genuine rattle snake in N Dallas
 

OK, this AM I had a five inch "baby" rattle snake under my kitchen table here in far N Dallas. Too small to subgroup. I know my Viperidae, and this was not a copperhead nor a cottonmouth crittter.
Only the second snake I've seen in 24+ years in/near my house.
Those with kiddos near Spring Valley/Meadering Way - please beware.
M

Now I have to stop bitching about the ants invading my house.

My kids are in the Grapevine-Colleyville schools and every year the second graders do a project where they're have to make model of an animal that lives around Lake Grapevine. One of my kids was assigned a rattlesnake...that's when I found out that they are in the area!

Good grief mikemo...be on the lookout for Mama and siblings! That's a long time developed section of Dallas, making it even more amazing! We lived in two brand new developments in Plano but never saw <i>any</i> snakes, let alone a rattler.

How did you get it out of the house? I got a harmless, but scary because of its size and speed, black racer in my house in FL. I (1) screamed and (2) grabbed the cats and ran upstairs...then called engineering who came with brooms and swept the poor terrified snake back out the door.

ROTFLM friggin' AO!!

Thanks for the tears-running-down-my-face laught OO!

Way to put on a brave face for the kitties!

That is too funny!

AAACCCCCKKK -- hoping your family of rattlers knows its' place and stays north of LBJ !

There was a story on the news a few years back about a snake in DC. A woman who lived in the Adams Morgan neighborhood woke up and stumbled into the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she opened the door she saw an 8 foot python wrapped around the base of the toilet. It had slithered down the fire escape from another apartment, where it had been kept as a pet.

I think the poor woman is still in therapy.

There is a nice creek to the immediate W on the N side of a bunch of homes with multiacre back yards. I have seen Copperheads and Cottonmouths near there in my many years of walking my retired (rescued) Greyhounds, but no Rattlers.
The bad news is that the young rats are really aggressive and envenomate totally with every strike (unlike the adults).
M

Neither copperheads nor cottonmouths are rattlesnakes. They are poisonous, but they do not have the tail rattles. Most of the rattlesnakes that are native to North Texas are the Western Diamondback variety, which do have rattles on the tail, and have a distinct diamond pattern in the scales. (See, I DID pay attention in Biology class!)

Texans should always be aware of the presence of snakes. As your experience shows, a snake can be anywhere!

Yeah, and sometimes they actually escape from Texas and end up in the Mid-Atlantic!

There was a story last week, I forget where but it was not the snakes territory, when a woman heard her dog barking furiously, like saying trouble, and there was a ten foot python about to eat a pup. after atacking the snake he lost his hold and they called help. So far no one has claimed this lost &quot;pet.&quot;P eople can be dumb and stupid on the most obvious things.