serpent in the rosemary

I was gardening this morning and spotted a snake…not the normal black racer that I usually see around here that I know is fairly harmless since one of my second graders was struck by one and only had a giant-sized mosquito-looking wound to show for it.

I went running in the house and called upstairs for Doug.

Quick!

Quick!

A GIANT BABY SNAKE IS IN THE GARDEN!

He was wondering how it could be a giant baby snake? Until he saw it. Then he told me it was a pygmy rattler. The Venomous Snakes of Florida website says:

“Despite their diminutive size, I have yet to meet one that didn't act like it was 12 feet long and ready to take on anything.  If you give the snake half of an opportunity to bite you, it will happen.”

So…that is how you have a giant baby snake in the garden.

It was very disappointing because we didn’t get a picture, nor a capture. After the fact, Doug said that he wished he would have gotten his shotgun and I said I wished that I would have grabbed my camera.

Then,

about 15 minutes later, when Doug was leaving, he saw it again! 

Still hanging out in the rosemary…

…which got an unartistic and unplanned tunnel-style trim today when Doug shot the snake.

Here he is just moments after, when the smell of powder was still in the air.

“The Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnake is the most common venomous snake in Florida, and is responsible for more human snakebite than any other snake. It is found throughout the state.”