Actually, Rap, in the twelve years that we've lived out here in the Florida boondocks we've never seen a poisonous snake on our property. It's odd because some of our nearby friends seem to average one rattler encounter a month, and we see road-killed rattlers regularly. Don't know what it is about our property that makes 'em stay away but it's okay with me.

On the other hand, the deer are becoming increasingly brave. There's a blown over stump/root mass from one of our hurricane-destroyed trees in the yard, maybe forty feet from the house. I just haven't had the inclination try to completely remove the thing, so we planted sweet potato vines around it thinking they would use it as a trellis and make it less unsightly. Worked really well until a couple of days ago when a deer found it and went "Wow! These sweet potato vines are delicious!" Now it's ugly again.