Yesterday I was out in one of our daylily beds deadheading and just enjoying looking at the flowers. In one of the thickest sections of growth, I was lucky to see something move. It was going between some of the daylilies, and then it stopped moving. I knew it had to be a snake but not the usual black ones we see in summer and not patterned or the color of a copperhead. I moved around to get a better look, the color was brownish gray with a cross--hatched pattern, and I could just see a pattern of some kind on the belly. Thank goodness I moved back and left, got my husband and son. Son checked the computer, said it might be an Eastern Texas rattlesnake, but it is venomous; therefore, we had better dispose of it. My husband shot it with a .22 caliber pistol a couple of times, thought it was dead. When he used a hoe to remove it from the daylilies, discovered the snake wasn't dead yet, and it bit down on the hoe blade and we could see the venom coming out. The snake was finally dispatched by the hoe--scary stuff. Then, checking some more on the i.d. of the snake, decided it was really an eastern cottonmouth, more poisonous than copperheads. I am so lucky I didn't stick my arm down, for it could have bitten me, and I don't know the survival rate of poisonous snake bites. Here are the pictures--hate snakes and snake pictures--stop now, don't look.
This shows the crosshatch pattern on the top.
Highly patterned on the belly
