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.
WHAT IS THAT?
Agreed. Best Indiana Jones line ever: "Snakes.... WHY did it have to be snakes?!"
Look at this. (above)
And what in the sam hell is that random skeleton talking with the tree in your pic?
Maybe they're having a skull session!
Yep. One of my cats loves to play with snakes before he kills them. Lays on his back and rolls around with them.... Leaves them on the front porch like mice. One time he left one there that was just dazed.
Read this - sounds like your worst nightmare. I admit that's too many for me.
Get in mah belly!
Except for the rattlesnakes. But I've never seen one of them more than eight feet long.
Sheesh.
Ba-dum-pum. ;-)
Garter snakes are protected here on the San Francisco peninsula. When they were extending the BART subway line to SFO Airport a few years back, the project was delayed for a long time because construction equipment ran over a gartner snake. If they ran over me, no problem, but a gartner snake is sooo precious with the libs here.
I don't dare tell anyone about the snakes in my back yard; I'm rebuilding a deck and was playing with some gartner snakes yesterday - love teasing my wife and daughters with them - don't want inspectors stopping my projects.
Garter snakes take care of the insect population. ....
Come to think of it, so does my cat.
Thank you, BSF, but Miss Behave and I have our own notions about snakes.
Oh, just a snacking python. Click the link on that post.
I knew of a house infested this way once on a ranch in Arizona. It was worse though because they had rattlers. The people living there brought in pigs, and cats, and large dogs. It was not too long before the snakes were a thing of the past. The only drawback to the pigs- (no not the smell,they only had a few, and got rid of them after the snakes were gone) The pigs uprooted everything in the area- tree roots, rocks- you name it. It took serious landscaping before there was a nice yard again.
Oh, Behave!
LMAO!
Me too. LOL
Might need some of the stars of Jackass to work the front lines.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.