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.
We know how to have fun, don't we?
"black racers in the yard"
We've a HUGE one living amongst our pole beans. It's really a thrill to be bean picking and "pick" it's tail!
Absolutely!
BTW, before you ask, I'm drinking lemonade.
Millah here.
LOL! I laughed so hard I scared the cat.
Get a flyswatter before it eats your drapes!
Love it!
That reminds me...new tagline.
You can't spell Wittenberg without wit.
Is that something crawling under your desk?
Saw a thing on National Geographic the other night about all the pythons and other constrictors that people buy as pets in Florida that get loose. Apparently some of them have been turning up in the Everglades and there are fears they will greatly alter the ecosysystem there. They even documented how one of them got big enough to eat a six foot gator. It may be more enviropropaganda but I tend to think they weren't exaggerating too much, and it was really chilling when one of the people they interviewed said, "If one of these things can eat a sic foot gator, you can bet they can eat a human child with no trouble, and that will sure get people's attention."
"That was one spicy-ah meat-a-ball!"
why are they protected??? We have tons of them around, we'll send you some if you have a shortage! Right now I have a 4 foot garter snake that lives in my flower garden, I'm leaving him alone cause he eats the insects, but when they get that big they will try to strike you, if he does that he is history. Out in the western part of the state rattlers are a dime a dozen, could send you a couple of those too. We'll be happy to share!
Big python on a road in Malaysia. Ate a pregnant sheep and was so stuffed it couldn't move off the road.
Oops, sorry Thinkin gal, that post was not meant for you.
Big python on a road in Malaysia. Ate a pregnant sheep and was so stuffed it couldn't move off the road. Firemen captured it easily.
I'd sleep with one eye open if I were you.
How long was this house sitting empty?
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