Snakes

After posting the sign about rattlesnakes, I thought I should mention that I grew up in East Texas where dangerous snakes were common. I seem to recall that in our yard -- admittedly, we lived on a six-acre lot -- we killed at one time or another coral snakes, rattlesnakes and copperheads. An elderly neighbor was bitten by a copperhead while working in the flower bed in his front yard. My father happened by just after it happened and got him to the hospital right away, and he survived fine.

That poster makes it look liked there are many kinds of poisonous snakes in Texas, but that is only because there are a number of species of rattlesnakes. If you count the rattlesnakes as one group, Texas has four groups of venomous snakes. The one poisonous snake we did not kill in the yard is the cottonmouth water moccasin. We used to keep an eye out for them when we were water-skiing, though, because we did see them around.