Posted on August 23, 2015
Snakes and Spiders and Bears, Oh My!
My husband and I have purposefully chosen to live in the country. There are no other houses within eyeshot, we can run outside naked if we like, and there is no need for worry that our barking dogs are bothering the neighbors. The countryside we’ve chosen is in western North Carolina where we live atop a mountain, surrounded by magical forests and majestic waterfalls.
When we moved from California to North Carolina almost four years ago, my husband and I were dazzled by the newness of our surroundings- so many plant and animal species that we’d never seen before. We were those proverbial “kids in the candy shop” and have remained so, but………… there have been a few exceptions.
The bear outside my bedroom window
The bears
A pretty darned gorgeous black bear has been an all too frequent visitor at our house. He likely originally decided on a prolonged visit because of our bird feeders, all of which have now been dutifully removed. I suspect that the veggies ripening in our garden keep this big bruin coming back. There will be no corn for us Homo sapiens this year. My neighbor told me this morning that a bear is visiting their compost pile. Seems this big fella is getting around the neighborhood.
By the way, I’ve referred to this bear as a “Mr.” because I suspect that most of the females have cubs in tow right about now. I had an up close encounter with a mama bear and her cubs a few weeks ago while riding my horse on a trail close to home. Mama popped out of the woods and crossed the path 100 feet or so in front of us. A few seconds later, out dashed a cub. Moments after that out burst a second cub. And, then the grand finale- the woods spit out cub number three. It seemed as if the forest was a bear cub factory! Such fabulous entertainment, and, man oh man, that’s got to be one busy mama bear!
Wolfie
The spiders
I willingly admit that I am a veterinarian who is afraid of spiders. Look up the definition of arachnophobia and you will find, “Dr. Nancy Kay.” Now, if someone tells me in advance exactly where I will see a spider, I can handle things reasonably well. It’s when a spider takes me by surprise that I tend to become a squealer (after 35 years, my husband readily recognizes my spider squeal). If hubby happens to be home and hears the squeal, he rolls his eyes, chuckles, and then rescues me. Mind you, the rescue does not involve killing the spider. I don’t want the spider dead (the thought of squishing a spider sends chills up and down my spine). I simply want it relocated a good mile or so away from my personal space. What happens if hubby isn’t home? I find a large Tupperware container, muster up every ounce of courage humanly possible, and place (toss) the container over the spider so that hubby can deal with it when he comes home.
Earlier this summer I reached into one of our mudroom drawers and pulled out a stuff sack. I felt something somewhat weighty on my hand, and when I looked down I saw a large wolf spider that must have been attached to the stuff sack. I almost fainted. This big honkin, meaty spider was touching me! I let loose an unparalleled spider squeal and the spider fell to the floor. Hubby scooped up the arachnid and dispatched it into the forest. If I allow myself to think about it, I can still feel the weight of that spider on the back of my hand. This is gonna require years of therapy!
A black snake climbing the exterior of our house
The snakes
We live in snake country- nonvenomous and venomous alike. I welcome the many black snakes we see on our property. They manage the rodent population and are harmless to humans, dogs, and cats. In fact, I allowed our little terrier, Nellie to get close enough to a black snake she was barking at to sustain a painful bite. My hope was that she would safely learn that snakes are not to be messed with.
We also have our share of copperheads and rattlesnakes. The copperheads are the more devious because, unlike the rattlers, they give no warning before they bite. My husband learned this first hand yesterday as he was working in our vegetable garden. He managed to get nailed by a copperhead on the back of his foot. Did I mention that he was barefoot? We spent the good portion of yesterday at our local emergency room. Fortunately the envenomation was mild enough that no antivenin was needed. He’s home on crutches, antibiotics, and pain medication. There’ll be no more barefoot gardening for this country loving couple!
Have you had any wild and woolly wildlife encounters?
Best wishes,
Nancy Kay, DVM
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine
Author of Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs to Live a Happy, Healthy, Longer Life
Author of Your Dog’s Best Health: A Dozen Reasonable Things to Expect From Your Vet
Recipient, Leo K. Bustad Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year Award
Recipient, American Animal Hospital Association Animal Welfare and Humane Ethics Award
Recipient, Dog Writers Association of America Award for Best Blog
Recipient, Eukanuba Canine Health Award
Recipient, AKC Club Publication Excellence Award
Become a Fan of Speaking for Spot on Facebook
Please visit http://www.speakingforspot.com to read excerpts from Speaking for Spot and Your Dog’s Best Health. There you will also find “Advocacy Aids”- helpful health forms you can download and use for your own dog, and a collection of published articles on advocating for your pet’s health. Speaking for Spot and Your Dog’s Best Health are available at www.speakingforspot.com, Amazon.com, local bookstores, and your favorite online book seller.
Hi Dr. Kay,
As you know, we live close by. One of my labs, Lily has been bitten by a copperhead. Thousands of dollars of intensive care later, she recovered. We now get snake vaccine yearly and she sports fang marks on her snout. She also encountered a bear in our yard and has a gash scar on her ear – we were lucky. I’ve been told that bears easily kill lone dogs. Our electrified “bear fence” allows us to keep our bird feeders up.
Dr. Kay, I’m sorry you have a spider phobia. While I don’t appreciate running face first into an occupied web, I actually like wolf spiders. They’re jumping spiders and are very interesting to watch hunt. And their eyes are so big you know when they’re looking at you! I once allowed a rose tarantula to crawl on my hand. Very creepy as they’re hairy.
Snakes, well, I don’t believe there are any black snakes in the US that are venomous. Some cottonmouths are so dark they might look black but they’re hefty and have blunt fat tails, while the non-venomous kind are slim. Around here (FL) we have black racers and someone once reported a coach whip. There’s also an endangered Eastern Indigo. Ran into a lot of cottonmouths at local state park, which is watery. Once one of the dogs on a long leash jumped over one coiled up in the middle of the trail. Snake did nothing but leave.
There was once an eastern diamondback rattler in our neighborhood, in the driveway of one of the snake phobic neighbors. Her cat was very interested in it and was sitting way too close so we got animal control to haul it off. I once had a pygmy rattler right next to my back door. I heard a sound that was like grasshopper wings rustling and noted several of my cats all staring at something. I managed to wrangle it into a bag and took it across the street. Never came back. I’m the neighborhood snake wrangler and try to rescue all I can as everyone else freaks out or kills them.
Sadly, I’m fresh out of dogs right now, but I think one of my got a dry bite once. I saw her licking her leg and noted two puncture wounds that were about the right distance apart for fangs. This was 2 days after supposed event, so nothing happened, not even infection.
The wildlife I worried about the most when running the dogs in the boonies were raccoons and feral hogs. I admit every time I saw bear tracks the leashes would go back on!
Oh and gators. I live across the street from a lake and one was hauled off last week after it was found curled up under someone’s car a block from the lake. I don’t know where he was going, but we all wished he’d just stayed in the water.
Cathy
I cringe to think that spiders, snakes and bears are killed because of human fear. I have spend my summers in the desert mountains of in southern California and have always chosen to relocate the Pacific Rattlesnakes off of the property and let them live to do the job they were designed by mother nature to do. I am lucky so far that none of my five pack has been bitten, this I know. Relocation is easy, with a large plastic trashcan and a corn broom I easily coax the rattlers into the dark space, upright the can, cover it and drive them down the road or perhaps up the mountain a bit and release. Personally, I get a great sense of relief, accomplishment in clearing the hazards for my dogs and knowledge that these beautiful critters are off to hunt rats and rabbits elsewhere under some other cactus or pine tree.
Spiders eat insects. I welcome them unless they are the quick runners and those get to be relocated outside into the brush land where they belong.
My motto: Live and let Live, we’re all God’s critters and creations.
It should be mentioned that young copperheads are actually more dangerous than the adults. They are equally poisonous but have not yet developed the ability to control how much venom they inject. One of our dogs was bitten on the face by an eight inch copperhead in June a year ago and swelled up so badly in the face and chest that he couldn’t eat, drink or even lie down for 24 hours. He had hind end ataxia for a week, so I had to carry him up and down the steps and now he has a gruesome scar from his cheek to his chest from the removal of necrotic tissue. Take the little ones seriously! Although adult people rarely die from copperhead bites, they can lose limbs due to swelling. Get treatment immediately! (Hope your Hubby feels better soon! That is so painful!)
I am so impressed with the Rocky Mountain TT Rescue group! That’s how we found our Miss Ellie, who is flourishing out here in Seattle (but no doubt would appreciate a drop in temperature and cleaner air because of the forest fires ravaging our region.)
I’m writing about our previous TT. We have a cabin in the San Juan Islands, and once a spider bit Dalia Lama’s tail. Had it not been for miraculous intervention from our vet, she could have lost it. My advice: if your dog is licking/nipping at nether regions, pay attention: it might be a spider. Thanks for all your great info, by the way.
Hi Kathleen,
I’m not sure I know what official “snake aversion therapy” consists of. I believe I did this with my little dog Nellie as described in my blog post (at least I hope I accomplished this). I’m not surprised to hear that the snakes are out more these days in California.
Best wishes,
Dr. Nancy
Hi Dr. Nancy,
Would you let us know what you think of snake aversion training?
Thanks from Kathleen in Marin County where more snakes than ever are being seen on the trails, evidently a result of the drought.
I hate spiders and do your spider squeal…….but……I make my husband show me the the yellow yuk when he squishes them dead……real dead.
Now, I’ll hold a hog nose snake!
I am in Columbia, SC, and we had both our Cairn terriers bit by a copperhead this summer. It evidently had taken up residence under our house and came out into the dog yard late at night. The dogs were right before bed. The first dog didn’t run away fast enough and was bit on the hind leg and spent a week at the vet’s due to tissue damage. We completely cleared the yard of any brush, but a week later, the second (more aggressive pooch) received a glancing blow under his chin but only had to stay in the hospital a few days (thank you ungroomed neck ruff!). Thankfully we were able to dispatch the snake a few nights later and have not seen any other snakes near the house. We expect to find and kill at least one copperhead a year around the house and barn but this is the first year our little dogs were injured. I am not fond of spiders either, but I really dislike venomous snakes!
I’m so glad I’m not the only horse and dog person who is terrified of spiders! My husband learned that if I scream while outside, it’s probably because of a spider, so he no longer comes running thinking I’m in mortal danger. I, too, live in a wooded area, where only recently could we see neighbors’ houses. I often wonder if the new neighbors know what they’re getting into with the wildlife around us–large spiders, snakes, coyotes, owls that make scary sounds, etc. So far no bear sightings here in our part of the piedmont of North Carolina, for which I’m grateful. I’m glad to know you try to live in harmony with the creatures, as we do. In particular, we never kill black snakes. Copperheads do not fare as well when in our yard because we have greyhounds that run too fast to notice them until it’s too late.
And oh the wilds of the Washington DC suburbs in Maryland! Last May a very long black rat snake slithered over the back of my back steps. Mere inches from the sliding screen door, he went right past my barking dachshund and into the garden. I got up to see what the fuss was and soon we were all outside, including my young corgi who wasn’t sure whether she should play with the viper or bark like her dachsie brother. I’m not sure who was more rattled by the ordeal, me, the dogs or the snake!
Soon Mr. Rat Snake curled into a defensive posture and lunged at the dogs. I screamed (of course!) and tried to call the dogs off. No luck. The barking ramped up. My dachshund went into full hunt mode. I had no idea at that point if the snake was venomous or not (they’re not). Finally the snake had had quite enough and slithered under our privacy yard and into our neighbors weed patch. So long Mr. Snake, and may the wind be at your back keeping you far, far away from us!
Enjoyed your wildlife story very much. Sounds like you’ve been lucky and you best keep an eye out for more mama bears and nasty copperheads!
After 25 years in the wilds of Belize, I can SO relate! The stories go on and on: big cats, big weasels (aka tayras, eyeing my small dog, even stalking her in the treetops), middle sized critters of various descriptions, sizes and intentions. Infinite insect life, most of which seemed to like human and canine flesh. Very big aggressive venomous snakes. Think 7-ft. fer de lance. It is these adventures that make the very best stories, the ones you tell around the campfire … or when conversation lags
The beauty, the peace, being at one with nature, all well worth it!
I have a yellow Lab who is now almost 12. When she was 13 months, she leaped into a copperhead nest and received 4 bites. She nearly died and lost all of her training, even house training. It took over 6 weeks to recover. This summer she was bitten by, it seems most likely, a brown recluse spider. Her heart went crazy, adding half beats, her liver and spleen swelled, her liver enzymes went sky-high, and it took 4 days for her paw to swell, then erode enough that the vet could come up with a reasonable diagnosis. During the early days, she stopped eating, drinking, and walking. She was waiting to die. Only excellent care by me kept her going (along with raw ground turkey). It took six weeks to recover fully. I hope she avoids bears!
Aah, bears; yeah, they are around here too. And even though there is nothing for them to eat around the house, other than some wild berries, just the other day I found a pile of bear scat very close to the house. Little while back we saw if waltz across the road as were came out on the deck. There is also evidence of him in the places we walk and on Jasmine’s ranch. I’m not really impressed with him hanging around like that but not much we could do. There is a number to call and they would relocate him, but there are so many around here, another would move in I suspect. This also seems to be a male so I’d rather have the guy hanging around than a momma with a cub.
We’re doing ok with spiders and snakes in general. But there are fresh deer and moose tracks and scat all over. Haven’t seen any skunks, racoons or porcupines, so that’s good.
A family of foxes lives in a field across from our house. There are tracks or poops to be found on Jasmine’s ranch too. Groundhog used to live in a pile of brush until he got tired of Cookie trying to get at him.
Beavers are a real nuisance because they destroy trees and have flooded most of the neighboring property.
As a veteran animal control officer, you would think that I am bullet proof when it comes to any kind of critters. Well, I have to hang my head in shame when it comes to spiders. I was initially traumatized at the tender age of 14 while on horseback. I was riding a winding trail through the woods and forgot about my added height while astride a horse. I had frequented the trail that I was riding on foot many times in the past. The big yellow and black garden spiders had their webs high above my head as I strolled down the trail. Astride my horse, I had the web wrapped around my face before I knew it and Mr. or Mrs. spider had wedged itself between my eyes and my glasses. The shriek I emitted silenced all the woodland creatures in mid-song. I spent the next half hour getting my heart to slow down while I searched for my glasses. My horse loved this because she had a nice snack while she waited for me to remount. That sealed my fate when it comes to spider encounters.
I have no problems with snakes, as long as I am prepared. They make me “spook in place” if I get surprised by one. I guess this comes from one memorable incident with a snake when I was the animal control officer in the town where I live. I had been responding to numerous calls of large snakes at residences, most which were big rat snakes. Since was the only ACO, a police unit usually stopped by to see if I needed any help. The one call that the officer did not respond to was one I really needed him at. The family was very rattled when I arrived on the scene and I was just a bit amused at their agitation. The smile left my face when I saw what I had to “catch”. It was a 12′ python. It was lounging around the base of the children’s swing set. I looked at my trusty pair of snake tongs and immediately tossed them to the side. Fortunately, it had been handled by people before and obediently slithered into the open cat cage that I brought to transport him.
Needless to say, I could go on forever with the life and times of an animal control officer. I hope you found some entertainment in my post!
Jackie
No bears or snakes around my city suburb – thank goodness! LOTS of spiders and I do NOT share your squeamishness about squashing them. Right now, my house looks as if I’m getting an early start on Halloween – spider webs everywhere, especially outside on the screens and on the grass. They’ll soon come inside for the winter, but I have learned that those old Osage Orange “road apples” put in baskets around the house, actually DO keep the spiders away. I will be out gathering them as soon as I see them falling on a street near me.
Our biggest wildlife problem is skunks. We spend a month on Martha’s Vineyard every summer (yes, lucky us!), but there are more skunks than tourists on the Vineyard and they are a constant danger to my dogs. Invariably, the skunking takes place late at night when we make a final potty outing. The first time it happened, my elderly Cavalier got such a direct hit, that the toxicity of it caused him to pass out. I called the emergency vet on duty as he had a Grade 6 heart murmur. He thought there was no reason to see him but did give me the “recipe” for the best skunk removal remedy. It is:
1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide (get it at the drug store)
1/4 cup of baking soda
1 tsp liquid detergent (Dawn is especially good as it is a degreaser and that is what is needed).
Bath the dog thoroughly in the mixture. Let it sit on the dog for 5 minutes. Rinse. Repeat if necessary. For everything you’ve ever wanted to know about skunk secretion, go to the following . There is an entire website about this by a faculty member at Humboldt State University. I am NEVER without the ingredients when I go to the Vineyard!
Now, we have started having skunks in our suburban neighborhood. I know it’s due to lots of young families moving into the neighborhood, and their rather “casual” approach to trash removal. They generate a ton of trash (disposable diapers etc) and they don’t have enough trash cans and don’t secure the tops of those they do have. Garbage attracts skunks and now we have a LOT in the neighborhood. Many neighbors have paid to have them trapped, but they reproduce like rabbits and they just keep coming. I have installed a flood light for the backyard and I have an air horn on the counter next to the back door, in hopes that a good blast will scare one away if I see it before the dogs do. If I smell skunk, we do NOT go out at all.
Ah, yes. Western North Carolina is like the north eastern mountains of Georgia. We learned to take our feeders in at night after a Mama and her cub shimmied up a 40 ft. deck post to our top deck (no stairs to make it easy) in the middle of the night to nibble then mangle our feeders. When done, down the post they went.
Another day I took the dogs for a walk and came back to a copperhead sunning on our front porch in front of the door. Ugh that was a challenge to get them in and dispose of the snake without harming either. I always walk them with my head down and gazing in front to make sure we don’t happen upon rattlers. The beauty of our wilderness does have its tradeoffs.