Snakes and Adders

Summer 2011

On one of our walks we found this cast-off snake skin - which I pinned up over the shed window.  If Dave holds it up it is longer from head to tail than he is tall (over 6ft therefore).  I think I saw it once – or a relative.  It was on the decking (eek!) slithering along by the side of the shed.  I squealed in excitement for Dave to come and see, trying to squeal quietly through closed teeth, but D didn’t realise what I was up to, and by the time we’d communicated, the snake had obviously decided the monkey people were acting far too strange, and whipped off under the shed.  Dave only saw its tail.  It was easily 1.5 to 2m long, about 3cm diameter, and bright green.  We reckoned it was probably a Montpellier again – the ones that can’t bite you unless you stick your hand right into their mouth.

Dave, meanwhile, had his own close encounter.  While peeing in the compost bin he suddenly realised he was being watched by a small brown snake with zigzag markings.  A viper.  Not a good time to be surprised – but the snake must’ve realised it was outclassed, and shot off into the undergrowth.

While on the subject of infestations, we had a stretch of about 3 weeks when there were ants everywhere in the camper van.  Tiny ones.  At first this seemed a good thing – they were better housekeepers than me, keeping the place tidy.  But after the second time Dave put a spatula in his eggs in the morning and found it overrun with ants, they had to go.  It took a while, and we had to resort to extreme biological warfare by the end, but we’ve been free of them for some weeks now.

Our other infestation was crickets.  While we still had the rodent repeller (before it was burgled) they would gather in the van, usually near the crackling repeller.  They are entirely harmless (to us) but a creature about 5cm long with legs everywhere suddenly emerging from a corner can be a bit of a shocker.  Now it’s colder, they’ve gone too.