I much prefer having snakes around to having mice, and the snakes do a pretty good job on the mice. Last year, however, I found a foot long rat snake in the basement stuck to one of the "sticky pads" my wife puts out for mice. I first thought he was dead, but then I noticed some movement, so I took him and the pad outside and starting with his tail carefully pulled him loose from the goop. He took off like the proverbial bat out of hell when released. I wondered what he might have to tell his friends about his experience.

Earlier, my wife found a scarlet king snake in the basement. She first thought that someone had dropped a bungee cord. They are red, black and yellow striped, like the venomous coral snakes, but unlike the coral snakes, the black stripes adjoin the red ones. I captured this one by holding a dust pan next to him, which he obligingly crawled into and allowed me to relocate him out of doors.

The king snakes are harmless, except to other snakes. I once saw one wrapped up in a struggle with a copperhead. I didn't stay around long enough to see which one won, but I suspect it was the king snake.

As far as venomous snakes are concerned, we have copperheads and cottonmouth water moccasins around here, but no rattlesnakes. Neither one is very aggressive, but I have passed moccasins from time to time in my rowing shell, and didn't pause long enough to see if they would like to come aboard. Moccasins can be distinguished from common water snakes by the fact that they swim with their bodies on top of the water. They are also very hefty snakes. One three feet long can easily be as large as my forearm.