- Fred Burch and Mel Tillis tune sung by Charlie Pride
LITTLE RIVER-ACADEMY - The chorus of this popular country western song could serve as the anthem for the summer of 2009.
Little River-Academy Mayor Ronnie White said residents with yards that do not see much noise or traffic are experiencing a marked increase in the number of snake sightings after sunset.
“In this hot, dry weather some of the older people have sprinklers in their backyards. The snakes are coming to the sprinklers. We have caught six snakes. The non-poisonous snakes we caught and released at the river, but we have killed one water moccasin and one rattlesnake.”
White advised the public to be extremely careful when tending plants in their yards because of the increased number of snakes.
As the hot dry weather chases people to cool places, it also has yielded an unusual number of reptile sightings, said Jon Gersbach, Texas AgriLife Extension agent for Milam County.
“Snakes are more visible in yards, under shrubs, and ground covers and under houses,” Gersbach said. “It’s just like you and I want to be in a place that’s cool, so do they. As far as there being any more or any less, they are more noticeable.”
The extension service has had numerous calls of snakes invading homes. Some enter through drain pipes. Additionally, the drought is bringing wildlife closer to homes in search of water and food.
“You are going to see all manner of things come close to the house, not only snakes,” Gersbach said.
While rural Central Texas areas and an Austin hospital have more reports of snakes, it has not been a problem in Temple so far.
Walter Hetzel, head of animal control for the city of Temple, said, “We’re not getting any more calls than normal (about rattlesnakes). Even other kinds of snakes, we’re probably not seeing as much as normal.”
Officials at University Medical Center Brackenridge, Austin’s main general hospital, say they’ve treated 29 snakebite cases in the past three months, including one in which a patient had to have a finger amputated. Brackenridge officials say their emergency room staff treated 26 such cases in all of last year.
Scott & White Memorial Hospital’s emergency department indicated it has not seen an increase in snake bites this year.
Texas A&M herpetologist Lee Fitzgerald said if snakes are active during a drought, they’re seeking food or a different environment.
So no matter where you live, caution is a good idea.
Shawn Walton, a Milam County master naturalist, encountered “a gigantic copperhead and a few of his friends” when she uprighted an overturned trash barrel in the yard.
“During my shock, the largest copperhead struck,” Ms. Walton said, adding that, while it missed, it gave her quite a scare.
The snakes crawled away to a new hiding place before Ms. Walton could take action.
Texas has 115 species of snakes - the highest number in all of the United States, Ms. Walton said. Fifteen percent of them are venomous: coral snakes, copperheads, cottonmouths (water moccasins) and rattlesnakes.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reports an average of one to two human deaths in Texas annually from venomous snakebites.
jwilliams@temple-telegram.com
Carroll Wilson, Janice Gibbs and The contributed to this story
