It must be the continued summery weather here in the Ozarks. Animals are trying to get ready for winter, yet are still in summer mode. Velvet ants and snakes are among them.
My first snake encounter was at the laundromat. A woman was pulling her laundry out of a washing machine and backed up.
“There’s a snake in my laundry!”
I thought some poor black snake had been pummeled and drowned. Still, I went over to check it out.
Delight! The snake in question was a Midland Brown. And it was still very much alive.
For those unfamiliar with this wonderful garden snake: Midland Browns only get about seven or eight inches long. They eat slugs, insects and other small creatures that eat vegetables. They are not poisonous.
The snake moved to my garden.
That evening I almost stepped on a copperhead. It was on the road at the foot of the driveway and fled into the vegetation.
The next day I opened the shed to get my potato fork out to do some garden weeding. Another copperhead was coiled in the shed.
The snake remained motionless for a couple of pictures. Then it went into full panic mode getting tangled in the tools as it tried to disappear down a knothole to under the shed.
Yes, copperheads are poisonous. I do not kill them. It is rare to see them and they eat mice and voles.
On a walk that afternoon I came across another resident very rarely seen: a velvet ant.
Velvet ants are not really ants. They are wingless wasps. They can sting.
This one was very busy looking for unwary insects to dine on. Velvet ants are speedy, rivaling tiger beetles.
Velvet ants are solitary and race through the leaf litter and other debris on the ground. In all the time we’ve lived here, this was only the second time I’d seen one.
Frost isn’t due until next month. Autumn officially gets here next week. Unofficially it is already here with cool nights and hot days. The animals and birds are on the move. What other surprises await me?
The Ozark Hills hold many surprises for those who walk them. Join me on the hills in “My Ozark Home.”