground a bit in snakey areas, they feel your vibration and stay out of the way. And they're incredible hunters and keep the rat-toad thing manageable.
Being open to the IDEA of snakes is a great beginning.
!ENGAGE 25
You're actually right. I have actually being looking to read and watch various documentaries and all.
Thanks again
ENGAGEtokens.Definitely! I have a resident brown house snake in my vegetable patch, right outside my front door, which looks like a tiny python and is a member of that family. I have also found centipede eaters in the house
Oh nice. Where do you live, @nikv? Pythons around here tend t run in the 3-4-5 meter category and eat dogs, cats and even small babies. LOL. But I'm sure we have several in the small khlong (canal) that runs beside our house. How do I know that? No rats at all. 😆
Thanks for stopping by to comment.
!ENGAGE 25
I'm in South Africa and we have the big pythons too. Small children and goats are fair game as well although child deaths are very rare.
We have a huge rat problem and I'm grateful to my cats for keeping my house rat-free. I think the house snake gets the mice, I don't often see the cats with mice although they kill and eat rats all the time
ENGAGEtokens.I've never, ever been scared of snakes - only in a 'don't shock me by rearing up at me when I check the mail in my bikinis' kinda way. I find them fascinating, magnificent creatures and have no idea why people get their knickers in a knot over them. Saying that, I wish my garden hose would stop mimicking a snake, as it fairly gives me a heart attack most days.
Yes, I "GET" the distinction between being shocked by them, as opposed to being scared. Ever the English teacher. 😆 Never was that more apparent than the morning a Golden Tree Snake FLEW out of my washing machine as I went to lift up the half-open lid. 🤣 I think those hose rollers, for all their nuisance value, also have a unique role (pardon the pun) to play here.
!ENGAGE 25
Oh I wasn't correcting you!
Ah - I'd scream blue murder if a snake flew out of my washing machine!
Didn't think you were correcting - you just made such an elegant distinction between being shocked and being scared. It made me smile. 😊
ENGAGEtokens.Me no likey snakes Marike.
That succinct little fact actually rather surprises me!! 😆🐍
They're ok, but I had a bad experience with an Eastern Brown of over two metres in length. Kind of scarred me. I see a lot though, I'm always out and about.
I had the pleasure I meeting a new snake yesterday, think it was a Viperine when I was watering the garden last night, the land gets water once a week and I have to direct it. I moved a stone and there beneath it was a beautiful snake all coiled up resting. I felt bad for having disturbed her. We have quite a few snakes around here, but rarely see them. I am fascinated by them and have always seen them as a good omen.
But yes it is very important to be able to identify them xxx
I think her name might be Victoria. Victoria the Viperine. Elegant, no? Yes, we KNOW we have LOADS of snakes around us but rarely see them. I actually wear a golden snake ring - the Babylonian ourobouros - that I hade made for myself when I started chemotherapy 30 years ago: the eternally regenerative female.
The westernized mom in me errs on the side of identify first. And ask the local snake handler to relocate if it's a particularly dangerous one. 🦋
I was always afraid of snakes 🐍😬
Even I can't dare to click a picture of it..!
You are brave,,I can say that👍
Awesome Clicks ❣️
It's a reality shared by so many - and it's something apparently rather deep in the collective unconscious. Sorry to ambush you with the NSFW pic. 🤣
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