Snake Population Likely to Increase After Warm, Wet Winter

I typically freeze up when seeing a headline like that. Only this time, I wrote it. And I'm sitting here, as I write this, with a vague uneasy feeling.

In all the conversations I had with Eyewitness News Chief Meteorologist Wayne Hart during the winter months about how wet February and March were, I failed to realize that we really didn't have a bitterly cold winter, for the most part.

Say what you will about freezing temps, but they have a very important job to do.

I always thought it was to make sure we don't get overrun by mosquitoes and their ilk.

The SNAKE population never occurred to me.

But then again, I can't stand snakes, so I try not to LET them occur to me.

Too bad for me.

Experts are saying, according to a report posted by WYMT/Hazard, that because this past winter was warmer and, especially, wetter than normal, we can expect an increase in the snake population.

And it makes sense. Warm and wet are snakes' two favorite things. Well, mice, too, I guess.

There's research, according to this report, that shows that snakebite occurrences go up after a rainy season.

Again, makes sense.

(I'm pulling my socks up over my ankles as we speak.)

We have had a lot of rain, and not just in the winter. I mean recently.

By the way, just so you'll know, there are four venomous snakes indigenous to Kentucky--copperhead, water moccasin or western cottonmouth, timber rattler, and pygmy rattler.

So if you happen to find yourself in a location where snakes have been seen on more than one occasion, be vigilant and keep those points about encountering snakes from that link I provided handy.

For me, enjoying spring and summer means NO SNAKES!

I'm on the lookout. Hope you are, too.