Things That Bite and Things that Sting

Our uninvited house guest

Springtime in the backwoods means that all of God’s creatures are coming out, both pleasant and unpleasant. Being in the Deep South means more species of bugs and snakes that have venom. Only the West has more. This doesn’t bother me; I like the thrill of the danger and how interesting these creepy crawlers can be!

As far as our reptilian adversaries are concerned, we aren’t far enough south for gators…but who knows if they were here 100 years ago in the rivers and lakes here in White Plains? But anyway, here in middle Georgia is Rattlesnake Country! Most of the time we see timber/canebrake rattlers, but we are on the border of Diamondback country. We normally don’t see them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there! Fifty years ago there were more back when there were more longneedle pines. However my brother-in-law ran across a small juvenile canebrake rattler while cutting the grass. I got  the opportunity to catch him. My husband and I are snake wranglers and animal lovers. Family members fussed at my husband because he called me and told me to go get it. It doesn’t bother me and I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m right with my husband when we go looking for the buggers.

We have brown recluses and black widow spiders, but I found out we have another eight legged menace to worry with–scorpions. We don’t have the kind that kill you, but it doesn’t feel too nice when they tag you. I grew up further north with them. We used to find them in the bathtubs and sinks in our river home at Franklin County. I remember mom getting stung a lot when I was little.

Last night I had a close call. I didn’t know we had them here and I had a gut feeling that our place had the prime habitat for them. I asked my husband if we had them but he never saw one, but he hadn’t. I was putting my foot down to walk to bed after watching Dirty Harry, and the sucker ran out from under the couch and I almost stepped on him. I stopped when I saw him and got my shoe and squashed him. I was millimeters from getting a painful sting. I saved him to show my husband for later. Scorpions are cool, but they are also ugly and can be a pest and a pain–literally.