Uninvited garden guest.

[capncarl]

This morning I found this little darling hopelessly entangled in the deer/bird netting fence around my vegetable garden. I was mowing and was concentrating on not snagging the netting with the zero turn and mowed right beside it before it started thrashing around. I like to jumped off the mower. The deer almost destroyed everything in the garden last year, prompting the installation of this fencing. Snakes have always been a concern in the garden since a lot of the plants cover the ground and provide a great place for them to hide. I suspected that this netting might entangle them if they tried to crawl through it just right, I’m glad it did. I used a pair of channel locks and a garden pruning shear to try to cut the net and release him. All I could see was his belly, and it looked like a harmless oak snake, but when I got him cut out enough for him to move his head around he showed his white mouth and fangs. Definitely a Cottonmouth moccasin. The net must have tightened up and cut his head off. I don’t want his thing in the garden with in my garden

[LCHIEN]

yeah, {good thing} too bad the net accidentally tightened up and severed his head.

[cwsmith]

Just goes to show, "I love NY".

[capncarl]

I think I am better off with the Cottonmouth Moccasin than then number of lawyers and politicians in NY!

[cwsmith]

I can't speak of the lawyers, but it certainly seems like you guys certainly have your share of politicians

We do have rattlesnakes of course and certainly copperheads, but those are generally in the less populated counties as was evident when I lived in Steuben county (Corning, NY area). Here in Broome County (Binghamton Endicott, Johnson City) you will rarely find one). I used to say, "It's not the snakes that you see that are dangerous, it's those that you don't see!"

[LCHIEN]

We get occasional racoons, opossums, skunks and armadillos. Although in the last few years I can only recall an opposum of late.
Not too far away is a flood impoundment reservoir with wild boar, occasional deer, and some alligators. But We usually don't see those where we live.
And we do have some snakes of various types, but usually not seen.
My wife hates all the squirrels with a passion - they dig up her plants and gardens and we have lots of them.

[capncarl]

I feel sorry for the poor ole Opossums, I see dead ones every day on the highway. They just can’t cross a road without getting hit by a car. There can’t be too many of them left. They really are harmless little critters.

[cwsmith]

Even here in the city, we get skunks and an occasional racoon. When I lived in Painted Post, racoons were abundant and it was a challenge to keep them from raiding your garbage cans. We have an abundance of squirreels of course. Personally I like them, but they are a challenge for gardeners. I don't see any chipmonks here in Binghamton, but here our cat population is out of control. In Painted Post the squirrels and chipmonks would scrammal across the deck and would eat peanuts out of your hand if you offered them. I had tow old large Maple trees that were their home.

I liked the squirrels as they'd loudly chatter and flag their tails letting me know that a snake was in the yard.

We also had deer that would come into the yard, mostly in the early evening and early morning.

[capncarl]

In some of the posts in the past few years raised bed planters were discussed. I can’t remember whose post it was. This hose shaped critter is EXACTLY the reason that I object to a table type garden planter. In my opinion anything that provides these beasts sanctuary and a good place to hide should be avoided at all costs! While I know that my state has a higher number of venomous snakes than most, that doesn’t mean that the only snake in your county wouldn’t like to live under your shed or a potting bench. They look for cool damp and shady places to hide and wait for frogs, lizards, mice and birds.

One of my friends pointed out that this snake getting caught in the bird/deer net was a warning for me to tighten up my garden practices. In the last few years I have planted more ground covering vegetables that would invite such critters. I’ve taken this notice seriously and have removed all of the giant bushy squash plants and the bush beans. Next comes trimming all the low branches and leaves on the climbing butter beans. The only obvious place for them to hide now is under the large planter tubs, and that will require bringing in a pickup truck load of sand to pack under the tubs… happens next week!