Cuban invaders have seized control of my yard!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Down with Fidel!

I’ll try again (Thank goodness for cut-and-paste):

Cuban boat, ah, frogs.

:eek: I was watching a cute little indigenous tree frog up by the porch light about a week ago. Just absentmindedly watching the cute little Kermie, when a giant grey–undead looking, and undoubtedly Communist–frog jumped up and ATE HIM WHOLE! Now there are several of these things living around my house. Only the giant toads seem impervious. The anoles, spiders, hell flies, have all shrunk in numbers. The local frogs are in hiding or being digested.

This is a far more serious problem than the giant dog turd dwelling spiders I mentioned in a pit thread last year. At least the native anoles took care of the native–yet grotesquely huge and organized, I digress–spiders. It’s going to take some snakes to solve this problem. Peachy. I could pray for owls.

Maybe the CTFs will eat the killer bees, when they show up. Look out Ocala-JAX-Gainesville, you’re next.

2

I’d say you need to find a competing species. Shit like that can screw up a yard for a long time.

3

Welcome to my personal hell.

Oh, you said FROGS!

4

You must have seen these things. They moved up from the Keys. They were in PBC in 2000. Now, Orlando. Tomorrow, the WORLD! Well, the world where it doesn’t freeze for long periods of time, and the highs remain over 70 constantly. But, who knows? Frogs go dormant and hide when it gets cold.

Do you see any little green tree frogs anymore? Or, have these huge Cuban ones taken over?

JC:

Hopefully some big birds and snakes will show up. I rarely see snakes. Suburbanites freak out and kill them with garden tools. A big indigo (I wish), rat snake, or racer might come in handy right now. Eastern diamondbacks I can do without.

5

We promote our big ol’ black rat snakes up here. The work like a charm on the smaller things.

But you gotta be careful with the lawnmower. I knocked the head off a good six-footer a couple years ago.

6

It’s the people who kill a snake in the garden–on purpose–and then ask what it is that annoy me. It’s always a rat snake, racer, or other non-venemous species. I’ve killed snakes, toads, and lizards by accident. I always feel guilty. :frowning: You really can’t mistake the diamondback or coral for any of the non-venomous snakes, with one huge exception. The scarlet king snake looks like a coral, sort of. It’s much larger and the red meets the black, not the yellow.

  • “Red and yellow, kill a fellow–red and black, friend of Jack.”*

The other venomous snakes in Florida (copperhead, cottonmouth, moccasin) mostly stay near water. I’ve never even seen a copperhead. It’s such an obvious pit viper, in photos, I can’t imagine thinking it is anything but poisonous.

I wish the Indigo would make a comeback. They are the perfect snake. One of their worst qualities is that they tame easily.

7

Any wild animal getting along with man too well is in for a surreal ride.

Some get lucky like the horse and dog.

Some don’t…like the sheep and cow and chicken. Oops. Big mistake guys. You should have gone for our throats when you had the chance.

And I’m with you, Beagle. I still feel guilty about that snake. Having a black snake that big in residence practically ensures that there won’t be a problem with mice and rats.

8

I sort of miss ours.

When we had an undeveloped, wooded lot on either side of our house, we had a four foot (or so) racer who spent a fair bit o’ time in our backyard. He was pretty mellow, and judging by by my two or three close encounters with him, not as aggressive as most racers are supposed to be.

(Or maybe he was some other breed.)

Given that they are more aggressive than most other non-venomous snakes, and we’ve now got a two year old who loves to play outside, I s’pose it’s just as well.

But he was cool as hell to watch.

9

Only snake I’ve ever seen in our suburban SoCal yard is the occasional garter snake. They’re cute :slight_smile: And they eat crickets! We had a HUGE cricket infestation in our garage once… ugh. Even my mom the herpetophobic doesn’t scream at a garter snake.

I bought one at a pet store and kept it as a pet once, but after a few months he escaped. Probably for the best, since he never really seemed happy, but I do miss watching and holding him. Snakes are cool. (However, I do not want to encounter any rattlers.)

10

Skeezix, I’ve found racers to be nothing but blurs heading in the other direction, or past me on their way to somewhere else. They are not aggressive in an offensive sense. They do act crazy, even bubbling, crapping, fake rattling, and hissing, playing dead, sometimes biting, when captured. My advice, don’t capture them. Oh, and don’t corner them. I’ve done that. I felt sorry for the little guy, I thought he might have a stroke.

Quantum Butterfly [sub]don’t mention this to anyone going to the June 15 dopefest at Turkey Lake Park in Orlando[/sub] :wink:

My only experience with a really large (about six feet long and really fat) eastern diamondback in the last five years was out at Turkey Lake Park while playing disc golf. I was walking–really fast–down the edge of the ninth fairway. I was in the zone you get in when the temperature is about 95 and the humidity is running a close second, near brain death. Walking along…in my mind,

stick…stick…stick…SNAKE?!..ABOUT TO STEP NEAR THE HEAD!..WTF?!..

Reptilian brain reacts (mine), foot about to miss rattlesnakes head by one foot becomes an instinctive tiptoe, the next ten steps probably looked like an NFL cornerback running a tire drill. Then I stopped, turned around, calmed my breathing, and realized that snake could have bitten me or rattled. Instead, it was just waiting for me to pass by. I then took one step back towards the rattler and it continued on to the next clump of trees about 50 yards away. My advice, don’t provoke a rattler by actually touching it and you face very little danger. Kids, obviously, would change that equation. I would not trust some adults around venomous snakes, for that matter.

Thank’s to Steve Irwin,* there are lots of amateur snake wranglers out there. Thus, the constant need for antivenom.

*Just kidding. Jackass drunken stunts which begin with “watch this” are a great tradition.

11

Beagle: Yeah, that sounds about right. The only time we got a good long look at ours was through the kitchen window. If you were outside at the same time he was, he never stuck around long.

Bubbling? Don’t think I’ve seen that trick.