On Jul 23, 1:51 pm, Frank Bayne <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> *We have a summer cabin/house over in Illinois in Keys Port (town
> at the north end of Carlyle Lake. There are wet lands between our back
> yard and the lake's levy where I 'use to' get all kinds of water bugs, tons
> of mosquito larvae and small red earth worms. To many dam snakes for
> me, and for the past 5 years Pygmy Rattlesnakes would line the edges
> of the wet lands. That ended the bug collecting for me. In town here in St.
> Charles, we have those mosquito control trucks that smoke the place up
> once a week, so hardly ever see (feel) any mosquito's around even though
> there are three small fishing lakes/ponds three blocks away. My grandson
> is living in the summer house at the lake and once every couple of weeks
> or so, brings me a bag of mosquito larvae. I guess I have spoiled my angel-
> fish on MG's flake foods as they don't even look at the mosquito larvae any
> more. My guppies and bettas sure love them though. every once in a while
> I run up the the bait shop and pick up a couple dozen red earth worms for
> the angelfish. Yep, the snakes put a stop to my bug collecting...............
> Frank
Off topic...........
Hey there Frank.
If it's at all possible try and have your Grandson get photos of the
snakes your calling "Pygmy rattlesnakes".
Those are usually in the real southern states...Georgia - Florida, but
here in Illinois we have a pygmy type of rattler the **Massasauga
Rattlesnake - Sistrurus catenatus**.
They're endangered and it's even against the law to hurt or kill one
too.
They're supposed to be only around southern Illinois, but I've seen
one right next to my foot when I got off my mnt. bike to tie a shoe. A
year before that both my son and hubby saw one in 2 different woods
they were in.
I read an piece in the local paper about how the government was
handing out $20,000 for research on these endangered snakes "Only
found in one area of Illinois". I called the preserve that was doing
the study and told them the 3 different preserves where we've seen
them. Then I said..."do I get half the cash?" = )~
The thing about identifying these little ones is that they are a true
rattler with a rattle on their tail, but there's another snake that
mimics it. The common Fox snake. As a juvenile it looks just like a
Massasauga, only it doesn't have an actual rattle on it's tail. Here's
the trick....it'll flick it's tail to sound like a rattle. Little
stinkers! Depending on what it's flicking that tail in - be it leaf
litter, dirt, etc....sometimes it sounds exactly like a rattle.
Just last week I hopped off my bike to check if one was a mini rattler
or a juvie fox snake. It was a fox. = (
There's a herpetologist I've talked to that has asked me to get pics
for the records.
That's where getting the pictures comes into play from your Grandson.
They need evidence of populations in places other than the one area
they know of for sure.
Being that juvie fox snakes look just like them, it has to have the
rattle too.
OH...a baby mini rattler that's rattle hasn't grown in yet looks
different from a juvenile fox snake's tail. It has a yellow "button"
at the end.
There sure are a lot of Herp folks out there that would like to know
where these little guys are hiding out.
Any true sightings need to be reported to the Department of Natural
Resources (PLEASE).
