France in Focus

Just drying off after a much needed refreshing shower, and I hear slithering in the (very slim space) above our pitched-roof bedroom ceiling. I stand still working out where said slithering is moving around - ah yes, heard this before, we definitely have snakes inhabiting our non-human areas of the house. I look up at a high window that is partially covered by a curtain, admiring the cobwebs up there and thinking they're useful to catch any bugs, when just outside the window, two snake heads appear and proceed to drop down, romantically entwined, into full view. When their tails have nothing left to hold on to, they plop into the ditch and undergrowth below at the end of the house.

Yikes! Think I need another shower now! I don't mind snakes - but really didn't expect to see that vision come into view! I hope I don't have nightmares!!

I'm pretty sure they're whipping snakes, so at least they may be keeping the smaller vermin under control in the nooks and crannies of these old stone walls.....

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. House for sale, must move !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snakes have such a bad press and largely undeserved in Europe at least.
They are not slimy to the touch.
As suggested they are important in controlling vermin.
Most are non-venomous to humans.
They are generally more scared of you than you of them. Given a chance they will just slither away.
If they consider themselves cornered, 2 types can be aggressive - grass snake and the western whip snake - and might rear up and hiss loudly at you. Neither are venomous to humans.
This loud hissing is snake for, give me some space man.
Most are in decline and quite a number are on various endangered lists.

Death rates from venomous snakes are very low - and often coincide with an individual with a predisposition either by virtue of age (usually very young) or medical issues (usually rather old).
2022 data on deaths resulting from snake bites
France 2
UK 2
Germany 3
Switzerland 1
Spain 2
Italy 3
Greece 1

You are more likely to die from a lightning strike in each of these countries.

Really that many - I thought last UK death was a child in 1975 - unless someone has been bitten by some exotic "pet".

The whipper snappers like dry, quiet habitats apparently, in areas of undisturbed flora (ie overgrown gardens! Perfect here then ) Being a protected species, I feel quite honoured that they've decided to take up residence in our house. But it was still a shock to see them drop past the window like that! I guess they also keep vipers and suchlike away?

Just more wildlife to add to the "zoo" that lives in our attics and space between floors and ceilings!

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deat ... envenoming

2 slip ups - should have been 2019 data and the UK was 1 death - podgy fingers.

I was peacefully doing the rounds of our house, turned a corner and was confronted with a couple of 'lovers' doing their thing on the gravel by the back door. It was fascinating to watch their spiralling dance and I've got a fair idea of the preferred nursery spot...a big bag of sand left over from the renovation. Sadly, quite a few of the babies make their fatal way into the chicken parc. Not sadly for the chickens, though....

When we had our last housed retiled, the roofer found several sleeping snakes. I think if he'd been French, he'd have run a kilometre - they have a horror of les serpents.

exile wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 8:51 pm Snakes have such a bad press and largely undeserved in Europe at least.

I find it distressing that so many people's reaction to seeing any sort of snake is to want to kill them. As Exile says, they are generally more scared of us than we are of them. They like cool shade in the summer so hedgerows and shrubs are ideal. They also like water.

At our old place, one late afternoon, we heard one of our dogs barking in the kitchen so went to investigate. We saw an uninvited guest had slithered into the kitchen through the open door. It was an Aspic Viper who was coiled up and hissing at our dog. How to get rid of it ? OH took the bag out of a tall flip top bin and placed it near the snake who slithered into it without a murmur. Snake was then deposed outside well away from the house near some bushes.
Blow me, the next day, returning from shopping, who was sitting curled up in the shade of a tree by the house, but the Aspic Viper. This time he was deposed in the forest on the other side of the lane and we never saw him again.