New Here Too!

[Didymus20X6]

Greetings!

I am Thomas. I am known on various forums as Didymus 20X6. Didymus is a Greek variant of my name, and 20X6 is a reference to the Homestar Runner character, Stinko Man (as you might be able to tell from my custom avatar).

I am an ophidiophobe. That means I have an unnatural and often uncontrollable fear of snakes. Plus, I neither own, nor keep, nor plan to obtain any snakes anytime soon.

So why might an ophidiophobe join a forum of snake lovers? Not to be a troll, I assure you. But mostly on account of this guy:






He turned up in the bush outside my home a few weeks ago, along with others of varying sizes. I've seen at least 3 in the 2 to 2.5 foot range, at least three in the 1.5 foot range, and one tiny one, less than a foot long.

I'm pretty sure he's a Thamnophis sirtalis, or a variant thereof.

Anyway, despite the urgings of some of my people, and my own fears, I decided to shoot the snakes, not with a gun, but with a camera. I figure they're basically harmless, and I'd much rather have them around than some of the other common species in this area, namely copperheads and moccasins.

I even tried to catch one once. You should have seen it. I had put on a thick, heavy coat and thick leather gloves, figuring that his bite might not penetrate. But just as I was getting ready to touch him, old doubts crept in: "What if I've misidentified the species? What if this is something dangerous?"

But I've noticed that they all tend to stay out of my way - except for two that seem to like the crack between my steps and porch - I really wish they wouldn't hang out there of all places!

Anyway, in my quest for information on this particular snake, I stumbled across this forum. I noticed you had a lot of great pics here, and have even shared a couple with some friends of mine who are snake lovers. So I figured I might as well join, and if nothing else, get some good information on these critters living in my bushes.

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard.

Yes, that is indeed a T. sirtalis.

[Didymus20X6]

Thanks, Stefan.

[count dewclaw]

Welcome. Congratulations on at least partly overcoming your fear of snakes. Those are some nice shots of the garters in your yard.

[drache]

it's really cool that you don't let unreasonable fear stop you from being reasonable
welcome to our forum and thank you for bringing us those great photos

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you with us.
Great looking snake you have there. Sounds like you have a little snake social club going on.
The more you watch and learn the more you will be drawn to them.
It's magic and nothing wrong with it. They really are a special animal.

[Didymus20X6]

Thanks, everyone.

I've always been afraid of snakes. Not sure why.

But strangely, I've also been somewhat attracted to them. When I lived in St. Louis, my favorite place to go was the herpetorium. They had a moccasin that must have been at least 6ft. long, and pretty fat, too! Wouldn't want to run into that guy on a fishing trip! And a king cobra that must have been at least 12 ft. And plenty of other species, some dangerous, some not so, and all of them behind glass where they couldn't get me. I kinda miss the place.

But I'm really not interested in hurting something that can't hurt me. And you probably have the late Steve Erwin to thank for that.

Here's another pic. This one was taken the day I found myself surrounded by them: they were just crawling all over my bushes.



The smaller one appeared to be missing part of his tail. My guess is it got snipped by the gardener's hedge trimmers.

My guess is that there is a brumination nest around here somewhere, and they were using my bushes as a motel. I think most of them are gone now, although they might have gone back into hiding with some of the recent changes in weather.

[adamanteus]

Hi Thomas, and welcome to the forum.
Nice pictures.

[Sid]

Welcome to the forum, Thomas and thanks for sharing the photos.

[gregmonsta]

Greetings