OMG!!! This has GOT to stop

I've always liked snakes, but with 90% of the snakes you see in Australia being the hideously poisonous ones, a healthy respect for them is, well, healthy. I remember being warned when I was doing work experience at the reptile park that they'd accidentally let a tiger snake from their anti-venom collection go and didn't know where it was, so I should look to either side of the corridors before I ventured into them and make sure I kept all the doors closed. I was rather of the opinion that we should open the doors so the thing could get out of the tiny network of rooms it was currently lurking in, but they weren't so ready as me to write off a perfectly good snake.

Anyway, think of all the mice it will be eating for you. [] Snakes are always more frightened of you than you are of them and will only bite if you really provoke them. That might mean stepping on them, though, so wear decent shoes when you go in there. And long pants if you're really worried. I know nothing I can say will really help because phobias are anything but rational, but try to remember that they're not going to hurt you. Make lots of loud noises if you think snakes might be around. Stomping is always a good one. The vibrations warn the snakes where you are so they can get away from you before you surprise them.

Yes, really no snakes in Alaska. Mabye St. Patrick was here first. Maybe he took all the snakes to Michigan, Texas, and Louisiana and left them there?

And talk about hard freeze......yah, we get that, too. []

Oh my Glenda...........Im totally freaking out with you and Im not even there.  I have total chills on my body.  The thought of them somehow getting in the house..........eeekkkkkk!!!!!!!!!
Id be just like you.  Hubby can go to the freezer and Im stayin put.
 
I cant imagine living near swamps and such where they are those types of snakes.  NO thank you. lol  Marlania that would be entirely too much for me.  lol
Swamp type snakes............Oh Im going to have daymares today.
 
And I will TOTALLy pass on that new snake movie.........[]

Ummmm,  I kind of LIKE mice....
 
Rationally I know that these are JUST grass snakes, they are more afraid of me than I am of them (in which case they must be terrified to the point of being paralyzed) BUT, here I sit this morning with my feet up under me in the desk chair, and yesterday when I was making a peach cobbler everytime I opened a cupboard I was nervous.
 
These darned things have probably 1000 acres of long fields, big old pines, etc to slither around in.  There is the old school house sort of beside, in front of us, with the back door to the basement open (I did go to close it and saw a snake so it stayed open) and they can slither around there to their hearts content.....at the back edge of the schoolhouse property there is old rotted lumber probably from the outhouse for them to live in, there are ALL kinds of really good places for them to live BESIDES IN MY YARD.  We keep the yard cut short,nothing laying around for them to hide under, we have SIX big dogs in the backyard, and if this guy came in the back walk through door, he came through SIX dogs and what little grass out there is actually left, well that's short as heck.  So WHY?????
 
I know logically that they aren't deliberately coming around to torment me, but you couldn't prove that to me right now.  Frank (the owner) said he NEVER saw a snake in the six years he lived here.  Now, he did have an outside cat so either he didn't pay the slightest bit of attention to anything around him or for some reason THIS year they are more abundant.  We've had really strange weather and no where near enough rain....really hot and humid most of the summer so perhaps the weather has something to do with it and that's why they are venturing close?
 
My garage now smells like a grandma's attic.  There are FOUR boxes of mothballs out there and it is absolutely off limits to the dogs.  Once Franks furniture and stuff leaves there will be far fewer places for anything to hide but I'm still going to be danged uneasy out there.  I don't know if mothballs work or not, but, I do know that they kept the mice out of my RV last winter so hopefully between the no mice in the garage and the stench of mothballs this guy will go away and no one else will be tempted to enter.
 
I absolutely have to get over this irrational fear.  There is no way I ever want to live in the city again....and gosh darn it, the LAST house was in the boonies too and there must have been plenty of snakes there, but they were smart enough to keep themselves hidden.  If I want to live in the country, I MUST find a way to be able to deal with the darned things without darned near peeing myself when I see one.  Now the last two sightings I haven't screamed and played olympic track star, BUT I was on a deck both times and they were far below me.  I can't honestly say that I won't screech and run for the hills next time if I happen to be on the same level as it is.......I have to find a way to get over this and not be looking at the ground each and every time I go outside.
 
My poor dogs are getting their excercise when we DRIVE into town.  We WERE walking into town, but I'm too afraid to do that anymore, and even going out to the mailbox, I either drive or take a dog with me and FEEL my heart pounding so hard that it literally feels like it's going to jump out of my chest.  And when I drive, I still have to get out of the van and walk across the road and keep my feet as close to the road as possible and bend IN to the mailbox....I also pick a time when there are absolutely no cars so I can run like heck if I need to.
 
This is crazy.  I'm a grown up and should be able to deal with this.  Maybe I was a horse in my last life?

Would you like me to ship Emma to you? She's really cute, and she'll take care of ALL your pests, and keep your GSDs in line (she'll even herd them up, and crate them, for you). She eats a lot, though[]

All I have to say, is that snakes are not NEARLY as bad as these nasty roaches that we get in Georgia. Ugh[:'(]

YES!!!  Send her fast!  I'll send YOU some fresh boric acid powder for the nasty skittering things....

ORIGINAL: jennie_c_d

Would you like me to ship Emma to you? She's really cute, and she'll take care of ALL your pests, and keep your GSDs in line (she'll even herd them up, and crate them, for you). She eats a lot, though[]

All I have to say, is that snakes are not NEARLY as bad as these nasty roaches that we get in Georgia. Ugh[:'(]

I wouldn't mind the roaches so much if they couldn't fly.[:'(] They are MUCH worse than snakes or spiders.

Come on you two!  I've lived in coastal GA and in Gulfport MS so I'm all too familar with those nasty things!  I'd take a roach infestation over these danged snakes ANY day.  At least with roaches there is the satisfying crunch when I step on them......

ORIGINAL: glenmar

Ummmm,  I kind of LIKE mice....

Okay, fair call. Then think of all the other snakes they'll be eating. Snakes can be pretty canibalistic. []

No, I can totally relate to a phobia. We have huntsman spiders in abundance around here, and those spiders give me the serious heebie jeebies. We also have funnel webs, which are deadly, but I can cope with those ones. They don't run around at great speeds on your walls and randomly leap on you. They don't get lost in your car and come running across the roof at the least expected moment to jump onto your steering wheel. They don't have that spooky ability to do the most unpredictable thing imaginable whenever you encounter them. Huntsman spiders are huge, hairy, fast and totally unpredictable. I'm told they're harmless, but I won't go into the same room as one and I can be pretty irrational about them. So I do understand and send you my sympathy. If you really want to do something about it, maybe you could start going to reptile shows and try slowly desensitising yourself. Snakes feel pretty darn nice when they coil around you and give you a little reptile hug. Maybe if you experience them more in a controlled setting, you can learn more about them and hopefully allay some of your fears. The main reason I'm not afraid of funnel web spiders anymore is that I went spider wrangling with someone who works on them one day and learnt just how unscary they were. Sure, they have fangs that can pierce toenails, but mostly they just sit around and try to give you the slip when you start hacking into their homes with a crowbar. It's good to see for yourself how non-threatening scary animals usually are, and if you do it in a controlled situation with a professional, it could help you to overcome some of your terror.

Of course, you've got to be pretty brave to get that far. I don't think I'd ever be able to overcome my irrational terror of huntsman spiders. The more I look at them, the more thoroughly I'm spooked by them. I find that if I can find something cool about a scary animal to respect, then they're not quite so scary. And the more you know about something, the less scary it is. Hope you find a way to at least control your fear so that it's not ruling your life. Snake-a-phobes, you're not helping by justifying her fears! [:'(][]

I can't help liking snakes. Their skin feels so good and cool to the touch.. I've only been bit once, and that was when I was trying to get an oak snake out of an x-mas tree. It didn't hurt, it just startled.  Roaches and spiders are so much worse. Grass snakes keep other, poisonus snakes away. Roaches just crawl over everything and give you the heebie jeebies, and they always seem to hurt when they crawl across my skin, the few times I havn't danced when I've seen one near, lol.
I understand spiders have a perpose, but...

Come on you two! I've lived in coastal GA and in Gulfport MS so I'm all too familar with those nasty things! I'd take a roach infestation over these danged snakes ANY day. At least with roaches there is the satisfying crunch when I step on them......

I still live in coastal GA, and I'm deathly afraid of roaches. I can't step on them. I can't move any direction but AWAY from them, LOL. It's pretty bad, and irrational, and all of that.

You think boric acid would work on spiders? I have some for making blue ear stuff.... I could sacrifice it for the spiders....

ORIGINAL: Aina
 Roaches just crawl over everything and give you the heebie jeebies, and they always seem to hurt when they crawl across my skin, the few times I havn't danced when I've seen one near, lol.

A lot of people are allergic to the cuticle roaches have on their exoskeleton to keep them water resistant. I don't know if that could have anything to do with the physical discomfort you feel when they walk on you, but it certainly doesn't help their image! I did a lot of dissections at uni, but the cockroach was by far the worst.

You should see the roaches we have here in Hong Kong!! about 3 inches long, fly, and they can walk away with a whole PEANUT in their mouth!
They make a good loud pop when you stomp on them! No matter what you do they STILL get in your house! At least the dog eats them when he catches them!