Coral Snake!

I walked out the back door while I was on the phone last evening, and I saw a brightly colored snake about 2 feet long slithering towards me. Eww. I'm thinking the ever-popular Mexican Milk Snake, but I always check the markings because we do have coral snakes in the area. As it's making it's way to me with its back just above the surface of our surprisingly lush grass, I see it. RED AND YELLOW.

So I start yelling "Red and yellow! Red and yellow!" ROFL. Laura thought I had lost my mind.

I ran in the house, repeating the "Red and yellow!" mantra and told Jeff to come kill this coral snake. He was all, "It isn't a coral snake," as he sauntered out the door behind me with Lauren. He went into the garage and got a shovel and came out, Pepsi in one hand, shovel in the other. I kept telling him to put down his drink, but he didn't. It started slithering away, but he hacked it pretty good. Lauren was shrieking while the four or so pieces kept wriggling around. Jeff was saying he couldn't find the head. Laura was in my ear saying, "Oh brother." Craziness, I tell ya'!

I wanted to take a picture after, but he flung the pieces pretty far out into the greenbelt behind the house. I did look for the head in the backyard grass. Never found it. Double ick. Hopefully he got it with the other pieces.

Jeff got on Google afterwards and found out all the facts about coral snakes. Yes, it was a real coral snake. They dwell underground but come out after it rains. We had a pretty good soaking yesterday afternoon (thank goodness). Wyeth recently ceased production on the only anti venom and ran out of supply in 2008. Coral snake bites are rare and usually happen if you handle them (or hack them with a shovel while holding on to your drink), because they run away from you if you approach.