Land Of The Critters

Hard to tell from the pic below but that black stringy-looking thing is a Ring Neck Snake. It was about 12 inches long and had the diameter, roughly, of a pencil. Ring Necks are one of the more benign critters here South of Nowhere and Florida is loaded with not so kind ones.

The ring neck was on my front porch and on any given night you can find a frog or two hanging around as well. At the end of our street a neighbor killed a Water Moccasin and you don't have to go far into our front yard to find Fire Ants. On our Hurricane damaged property last year I was bitten by a spider (we are not certain which kind but the doctor said the bite looked consistant with that of a brown recluse). And of course we have gators, mosquitos and a host of other snakes.

I worked with someone not to long ago who moved here from England and had found a black widow in their apartment. All I could say is, "Welcome to Florida".