snakes can be good guys sometimes but not always

SNAKES CAN BE GOOD GUYS SOMETIMES BUT NOT ALWAYS

even this sidewinder rattlesnake can do good things 
it eats rodents like rats and mice
if you leave it alone it will leave you alone
its as afraid of you as you are of it
yes i have captured one of these before for my college biology class to use for a live display of the different snakes for our biology lab

in the last 20 years i have only had encounters with two snakes
one was the rat snake or chicken snake
it would get into our chicken coup and eat our chicken eggs
many times it would get stuck in the opening in the chicken wire 
where he got in ok but when he had an egg in his tummy he wouldnt fit back through the opening in the chicken wire
he was usually removed from the property


the other snake was a rattlesnake
i usually found them on our one mile walking path i kept mowed in our pastures
i usually left them alone and they just crawled away

once they were inside our 1 acre fenced in yard
that time i used my snake catcher made with a long 8 ft piece of pvc
thats how close i got to him
8 ft
i got him and dropped him over the fence 
he quickly slithered away
im sure he ate a lot of rats and mice in our pastures

in that area where we lived dogs and horses occasionally got bit by the rattlesnakes
so
they werent tolerated by folks in that area

i just left them alone

once our two dogs refused to go through our wooden gate to our pastures
why
as we opened the gate on the other side there was this biggest ole rattlesnake i ever saw in the 17 years i lived in that area

another time my wife she was sitting in our hot tub on our lst floor porch
i was on the second floor front porch looking down
i always say i wish i had had a camera at that moment
we had a 300 gallon rainwater tank sitting beside the hot tub
laying on top of the rainwater tank about 5 ft above her was a big ole rat snake
im sure my wife she would have had a heart attack if it had fallen on her head
thats when i wished i had a ring doorbell camera 

i never said a word and the snake left eventually on its own
probably went straight to the coop for a egg sandwich

another time at the country n i opened our kitchen pantry door
there staring at me was a big ole rat snake
i just closed the door
im not sure i ever told my wife she about that one
im sure that snake was hunting downs some mouse in our house

then
the scariest for me was this time 
i had planted an eastern cedar tree in the corner of our property
as i walked by it one day i noticed a big hole under the tree
so
lucky for me i had a pair of leather gloves on since i was moving brush out to my brush pile nearby
so
i got on my knees and reached under the cedar tree to fill up that hole which im sure some varmint had dug 
as i reached for the pile of soil
i heard that distinctive sound that we have all heard on tv
i knew it was a rattlesnake for sure
it was only a few inches away
all coiled up 
ready for action
i stopped
then
very
very
stealthy 
moved
my 
hand 
out of there

i then slowly crawled backwards
l stood up 
then 
i walked away
a little sweaty
a little tachycardic

i left 
im sure he left also

so all those snakes i encounter were keeping rodents under control
well
except for that rat or chicken snake eating my eggs

the best thing to do is leave them alone

the organicgreen doctor