Posted on 09/26/2006 8:29:04 PM PDT by sonsofliberty2000
The Hepworths knew the house would require some maintenance. But they never thought they'd need a snake charmer. Shortly after Lyman and Jeanine Hepworth began working on a rundown property outside of town, they experienced a trauma more fit for Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Snakes on a Plane" than a pair of eastern Idaho do-it-yourselfers.
Snakes, perhaps thousands of them, fell on Lyman Hepworth's head when he opened the door to a pump house near the small house the couple planned to buy.
"When it warmed up, we walked onto the yard and the whole yard moved," Jeanine Hepworth told the Rexburg Standard Journal.
One day, Lyman Hepworth reached to turn on a light and discovered the pull cord was actually a snake.
Last March, the Hepworths were having money troubles. Struggling to pay off their medical bills and make house payments, they sold their old home.
They planned to buy a home and a couple of outbuildings from an acquaintance on a few acres outside tiny Wilford.
Then they found the snakes _ in the lawn, in the living room and in their hair.
Turns out the property was a winter snake sanctuary, likely a snake den or hibernaculum where snakes gather in large numbers to hibernate for the winter, said Lauri Hanauska-Brown, a biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
In the spring and summer the snakes fan out across the wilds of eastern Idaho, but as the days get shorter and cooler, the snakes return to the resting place _ in this case, the Hepworth's new home _ where they ball up for heat.
The snakes are likely a terrestrial garter snake, Hanauska-Brown said. Reptiles are a protected species meaning the Hepworths cannot bait them or kill them, she said.
The couple has not contacted Fish and Game to move the garters, Hanauska-Brown said. The department would attempt to move the snakes, but it could be difficult because if they move them too far they would die and if they move them close by the snakes would likely return to hibernate, she said.
"They are used to going there and kind of balling up," Hanauska-Brown told The Associated Press. "That sounds kind of Indiana Jonesish. But this is a natural thing."
The Hepworths never moved in, but Lyman Hepworth's brother is still making payments, though the seller offered to refund their money when he found out about the infestation.
Their plan: They sent a videotape of the house, their children and, of course, the snakes to the producers of "Extreme Home Makeover," in hopes the television show would send its decorators in for a filmed renovation.
The video showed snakes slithering on the back porch, climbing up the foundation and a ball of snakes on the side of the home, Jeanine Hepworth said.
The couple will not find out if the show chooses their reptile refuge for a fix-up challenge until next year.
Meanwhile, summer has turned to fall. And the snakes that have been out for the summer are making their way back to Hepworth's little home in Wilford.
Way too disgusting.
Since when is a garter snake protected??? Gads, I've killed several!!!
Yikes! You just had to post that to me! LOL
Why are my feet suddenly off the floor?
I HATE snakes! This just gives me the heebie jeebies. I saw a similar story on TV about a family in Oklahoma or somewhere whose house was infested with nasty rattlesnakes. Yuck!
Roadrunners also love to eat snakes.
We have a couple of black racers in the yard. They're harmless, but will give you a turn because one of their defensive habits is to take the tip of their tail and rattle it in dry leaves. Sounds EXACTLY like a rattlesnake buzz . . . make you jump the first couple of times they do that to you, but now I just look at him and say, "Slick, you ain't foolin' nobody." (We named the big one Slick Willie. He slunk away in shame for awhile, but he's back.)
Plot for a H'weird movie horror film. What a killing this couple could make if they were to open their land for reptile hunts. Just think of the all the exotic food provided or perhaps shoes and hats. Charge so much for each snake killed. Wow!
They should never have told anyone and just quietly remodeled.
A couple years back I "woke up" and after my morning "ablution" I went into me little office....
Well, guess what? There in the middle of the room was a small rattlesnake.
(About 14 inches long)
Now, how he "got in" to my "office" I don't know........
(However, it's not all that unusual down here)
So.....
I chased the little guy around and finally caught him (her) and deposited him (her) outside at a "safe distance" from my house......
Ya see, rattlesnakes ain't "bad" little critters. In fact, they're "great little mousers". And, for the most part, if you'll leave them alone......
They'll leave you alone......
In fact, they're nice enough to "rattle" at you as a warning.
(Much nicer than say, for instance, copperheads)
J
LOL! He slithered away in shame but came back! Too funny.
I am deathly afraid of snakes when I am startled by them, but I can hold them if handed to me.
Glad it ain't extra-terrestrial garter snakes. Whew
Bill Clinton's trouser snake was paying a visit to the Mrs...
or cotton-mouths?
If they are crazy enough to select that house, the nuts at Extreme Home Makeover need to contact the producers of Dirty Jobs and make it a double feature.
That's hissterical.
I'm sure that's true in some places. Not here though. It's just way too dry for them. They like water, after all.
J
A person should be able do what he wants with hiss own property.
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