SNAKE vent! One of the things I hate about Florida

[Pin Wizard]

Good luck, Shep! I hope it's not too many. Whatever the number is, only mention half of them to your wife if you must mention them at all. Kind of like when I bought our dachshund. DH wanted to know what I paid. I told him half the amount of what she actually was.

 

[olena]

I was in Orlando last week visiting my Dad. He was heading to the apartment with an arm full of groceries, when one slithered across the sidewalk. He pounced on it and smashed its head in with his heel. He said he thinks it came from the lake. It was black. The cottonmouths I've seen have been dark gray, but I guess it's close enough. Florida is just silly with lizards, snakes, palmetto bugs, termites, mosquitos and gators.

 

[MaryAnn B]

Pin Wizzard

Some other people have told me the same thing about the middle of the state can be more humid and buggy. I am originally from NJ, Old Bridge, and I remember red ants. Have lived in Colorado for 18 years.

How do you feel about the schools. I have one grown child actually 22 yrs. today and a 13 yr. old. she will be going into 8th grade. I have done checking on the internet and some schools are not good, but others seem alright. Some of our schools here are not good either.

I have been on both coasts and I have found the west coast to be more humid not as many breezes. Aligators ugh, but I guess you need not be to close to lakes etc.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Hi Mary Ann, me again, Just a word of caution when checking on schools, if you are basing your decision based on the grade the school has received from the State (based on FCAT results) beware that not all grades are equal. One A school can in fact be less than another A school. Grades are not only determined by the FCAT scores but also how much that school has improved from the previous year. A school can be a D or F school one year and then an A or B the next but still be below the other A or B schools. You really need to talk to people in the area to get a true feel for the school and school district.

 

[MaryAnn B]

Thanks for the info Ms. Jasmine. I was looking at the FCAT scores it sounds very confusing. Also there is a site called greatschools.net which goes into the faculty, drop out ,absent, and class size rates.
But I will be careful in checking it out.

First I need to decide at least on an area. That would be helpful. Since I have heard from a few people about it being more humid and buggy in the middle of the state I may be changing direction. My daughter is afraid of the hurricane possibility. I tried to tell her my aunt and uncle haved lived for 40 years in Ft. Lauderdale in the same house and it still stands. Of course there home was made of concrete block construction. You things you like and things you don't about where you live. I just want to make sure I choose the right area for me. I hate to move. I have been in Lakewood , CO for the past 15 years.

Any other infor you can think of would help. Thanks again.

 

[suzannen]

SNAKES???? HATE SNAKES!!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by MaryAnn B
Pin Wizzard

I am originally from NJ, Old Bridge, and I remember red ants. Have lived in Colorado for 18 years.

How do you feel about the schools. I have one grown child actually 22 yrs. today and a 13 yr. old. she will be going into 8th grade. I have done checking on the internet and some schools are not good, but others seem alright. Some of our schools here are not good either.

I have been on both coasts and I have found the west coast to be more humid not as many breezes. Aligators ugh, but I guess you need not be to close to lakes etc.

Old Bridge? I'm from Pompton Plains. It's about 45 minutes from NYC. DS is in a parochial school and I'm extremely happy with them. Down here they'll come out with "report cards" on public schools. We have some really good ones in town. http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/FL/216/improve
Someone else recently told me that the west coast doesn't get as much breeze in the gulf as we do from the ocean.

Happy Birthday to your 22 year old! My DS will be turning 10 on April 12.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by olena
I was in Orlando last week visiting my Dad. He was heading to the apartment with an arm full of groceries, when one slithered across the sidewalk. He pounced on it and smashed its head in with his heel. He said he thinks it came from the lake. It was black. The cottonmouths I've seen have been dark gray, but I guess it's close enough.

Yuck! There's no way I would do that. I'd go back to my car and wait. LOL!
http://www.wf.net/~snake/moccasin.htm
Buy you can snake proof your yard!

 

[Pin Wizard]

When we wanted to move from NJ, DH wanted a warm state (easier on his back.) He wanted California since his brother lives there. There was no way I was going with the earthquakes. I think you have less of a chance avoiding an earthquake than a hurricane. At least you get a general idea of where a hurricane will hit. And you have time to leave the area if you're in it. That's why I chose FL over CA. We have friends who said there was a hurricane before we moved here where they thought it would hit here so headed up to Orlando. They got a hotel room, and then Orlando was hit with the hurricane and it missed our area. They must have gone based on early reports.

 

[nowellsl]

Well Pin Wizard I hate to disagree but I live on a golf course and I removed a coral snake from the living room of my house not too long ago! My sister lives in the same city - in a subdivision and found a water moccasin in her back yard. I worked for the Florida Park Service for 6 years and I can tell you - there are plenty of snakes here! I remember one visitor was sitting on a bench and had a rat snake fall out of a tree on her head!! You learn to live with them. Fortunately they are more scared of you than you are of them!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by nowellsl
Well Pin Wizard I hate to disagree but I live on a golf course and I removed a coral snake from the living room of my house not too long ago!

Glad I never saw one while we lived there. How did you get it out of your house?

 

[MaryAnn B]

Old Bridge is in the central part of NJ. I think I remember it took about 1hr. and 40 min. to get to the Port Authority by bus. Sayreville is just north of OB where Bon Jovi and Crew lived.

Hope your son has a great day on the 12th. I just had lunch with my son for his BDay. It is nice that even though he is 22 we still get along and go to eat together.

 

[MaryAnn B]

I know what you mean. I was in CA with my son before my daughter was born, and the night before we left a quake hit Anaheim. Was I scared and nothing you can do. I tried once to get out of the bed but fell so went back on the bed and kept checking the ceiling to make sure it didn't fall on us.

You won't believe this but my son slept through it. He was 6 at the time. I would rather do the hurricane you do get warnings at least.
Plus, at least now, cost of living is terribly high there.

 

[fklhou]

Snakes are part of camping and I run into my share on boy scout trips. I still remember when I was doing the camping portion of my scoutlmaster fundimental course. We had thirty or so adults being trained and another dozen senior scout leaders doing the training. During one of the sessions, a good size coral snake scared one of the leaders in the bathroom/shower at the camp. The leaders all swarm and ran to look at the snake and tried to captured it. It was actually fairly funny seeing all of these scout leaders chasing around a coral snake. The poor snake was injured in the capture and the campmaster reluctantly decided to kill it.

We ran into another coral snake during a nature walk a mile or so away from that area.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I'm glad you had a nice lunch with your son today. They usually end up being times you remember. And thanks for the well wishes for my DS. I'm sure he'll have a great day...his birthday falls on a Saturday! A big plus in a kid's book. Your son slept through a quake at 6 years old? Kids are amazing!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Wow, fklhou...that must have been a site to see the scout leaders chasing that Coral. However, I have no sympathy at all for a Coral!!

 

[nowellsl]

My cat got it trapped in a corner and I ended up having to kill it. I was afraid it would bite my cat, I wasn't about to try to capture it! I'm just glad it didn't crawl into somewhere I couldn't get to it!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by nowellsl
My cat got it trapped in a corner and I ended up having to kill it. I was afraid it would bite my cat, I wasn't about to try to capture it! I'm just glad it didn't crawl into somewhere I couldn't get to it!

Yikes!

 

[phamton]

Originally posted by Pin Wizard
It hasn't been bad here with fire ants. We're pretty fortunate I guess. Any time I see a mound, out comes the stuff to get rid of them. We had them in New Jersey also, but up there we called them red ants.

Fireants in Florida and red ants in NJ are not the same. I was raised in north Texas where red ants were common but not fireants. Now I am in south Texas where fireants are abundant. They are much more aggressive than red ants. To me they are like comparing the aggresiveness of Africanized Bees to Honeybees. Fireants bite and sting. They bite the skin with their mandibles, double over their abdomens, and inject their stingers.


There are 4 types of fireants:
Red Imported Fire Ant
Red imported fire ants quickly spread through a suitable habitat, and the species is now found throughout most of the southeastern United States and west into Texas.

Black Imported Fire Ant

The black imported fire ant, Solenopsis richteri, is very similar to the red imported fire ant. It is currently limited to a small area of northern Mississippi and Alabama.

Southern Fire Ant

The southern fire ant, Solenopsis xyloni, is a native species that occurs from North Carolina south to northern Florida, along the Gulf Coast and west to California.

Fire Ant

The fire ant, Solenopsis geminata, is a native species sometimes called the tropical fire ant. This ant ranges from South Carolina to Florida and west to Texas.

Fifty years ago, invading Fire Ants from Brazil found their way to Florida. Thriving on sunshine and dug-up soil, the imported Fire Ant is now found in every Florida county, much of the Southeast United States, and is now marching on to western states (David Williams, Ph.D., Research Entomologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Center for Medical, Agrcultural and Veterinary Entomology)....

"Fire Ants are one of the most aggressive ants that we have in the United States."

David Williams is an entomologist -- an expert in the imported Fire Ant -- who knows, firsthand, their biggest problem...

"Unless it's a large Carpenter Ant that bites you, most of these bites you won't feel. It's the sting that you concern yourself about and only certain ants can sting. Fire Ants are one of them. And they pack a wallop."

The wallop they pack is magnified by the density in which the ants are usually encountered...

"If you do step into a mound, you're going to have 100 to 200 ants all over you, stinging. All of them are capable of stinging and stinging multiple times."

While those allergic might have a more severe reaction, most of us suffer only short-term effects...

"Most people will simply have a burning sensation and maybe jump around and brush the insects off. And after a few days they'd have a small pustule that will appear, and that'll go away in maybe a week or so."

http://www.floridaenvironment.com/programs/fe00207.htm



Bev

 

[phamton]

I got so involved in researching fireants that I forgot the original post was about snakes. I do have a snake story:

My family and I live on 40 acres of pastureland in south Texas (between Corpus Christi and Houston.) Last summer a large number of copperheads invaded our lawn. They were free to "hangout" in our pastures but not our lawn, thank-you. Our dog (Black Lab)was bitten twice last summer and recovered quite easily. (A quick trip to the vet and a shot of antibiotics for infection but nothing else required.)

In August 2002, our 13 year old son went out in the yard barefooted at night (yeah, I know...) to get something out of the car. He stepped on a copperhead. Now this son has a high pain tolerance but he was shaking with the pain. We took him to the ER and he was admitted and spent 3 days in the hospital. His leg was swollen to his knee (which is to be expected.) Neither his leg nor his life was in danger but now I think he has developed a healthy respect for snakes.

Bev