# two unwanted visitors



## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Yesterday the snake and today the monster in the car under the tailgate.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Just had another visitor, buddy great hornet in the workshop, hate them things I do.😡


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## Matchlock (Jun 26, 2010)

Sweet, I used to keep reptiles, love them.
Last night about 8pm a young badger came into the garden, seeing it from the breakfeast room window I went out side and snuck up on it.
Got within 6 feet of it, their eyesight is poor but their hearing and sense of smell is exceptional, I just froze, it did look at me but just carried on wandering around the garden and eventually left.
Few years ago I did the same with a pair of young badgers, they came and smelled my feet, they could smell me but as I froze they did not see me as a threat.
Isn't nature wonderful!


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

A man who can answer a question maybe, how do snakes move so fast when they don't have any legs, we had a big one in the garage once, he was a beggar to catch, so fast. I know it's something to do with muscles, should look it up I suppose, but perhaps you can explain in words I understand Flint.


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## Matchlock (Jun 26, 2010)

JanHank said:


> A man who can answer a question maybe, how do snakes move so fast when they don't have any legs, we had a big one in the garage once, he was a beggar to catch, so fast. I know it's something to do with muscles, should look it up I suppose, but perhaps you can explain in words I understand Flint.


 If you watch how they move Jan they wriggle in a wavy fashion, they use the muscles down their body in unison to propel themselves forward.
I was never really a snake lover although I kept a couple.
My main interest was lizards and amphibians which I used to breed to prevent too many being taken from the wild.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Looks like a grass snake Jan. This is the venomous one. .. 
Personally I kill the hornets.
Ray.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Thank you for your reply Flint, haven't been able to get on here since about 9pm, kept getting an error try later message.

The snake was a baby Ray, from a distance at first glance it looked like a huge worm till you saw the pointed tail.
Hornets get the death penalty if we can reach them, but this one was in the workshop which has a very high ceiling and couldn't be reached, fly spray had no effect so we left the doors open and he finally found his way out......I think😧


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## GMLS (Dec 2, 2010)

This took a lot of fly and wasp killer before it died and was a lot bigger when at full stretch


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## fatbuddha (Aug 7, 2006)

please don't kill Hornets - it's a useful garden predator and will predate on other species of wasp and take caterpillars, plus it's less aggressive than other wasp species although I think it's it size that alarms people. the only hornet you need to worry about is the Asian hornet which has become more common in Europe and predates on honey bees - it's a notifiable species if found and nests are destroyed. (info here about that - http://www.nonnativespecies.org/alerts/index.cfm?id=4)

I've had hornet nests in the garden in the past - I think I might have another this year - and we have come to an agreement; I won't disturb you if you don't disturb me. seems to work OK!


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

fatbuddha said:


> please don't kill Hornets - it's a useful garden predator and will predate on other species of wasp and take caterpillars, plus it's less aggressive than other wasp species although I think it's it size that alarms people. the only hornet you need to worry about is the Asian hornet which has become more common in Europe and predates on honey bees - it's a notifiable species if found and nests are destroyed. (info here about that - http://www.nonnativespecies.org/alerts/index.cfm?id=4)
> 
> I've had hornet nests in the garden in the past - I think I might have another this year - and we have come to an agreement; I won't disturb you if you don't disturb me. seems to work OK!


If I could catch one you will be welcome to it fats, I don't like them and we don't have any garden to protect, just grass, a hazel bush , 2 trees and a fence 
Creeper. 
They only get deaded if they come in the house looking for a nesting place. Same with wasps, but bees of any size get caught in a glass and released outside.
Ants are being hunted by an army of starlings in the garden from sunup until sundown, I manage to keep ants out of the house with my dried lemons.😃


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

I am busy killing wood wasps eating my oak gates. They are tucking in with gusto in the sunshine. 

Ray.


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## Matchlock (Jun 26, 2010)

I have a nest at the top of my garden of the white tailed bumble bee, probably a couple of hundred in the nest, I wander up to look at them close up but I don't bother them and so they they don't bother me.
Nature in unison.


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## Spacerunner (Mar 18, 2006)

JanHank said:


> A man who can answer a question maybe, how do snakes move so fast when they don't have any legs, we had a big one in the garage once, he was a beggar to catch, so fast. I know it's something to do with muscles, should look it up I suppose, but perhaps you can explain in words I understand Flint.


They 'walk' on their ribs aided by body undulations.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Spacerunner said:


> They 'walk' on their ribs aided by body undulations.


I Can do that.


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## fatbuddha (Aug 7, 2006)

barryd said:


> I Can do that.


like Jabba the Hutt eh???


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## Matchlock (Jun 26, 2010)

barryd said:


> I Can do that.


What with your gout?


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

fatbuddha said:


> like Jabba the Hutt eh???


Who's he when he's at home, or away.😕


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## Matchlock (Jun 26, 2010)

JanHank said:


> Who's he when he's at home, or away.😕


you have never seen Star Wars then Jan


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Goodness me no, whatever happened to Dr. Spock and beam me up Scottie.😧


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Wasn't there a character like that in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

Ray.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

fatbuddha said:


> like Jabba the Hutt eh???


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