There was a lady bitten last week in Devon and she had to spend three days in hospital. they said the poison was stronger this time of year. She said it was her own fault as she was wearing flip flops walking over moorland.
Usually they get out of way but sadly sometimes dogs can surprise them and get bitten.
My son was strimming a rough area two years ago when he thought he'd been scratched by thorns when he saw a snake slithering away. He was wearing jeans and it was later in the year so he had nothing worse than a bruise for a week or two.
My friend in Australia told me thats why they all wear those thick boots and socks when they go walking in the bush. Also, to stamp around a bit, the vibrations wake the snakes and they slither off. the problem is when you surprise them, they have nowhere to go and they lash out.
Don't like native snakes, they are too small, the big pythons and corn snakes don't bother me, one summer when I was a student and working in a city-centre bar, one of the regulars, dogdy Roger bought his 8 foot Indian Python in, and I spent most of the evening pulling pints with it giving me a cuddle. Knew about it the next day when my shoulders hurt from carrying the extra weight.
Remember my Mum telling me about the time she was a kid in Hastings, going for a walk with her Dad. He jumped over the stile, but she'd seen a snake curled up underneath it, and wouldn't jump. When her Dad saw it, he beat it to death, as it was an adder, it was wartime and he didn't want her or any of my uncles or aunts in hospital, they were all needed to help in his market garden (He was invallided out of the army as he was diabetic). He hung the corpse on a tree, and they used to go down every day to see how much more it had decomposed (bloodthirsty little darlings).
I have to keep my dog on a lead this time of year if we go to Clumber Park, they have most of the reptiles common in England there. Same if we go on holiday in the North Yorkshire Moors, there are warning signs there about adders. Always wear my wellies when strimming, as a few years ago we found a skin that had been shed, I think it was a grass snake, as no pattern on it. Think they hatch locally in the farm at the back of us on their dung heap.
In this weather and time of the year, adders multiply !
The primitive fear we have within, is born within, primaeval, before we came out of the swamp, even. It is a sort of species xenophobia and it is carried forward today by national xenophobia. When I was a kid, ( and I WAS ) I always thought a xenophobia was a sort of musical instrument !
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I live in the New Forest and we have all 5 native reptiles, so there.....
Oh Pottie Pam - beautiful but very scary!! Frogs, mice, spiders, wasps, Julia Bradbury - terrifying!!
How beautiful!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Lucky you WW,
In the sticks near Peterborough
There was a lady bitten last week in Devon and she had to spend three days in hospital. they said the poison was stronger this time of year. She said it was her own fault as she was wearing flip flops walking over moorland.
Usually they get out of way but sadly sometimes dogs can surprise them and get bitten.
My son was strimming a rough area two years ago when he thought he'd been scratched by thorns when he saw a snake slithering away. He was wearing jeans and it was later in the year so he had nothing worse than a bruise for a week or two.
My friend in Australia told me thats why they all wear those thick boots and socks when they go walking in the bush. Also, to stamp around a bit, the vibrations wake the snakes and they slither off. the problem is when you surprise them, they have nowhere to go and they lash out.
Don't like native snakes, they are too small, the big pythons and corn snakes don't bother me, one summer when I was a student and working in a city-centre bar, one of the regulars, dogdy Roger bought his 8 foot Indian Python in, and I spent most of the evening pulling pints with it giving me a cuddle. Knew about it the next day when my shoulders hurt from carrying the extra weight.
Remember my Mum telling me about the time she was a kid in Hastings, going for a walk with her Dad. He jumped over the stile, but she'd seen a snake curled up underneath it, and wouldn't jump. When her Dad saw it, he beat it to death, as it was an adder, it was wartime and he didn't want her or any of my uncles or aunts in hospital, they were all needed to help in his market garden (He was invallided out of the army as he was diabetic). He hung the corpse on a tree, and they used to go down every day to see how much more it had decomposed (bloodthirsty little darlings).
I have to keep my dog on a lead this time of year if we go to Clumber Park, they have most of the reptiles common in England there. Same if we go on holiday in the North Yorkshire Moors, there are warning signs there about adders. Always wear my wellies when strimming, as a few years ago we found a skin that had been shed, I think it was a grass snake, as no pattern on it. Think they hatch locally in the farm at the back of us on their dung heap.
In this weather and time of the year, adders multiply !
The primitive fear we have within, is born within, primaeval, before we came out of the swamp, even. It is a sort of species xenophobia and it is carried forward today by national xenophobia. When I was a kid, ( and I WAS ) I always thought a xenophobia was a sort of musical instrument !