Creepy Crawly Things

There seems to be an abundance of pygmy rattlesnakes around my new home. Pygmies are every bit as venomous as the larger rattlesnakes. The problem with pygmies is first they are hard to see; they look like little piles of dirt or innocent sticks. Second, although they do rattle, they can't really be heard. The rattle sounds like an insect's buzz and one has to be dangerously close to hear it.

I've been seeing the snakes on the road. They show up very well on asphalt. I've run over a few. Running over a snake does not guarantee it's demise- snakes aren't so much hard bone as cartilage meaning that a tire traveling 60mph just pisses 'em off. To kill a snake with a car spin the wheels- this tears flesh from their bodies.

Before anyone accuses me of animal cruelty let me just say that adult rattlesnakes have no natural pr editors. I'm talking about the large variety, the Timber Rattler and the Diamond Back. If a juvenile rattlesnake survives to maturity it is at the top of the food chain. Babies get picked off by hawks, and foxes, and the like. But the bigger the snake the harder it is to kill. I think humans are supposed to be the balance. We're supposed to keep them in check and that's why it's hardwired into our DNA to be afraid of snakes.

I don't know what natural predator keeps pygmy rattlesnakes in check but it isn't doing a very good job. Each evening as I drive home from work I see at least one. Sometimes I see as many as FIVE. All these snakes make me damn nervous about walking around my yard. I mean they're hard to see, they can't be heard over the drone of the ten thousand bugs ruling Tallapoosa County and they're freakin' everywhere. I don't go out hunting snakes but if I see one near the house it must die. I simply cannot share my living space with them.