Bettynh -

The Prairie Kingsnake is very close to our little invader, or at least the last 4 or 5 inches off the tail of the one in the picture looks like ours. The Kingsnake was one of a couple of suspects when I pulled up the references, but for some reason the refs I found showed entirely different looking things under the Kingsnake name. The pictures I found were probably the Chicken Coop (Eggsucker) Kingsnake instead of the Prairie King Snake - they weren't very specific about the details.

Either way, I hope it moves on to where the bugs are before I do the fall landscaping, 'cause she landed where I've been planning to do some serious weed control and the Roto-Tiller might make snakeburgers.

I did confirm that a mysterious hole in the front lawn, about half way out to the mail box is a spidey hole. It's been there for at least four or five months, and has had obvious increase in diameter, to about 7/8 inch now, smoother walls than when I first noticed it, and some cleanout around the entrance and such, but nothing visible when I looked down into it. A couple of nights ago I aimed a flashlight down in the middle of the night, and got a nice view of some cute little eyes (lots of 'em) lookin' back up at me, on a face that looked a little bit like an extremely tiny little walrus. Could be any of a half dozen kinds that are common here, but it's far enough from the house to be left to her bug control business, unless she starts invitin' the boys over and playin' loud rock music all night.

John