Cobras and Kraits
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Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
-- The Buddha
Our house has become a naturalists heaven.
A small orb weaver spider in the bathroom by the ceiling, of the cross spider type, made three brown plate like things. One by one they hatched. Wondered what they were.
A small frog lives under the bleach container under the bathroom sink. At night when the lights are off he comes out and sits by the drain, scammng on the little midges that come up.
A long legged spider by the bathroom ceiling started cutting loose the outer sections of her web a couple of weeks ago, getting rid of the old dirty parts. Found out why yesterday. She had a visitor, most likely a boyfriend. He stayed for 24 hours then moved away a couple of feet.
We have rats in the attic. They have been causing me concern for some time as rat poo can filter down through the ceiling. A couple of weeks ago I heard a loud thud, some wrastling around up there, and saw a rat fleeing the area, running through the eaves of the car port. A small plaintive squeaking went on for a couple of minutes. Last night I heard the same thing. I listened very carefully. The thud and wrastling, the squeaking. No doubt a snake catching a rat. Now the conundrum is, what kind of snake? With lots of holes and leaks it would be easy for it to come down into the house. The rat snakes here are highly agressive and can give a nasty bite, but we also have an abundance of cobra's and kraits. The major problem is Yunee virtually sleepwalks when going to the bathroom at night and could step right on a visitor. Eating a full sized rat every two weeks places this snake in the large catagory. Possible for a ratter or krait, easy for a cobra. Upon reflection, the powerful THUD sound is definitely more along the lines of a cobra strike.
Geckos everywhere. As they enjoy protected species status they have become bolder. Pick up anything in the kitchen and you stand a good chance of having a startled gecko fleeing the scene. Leave your cups and bowls upside down if you don't want gecko footprints and poo in them.
The yellow banded krait, bungarus fasciatus is very similar in appearance to the king snake. This guy had a different colored tummy however. But he acted in typical krait fashion: trying to hide his head, moving slowly, unagressive. We found a large specimen dead on the road the other day with another snake inside. That being the problem if one wanted to keep a krait, they being snake eaters.
We saw a classic king cobra the other day on the side of the road. It /may/ have been a Siam however. While not quite as thick as the pythons I encountered in Australia this one was chunky and, typical of the cobra, long. I guess 15 feet of so and as thick as my forearm. A uniform light brown color.
Most of the large snakes here are cobras. I have seen quite a few while not yet seeing a single python, our other large snake.
While escorting this woman about, we chanced across a Siam cobra lying on the road. I got out and threw dirt at it's tail until it decided get off the road. The woman then demonstrated typical stupidity: Yes, it was a poisonous snake. How do I know? Most of our snakes are poisonous. What if it turned and tried to bite me? I would probably have noticed. I was 15 feet away and had this large jeep like thing I could climb up on. Could it have climbed in the jeep? Maybe. I which case, you would probably notice and have got out, right? What would you do then? Throw dirt at the jeep, of course. Sheeesh! It seems to me that people view the world around them like they are watching TV. The practical side of reality is entirely missing from their minds. The 'take required action' side.
I personally think getting bit by a krait would be a good way to die. Their venom, neurotoxin, painless and very fast acting.
Something cut the phone wire the other night. No idea what.
The new bamboo clump seems to be done for the year. 6 new shoots. The largest now 6 feet tall and 1 1/2 inches thick.