An interesting but unpleasant visit

I am not at all proud to show this photo, a photo of a great snake that ceased to exist.
that ceased to exist, but, when a snake appears in your house, there is no time or concentration to take amazing photos or videos. At least when you are very cowardly, or you have pets and children nearby.

We live in the countryside, very close to the city, but in the countryside at last, we have few neighbors and we are surrounded by nature, and nature includes many species. Fortunately, we are close to a naturally protected area, they call it the city's protected area because very close to here is one of the water reservoirs that have the function of providing irrigation water to the producers.

_{I found this sloth in the street of my house in 2015, I lifted it to move it away from the road, I could not alone, it is very heavy, I was helped by a man who was passing by.}

So, many different species of animals can still walk around here and the urban growth is very controlled, I hope it continues in this way for much longer because it is the charm that keeps me here.

_{Insects and critters I have found in my home}

We are invading nature, and for that reason, it is very normal that in my house we have to live with a lot of insects and spiders are one of the usual insects we live with. Sometimes I think that they think they are the owners of the house, because when I clean a place sometimes it hasn't been three days when I have to go through a spider web to get through, they are tireless workers.

Spiders

You might think that spider webs represent dirt, but since I am the one who cleans and removes them every week, I can assure you that seeing them does not make me feel dirty because I know what I have, I remove them to keep a balance and also because of social conventions.

I have also learned to see and distinguish between a recent and pitifully clean web for the spider and a web that is already dirty and full of little things, very good for the spider. That type of spider's web is one that I am annoyed to have overlooked and I remove it with annoyance.

I have been able to distinguish about three common types of spiders around here inside the house, and to be honest, I don't think I have any pictures saved of any of them, so when I finish writing this post I will get up to look for my little friends and photograph them, they are my friends, they don't bother me, I hope to get them to show them to you.

Likewise, I teach my children not to be afraid of them, I don't know if they are poisonous or not, I don't want to find out either, I just don't touch them, we keep our distance. They have never approached me or anything important to me, fortunately, I think that's why we get along so well.

As I told you, I have distinguished three types, there are some spiders that I call stick spiders, which are very fragile and I think you can touch them, they are somewhat large but with extremely thin legs.

We also have some black spiders, which sometimes have some white color in the center of the body as well, these are thicker or chubby and I suspect that they could bite, but as I said I have not tested it. These are very fast and jump, they are the most common, I see them and let them be, I have never killed one, all the spiders clean the house of the pile of insects that if it were not for them there could be in much more quantity.

_{And this mini spider in my daughter's room, she happened to have it captured inside a toy today.}

Very sporadically appear some large black spiders that I do not know where they came from because it is very rare to see them. They have some short hairs on their legs, they are thick and they scare me a lot. They look like tarantulas, but they are not as big, and I have killed some of these species with a shoe. Once I had to kill one because my son wanted to take a bath and it was on the floor of the shower. Another time my daughter was coming down the stairs and she was on a step. I don't like to kill them, but I don't want to find out what could happen.

There we go with them, I hope nothing bad ever happens, I'd rather interesting things come up that give us family anecdotes, but never anything to regret.

Snakes

Speaking of anecdotes, we have several anecdotes to tell regarding visits from snakes of different types. This has happened very sporadically, fortunately, it has not been frequent, but in the 11 years that we have lived here, at least two or three times a year, we have encountered a snake.

Once there was a Coral snake entangled in the fence of the parking lot because the wall was beautifully covered with ivy, as a result of that finding my husband decided to remove all the ivy and leave the wall uncovered because he was afraid that they were always hiding there. He killed Coral, and he likes practical jokes, so he put the body in the trunk of a friend's pickup truck that was visiting us. He had already left home when he realized what he had in his vehicle.

Another time we found one in the living room and we had visitors and it was very funny because we did everything we could to keep them from noticing it so they wouldn't be scared, we entertained them and Oscar my husband was able to take it out and get rid of it.

In the beginning, when we were new in the house, they appeared more often, but we have taken measures that have made them stay away a little bit, so that it is rare that they appear from one to three times a year, as I mentioned before.

Now, I am going to tell you about a time when I was alone at home with my daughter and we saw a snake get behind the washing machine, it was big in my opinion and as we were alone, I pushed my daughter away and tried to kill it, the adrenaline intensifies, the heart beats very strong, it is something very strong. I made a mistake and took a very bad instrument for this, it was only a shovel to pick up garbage, I managed to hit her, but I did not do any damage and it was worse because I made her alert and she hid. I went in search of a machete, as they say here to the very large knives that are used to count the herbs in the bush, but since I had it in my hand, she did not come out again.

In the following hours I could hardly take my eyes off the washing machine until my husband arrived and started looking for her, but she wasn't there, he teased me and I didn't notice, he found her somewhere else and that was the end of her.

Now I am going to finish my story about my third type encounters with snakes, telling you about the last time one appeared. It was at the end of last year, it was at night, and my husband went out to check something in the water system of the house and heard a noise that he thought was a water jet. Until he realized that it was a snake making that noise with its tongue and he got really scared because the noise was loud.

_{This is the big Mapanare snake that came to visit us at the end of last year.}

This was a battle that seemed to last a long time because he could not handle it, it was very big, long, and thick, we thought at first that it was a boa that here they call Traga Venado, but finally, he was able to cut his head and died. And thank goodness it was like that, because it was not a boa, which finally can be treated in a better way, it was a snake that here they call Mapanare and it is deadly, it is the most deadly snake in Venezuela and with the highest statistics of attacks.

This was explained to me by an uncle who has a lot of experience to whom I sent the photos and he also told me that they are very aggressive, and according to what my husband explained to me it proved to be so. The kids and I saw her when she was already dead because my husband didn't call us sooner.

I know that they will continue to hang around here, and I hope so, because it is an indication that things in these parts continue in their purity, I have been told that there are big cats, but I have not been lucky enough to see them.

I decided to take a course on what to do in case of snake encounters with a specialist organization and I really liked it. But I really don't know if we can comply with the recommendations because they ask us to call the specialists and they come and take the snake because they need them to make antiphonic serums, but we live so far away, how much can we expect them to arrive with a snake at home.

What I will follow to the letter are all the preventive measures that will make sure that there is no food at home, that I call rodents so that the snakes do not come looking for food, and there really are none here and that is why it is very rare that they come close.

The other golden rule is to go outside to the wooded area with closed shoes and long pants, preferably, do not pick up stones or sticks from the ground without checking very well first, this I have taught very well to the whole family.

I almost forgot to tell you that this Friday I went over to grab my laptop that was on the coffee table in the living room and on it was a frog. I jumped out of fright and called my husband to take it out to the patio, he took it out and he started playing with it.

Finally, @galenkp thank you for including this topic in the writing ideas because I really loved telling the weekend community about of this. I hope to see you around very soon.

Already this weekend is over, see you next weekend.

I am always creating original content, any topic I write about in my blog is approached from my experience and my personal point of view "as I lived it and as I see it" unless I indicate otherwise and I will always be attentive to provide information to the community. As in this case, my blog banners were created in Adobe Express and Canva.