About stepped on this tonight after picking my son up from soccer!
It was almost completely dark, saw it right before I put my foot down from the truck after parking in the driveway.
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What kind is that??
Pygmy Rattler.
Around here, they are known as ground rattlers.
It was only a little over a foot long- but it still packs a potentially deadly bite.
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@JaredD @MaverickMA Looks like a Pygmy rattlesnake! They don’t get as big as the timber rattlers, but they’re still venomous. Usually don’t get more than 2 feet long, and a pretty rare sight here in NC.
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I get a lot of wasps and hornets down here, and I try to monitor the house’s exterior for new nests so I don’t get nailed when I mow. My next door neighbor had a huge hornets’ nest under the eave on the side of his house facing mine, and they really lit him up bad a few weeks ago. He spent a fortune on bug sprays that didn’t do much (I mixed him some dish soap & water in my pump up sprayer and we took care of them). Anyway, I had to groom the weeds in the back yard today and I did my customary check prior to firing up the weedeater. All clear. Edged around the house and the fence, then mowed. Afterward I went to the back yard faucet to wipe down the shaft on the trimmer. Grabbed the washcloth stashed on the hose reel. The little #%^@*!s had constructed a high-occupancy hornet condominium behind the washcloth. As I turned away from the hose reel they attacked en masse, focusing on my spine at the waistline (I wasn’t wearing a shirt). I soaped them down and removed their large nest as the pain increased. I’m thinking that a glass of bourbon with a splash of water over a handful of ice cubes just might restore my burning back to some semblance of comfort…
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Oh gosh @hipshot ! They are sneaky little demons but that is low even for them!
Yes it is. But at least the bourbon is accomplishing its assigned task…
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We have them here too, mainly on the islands out in the bay.
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Growing up, one of the kids from church who lived “out East” (a West Coast of FL expression) got bit by a pigmy, and almost died. We had them in the vacant property next door and were not alowed over there. We made trails in the weeds over our heads anyway over there in the summer time, and I guess we were lucky.
Nothing makes me as mad as getting bit by those tiny wasps that live on the underside of hedge leaves.
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