Last week after a long day at the store, I drove home and to my horror there was a snake in the yard.  It was about 10 feet away from the truck.  Of course, I was scared to death.  I called Randy but he could not come at the moment.  Then I called my son Kendall to come get it.  He was still in town but heading this way.  Mean while, I waited in the truck and kept track of the snake.  He was not going to get away somewhere that he could hide.  I could just see him showing up under my roses or azaleas.  No sir, this extremely long snake was only heading to the chopping block.  When Kendall got to the house, it only took 2 swipes with the shovel and I was free again to roam my yard.  In the end he was only about 6 foot long and as round as a silver dollar.  He was then declared a rat snake that would not hurt anything.  But to me he was as deadly as a huge rattle snake.  Maybe if I had put some snake repellent or snake stopper out in the area he never would have shown his head around my yard.  You would think that the person who sells so much snake repellent would have already put it out.  

The old wives tale says that sulfur and lime are really good snake repellents.  I have sold these products for years.  And let me tell you, that all of the ladies that put this out will tell you that the only good snake is a dead one.  Now things are fancier for snake repellent.  We have snake repellent from Fertilome  and snake stopper from Bonide.  They have almost the same ingredients.  So, before you hurt yourself running from snakes, try these products.  Better yard free from snakes than me tripping down the yard and falling on the nasty snake, creature from the dark side.

(Mitzi Thomas owns Minden Farm & Garden LLC. Watch for her column on Fridays in Webster Parish Journal.)