While there have been several articles printed in recent editions of this newspaper concerning snakes, I feel compelled to add my two cents’ worth.

I don’t like snakes. None of them.

I believe I know why.

When I was about five or six years old, our family piled into our white Chevy Impala and headed for Florida for our summer vacation, probably during the month of August. We always took our vacation towards the end of summer.

But what I remember most is watching a reptile show at Florida’s Cypress Gardens. Somehow or another, my siblings and myself got hoo-dooed into participating by holding a long, black, slimy, undefined species — legless, moving, hairless, breathing ... Well, you get the picture.

And to this day, my mom and dad have an 8-millimeter movie of us doing what would come naturally — dropping it to the ground and hauling tail!

Yeah, I know the argument — God placed them on the earth to rid us of mice and to control the population of other varmints. That notion was also impressed on my learnin’ by a biology professor I had at Clemson. But what does he know? He got his Ph.D. by studying the mating calls of frogs.

Over the last two weeks, I don’t recall ever having seen so many snake carcasses on the highway. I suppose they are traveling, seeking water, just like us.

Which leads me to my final story. One of my co-workers at work had a recent, unusual encounter with one of these critters. Rose had set out some glue traps on her enclosed back porch hoping to catch crawling bugs, etc. She noticed it had been moved ever so slightly. Then she heard a disturbing noise.

Yep. An uninvited guest had entered her domain.

She called for her husband Eddie to come immediately. He nonchalantly grabs the snake by its tail and relocates it to a field in their backyard.

A few days pass and, yep, a snake appears again — same place, same snake. It was adorned with part of the glue trap from its initial visit.

However, this time the story has a different ending. Let’s just say, well, it won’t be invading anyone’s privacy on Neeses Highway again.

Oh, and lest I forget. I’ve been told that if you sprinkle sulfur around your house, it will keep snakes away (I’m told it also works great for elephants, too.)

T&D Correspondent Rendy Boland can be reached by phone at 803-535-2222.

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