Killed this little guy who has been living in the stacks. Only one rattle, so this years hatch, Need to find his momma.
I see plenty of slugs in the PA, but this was the biggest snail I've ever seen. Had to move fast to get the camera so it didn't run away. I think its a leopard snail. This little snake was under a pallet i moved today. I got it to say "cheese"!
I had a lot slugs/snails under the slab wood I just cut up that was laying there for a while. No snakes, but I always look.
This wasn't technically in the stack, but as I was splitting today this critter kept landing on me and on the splits. When it was flying it made a loud buzzing noise, and it was flying more like a dragonfly than a wasp. In other words, it would hover in place, then zip in all different directions in straight lines -- not how wasps or bees fly. I've been stung by all sorts of wasps and bees, but this thing made me especially uncomfortable because it was obsessed with being ON me. Come to find out it's not a wasp or a bee. And it doesn't sting or bite. It's a giant fly pretending to be a wasp, and it likes to land on humans to lick salty sweat. If I had known that's all it wanted, I would have given it a drink in hopes it would have left me alone.
Found him in the stack the other day. It's the shedded skin of a cicada. I'm used to finding snake skins, but not bug skins. I thought it looked good on the mantle. My wife said there's something wrong with me.
Most years I may see one, possibly two snakes during the entire year. This year I have lost count and lately see one or two almost every day. And they definitely love my firewood stacks! Harmless, but curious as to the dramatic increase in numbers this year.
Found this little guy at my score recently. Tried to sell me car insurance! Baby garter snake under a split found today.
I have a colossal hoard of red cedar and while I am not much of a fan of it, one thing came into focus this season for me: NO CRITTERS IN CEDAR. None. I have like 3 cords of the stuff and I'm lucky if I see a single spider all day.
That’s an awesome observation! Thanks for sharing. Cedar is not hard to come by around here and I actually have some on hand. I’m going to try “sprinkling” some throughout my stacks. I do seem to get some type of bug in it that likes to make sawdust. But I’m going to try and see if it works for a spider deterrent.
Squirrels have been extra busy the last few weeks. And somewhere in the neighborhood there's a walnut tree. A couple of walnut volunteers from the stack. There's a ground hog in the neighbor hood too. From a fresh red oak this past spring.
Spotted it’s partner dashing across the road from the cornfield to the woods as I came the other night. guess there’ll be a watchful eye out still. I’m surprised the damage these things do. And I thought gophers were bad.
