[Forest Meister]

Took #6 for a ride this morning...

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Are you sure those snakes are not part blue racer, enabling them to beat your side by side back to the ranch?? FM

 

[Forest Meister]

@Wild Thing, are you painting those things up? Not being overly fond of being surprised by snakes, I used to do that regularly when marking trees. Red, yellow, orange, or bright blue snakes show up a lot better in a pine plantation or early spring hardwoods than those sneaky color patterns Mother Nature gifted them with. By the time they shed their skins I would be long finished marking in the area. FM

 

[Forest Meister]

How many frogs, toads, and small mammals would 16 3'-4' snakes eat? More than you have around the immediate homestead, I would speculate. Get some more paint and find out if you need to move them two miles instead of one. FM

 

[Forest Meister]

Took #17 for a ride today. Will be picking up some fresh paint when I go into town tomorrow.

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Enough is enough already, we gota know how many of those aggressive mouse eaters you have!

Kingsford is just around the corner from you. Stop in at Nelson Paint Tree Marking Paint & Equipment Enamel - Nelson Paint Company and pony up some hard earned cash for a forester's paint gun, an extra BLACK nozzle, and a couple quarts of tree marking paint. The paint gun will allow you to stand back 7' or more and still turn the rear end of your snake any of about 10 colors.

If you go that route DO NOT purchase the cheapest model, the barrel and intake tube are plastic and very prone to breaking when needed most (another "don't ask me how I know"). Even the mid range gun will last a lifetime and beyond. I have a gun that belonged to a forester whose first career was in research with MSU at a field station and after retiring he became a consultant. The gun came into my possession over 25 years ago when his wife made him quit at age 82 (he lived past 100).

A paint gun is not as convenient for a grab and go job as is aerosol paint, but for marking trails, freshening lines, designating trees to cut or ones that need to be left during a harvest, that big rock we keep forgetting about, etc. it is much, much more efficient.

Oh, almost forgot, they are also effective for marking porcupine tails, and being as how a person can stand back several feet further than if using aerosol, they are much safer too. FM

 

[Forest Meister]

I don't use a backpack sprayer, a paint gun as always served me well (if it ain't broke, don't fix it). I just carry a few extra quarts of paint in the back of my vest and when they are gone it's time to go home. FM

 

[Forest Meister]

Found a little green snake belly up in the driveway yesterday. Have no idea what happened to him.

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Too bad?

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Scared to death by big honkin' pine snakes would be my uneducated guess. FM

 

[Forest Meister]

Had another one show up in the lean-to yesterday - a big fat one. Elaine gave him a ride also...yep to the neighbors place - the one that shot "Her Deer" last year 😀 I am beginning to wonder if maybe we aren't getting all these snakes from the neighbors who think we shot "Their Deer" - LOL

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Start painting 'em up earlier this year. Maybe use blue so if they beat Elaine back to the ranch we can call them 'blue racers" FM

 

[Forest Meister]

No repeats? FM

 

[Forest Meister]

Haven't painted any yet this year FM. Elaine has been taking them for a long....long ride so I can't imagine any of them coming back this far.

Those that I painted last year have no doubt shed those skins by now?

I thought snakes shed a couple times a year but a fast google search says 3 to 6 times a year.

You have to have some duplicates, you have to. Nine already this year and how many were relocated last year? With each and every one of them appearing in the immediate vicinity of Casa del Solitario Roble, how many serpents per acre would that be? Another statistic that some might find interesting would be, using your best guestimate, how much total footage of slithering beast has been relocated to date?

What on earth have you done in the last couple years to attract that much beady-eyed, forked-tongued, attention🐍? Are you applying or storing a new chemical around the structures that is acting like sort of snake hormone? If so, there is no telling how far they might be willing to travel and return for some (more) nooky! FM

 

[Forest Meister]

Think outside the box, maybe use them as a new way to deal with trespassers? FM
Snakes - Raiders of the Lost Ark - YouTube

 

[Forest Meister]

Thanks, Frank. I really don't mind having them around. Now, if they should somehow end up inside the house, relocation would be a must. My brother found a 5 footer coiled up on his living room floor one morning a few years back. I believe that one went to Snake Heaven.

If my wife found anything like that in the house, and assuming she did not have an immediate heart attack, the snake might go to heaven but she would send me straight to hell because it would somehow be my fault. FM