[TowerTalk] critter chronicles

[Jim Jarvis]

This is a tad late, and may be perceived as piling on,
but the notion of a snake is not a bad one, silly though
it sounds.

In Vermont, we had a family of milk snakes resident in 
our house.  Didn't discover them for easily 3 or 4 years,
and the only clue was that unlike our neighbors, we weren't
overrun by field mice.  

One day, while installing a new coax entry and relocating
the dryer duct, I came  face to face with a 6' milksnake.
Looks like a copperhead, actually, with a reversed pattern.
chased it outside...used steel wool and mothballs in the 
apparent entry paths.  It got back in once or twice, then
disappeared.  

For the next 4 years, we were overrun by field mice, and had
to have an exterminator treat the place with poison baits each
year.  Often wished I'd have been more hospitable to the snake!
Or knew where to get a replacement.

n2ea
jimjarvis at ieee.org