Hi Liz - I have spliced a few bits into your letter From: Liz Davis Subject: snake peppers
> Have spent some time thinking about the right time to catch a snake, the > answer as far as I'm concerned is never, but when one lands in your laundry > door, then it's time to make use of it. The copperheads are numerous in > these parts and have stopped me some years from working in the garden. Only > want to put the pepper around the house yard and food gardens, they can have > the rest of the land. > > Unable to bring myself to skin the snake, so have allowed the maggots, wasps > and ants to remove the innards. It is at this point that I am unsure of > what to do to make a pepper. Even unsure if whether or not leaving it to > the insects was the right thing to do? The skin is still in good nick. > > Have read previous posts on ashing and have lost the attachment Cheryl Kemp > sent to me on snake peppers, Cheryl posted snake pepper instructions to BD now about a year ago for a guy in mexico I think . My reading of steiner says its not the right time to burn vertebrate pests for pepper. (November 2003 is the next time) If you can get another copperhead next November, then I'd give it a try now - who knows it may work well. > and the questions keep coming, such as: Once > turned to ash how long is the pepper good for? I think these last a decent time - gut feeling says years not weeks? > Is it best to keep in ash form or potenise for storage Cover the bases - do both - keep some ash, make a mother tincture in alcohol and potentise some > . What colour should the ash finish at, I like to burn stuff till it just reaches the point where no more smoke comes off. > would burning it out on the plough disc BBQ, with a lid over it be good > enough? Should work OK - dont know what the visitors will say when you tell them you burnt a maggott eaten , wasp riddled , snake carcase , on the barbie though > Do I apply it around the perimeter or over the land I want > protected? I would apply a snake pepper starting at the possible points of entry to the house and blanket spray out to the perimeter from there - if you just spray the perimeter you could end up fencing them in not out. We have had no snakes around our house since putting up a paramagnetic rock power tower three years ago - prior to that I was shooting three or four in the backyard every summer - this year there were more brown snake bites in our area than for many years (hospital statistics not my imagination) yet we never saw one anywhere around our house or sheds - plenty of dust and I didnt even see a track! You may want to try one of these towers - just needs ten feet of 6inch plastic pipe and some rock. Cheers Lloyd Charles
