S-s-s-s-s-snakes!

I can handle bugs. I can even handle mice, even though they make me really jumpy. But when it comes to snakes, you just need to go find another girl cause I am definitely not the one for the job!

So a couple of weeks ago, Joshua and I were getting ready for church. We went into the family room where the freshly folded laundry was and I briefly caught the glimpse of part of a snake under the couch. I bolted out of the room and requested that Joseph get home as fast as possible to take care of the situation. There was nothing we could really do before church, so we shut the door, stuffed blankets under the door so it couldn't escape to another part of the house and went to church. Let's just say that I TOTALLY did not want to come home. So after banging on walls and making a lot of noise, we finally convinced the snake to slither out the back door. And I proceeded to sleep with my tennis shoes on for the next week and half, still being traumatized by the event.

So a week and a half later, after I felt comfortable to be barefoot in my house again, I was sitting on our bed talking to my husband on the phone. In the middle of our conversation, in slithered the snake. It slithered right up into my dresser drawer, which was only two feet away from where I was sitting mind you, and began a staring contest which I automatically knew I was going to loose. Joseph said I sounded like Darth Vader right before I leaped out into the hall, made some kind of shrilly noise, and grabbed the nearest shoes I could find and made a bee line to the car. Imagine the look on my mother-in-laws face as Joshua and I came waltzing into their home, with Joshua still in his jammies, and beautiful me, with uncombed hair, an over sized tee-shirt and jeans, with. . .high heels on! I'm sure we were quite the sight.

I think and HOPE the snake is gone for good now. Our family room looked the leaning tower of couches as we were trying to find that stupid serpent. We tipped all the couches (there are four of them in their right now cause we are remodeling our living room) on their side arms so the snake couldn't hide under there. This snake was so unbelievably fast. . .and it was also about five feet long. (we know that cause we were using a yard stick to chase it out of the house) The past couple weeks have been so creepy! Yuck! This may only be California, but we still have crazy adventures here! Here is a little more info about the creature that was living in our home:


Nonvenomous
Considered harmless to humans. (yeah. right)

Size
Adults of this species are 36 - 102 inches long (91 - 260 cm.) Hatchlings are about 13 inches long.

Appearance
A slender fast-moving snake with smooth scales, a large head and eyes, and a thin neck. Large scales above eyes. 17 scale rows at mid body. Coloration is variable; light brown, pink or reddish above with pink, brown, or black bands across the neck. Black and yellow phases of this subspecies are found outside of California. The dark coloring is interspersed with light coloring creating a banded or saddled appearance, with dark coloring surrounding the light scales. Color typically changes to a solid tan or reddish coloring along the length of the long thin tail. The braided appearance of scales on the tail (like a whip) gives this snake its common name.

Behavior
Active in the daytime. Hunts crawling with head held high above the ground, occasionally moving it from side to side. The prey is overcome and crushed with the jaws or beneath loops of the body and eaten without constriction. Often strikes agressively when threatened or handled. Good climbers, able to climb bushes and trees. Seen moving quickly even on hot sunny days, but often seen basking on roads in early morning or resting underneath boards or other surface objects. Frequently run over by vehicles and found dead on the road, partly due to the tendency of this snake to stop and eat road-killed small animals.

Diet
Eats small mammals including bats, nestling and adult birds, bird eggs, lizards, snakes, amphibians, and carrion. Hatchlings and juveniles will eat large invertebrates.

Reproduction
Lays eggs in early summer. Eggs hatch in 45 - 70 days.

Range
Ranges throughout southern California from Ventura county to the Baja California border and north around the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains though the Great Basin desert into norhwestern Nevada, and south through nevada and much of Arizona to part of Sonora and Baja California. Apparently intergrades with M. f. rudocki in eastern Kem County.

Habitat
Inhabits open areas of desert, grassland, scrub, and sagebrush, including rocky, sandy, flat, and hilly ground. Avoids dense vegetation. Takes refuge in rodent burrows, under shaded vegetation, and under surface objects.