We get a visitor, too!!

Whoa--I went out to the garage to find something or other, and this was working its way into the few bales of hay I've got temporarily stacked there. I had it confused with a copper head, but a search through the WI Dept of Natural Resources says it's actually a fox snake. These poor guys are often mistaken for copper heads and killed, especially since one of their defense mechanisms is to vibrate the tale against something like dry grass to imitate a rattle. Works pretty well on a vinyl-covered dog bed, too--scared the bejesus out of me!

Fortunately, I naturally hesitate to kill anything, even things that seem to pose a threat, so instead of reaching for the hoe, I ran for the PC and looked it up. According to the DNR, there are no copper heads in WI (a fact that Mom vigorously disputes) and fox snakes are good mousers, so it will be allowed to stay. Along with its younger brother, which I saw the next day in the barn. The one in the garage was 5-6 feet long, the one in the barn 4 feet.

Hopefully the mice and rats will get the hint.