Vermiculite.....

So I'm in the former reptile building today dumping vermiculite from egg incubating containers from last season (actually the plastic shoe boxes I just sold), and I've got several 5 gallon buckets already filled and a lot more shoe boxes to go yet. And I've been doing this sort of thing every year ever since we moved down here to north Florida and just dumped all that stuff as compost around our plants to help retain moisture in the naturally sandy soil.

So I'm wondering what archeologists in the distant future will think when they dig around here and find all this crushed mica everywhere. What will they think it is from? Maybe a lost mica deposit somewhere nearby? Or perhaps a passing comet composed of mica? Do you think a "snake farm" will ever enter into that list of possible reasons?

Speaking of which, you know we have always taken the soiled mouse shavings and made compost out of that as well. Which, btw, is EXCELLENT stuff for plantings! Now I would have thought that I would be finding snakes all of the time rooting around in this stuff looking for the mice they obviously smell there, but NEVER once has that happened. It has never apparently attracted any snakes to those areas. Matter of fact, the ONLY things it has attracted has been wild turkey and other birds that will find insects to eat there, and one time I found a box turtle in the process of swallowing a dead mouse.

Now we would find gray rat snakes in the mouse building quite often, so they are definitely around here. Matter of fact, there was one inside while we were shutting down the business, so he may still be in there somewhere, I guess. So why haven't them been laying around the mouse shavings in the compost piles? What am I missing here?

These are really good questions for which I have no answers. Maybe the local ratsnakes don't think domesticated Mus smells good? What is a wild gray rat's preferred food item, anyway? Or maybe they can smell the difference between fresh Mus scent & not-so-fresh & so avoid the compost piles as not likely to contain mice based on smell? I am just speculating here so feel free to let me know I'm way off base! LOL

Obviously I don't know the answer....

I've been making used mouse shaving compost piles for years as well, and I too have never seen any snake species checking them out. Even the wild raccoons don't rummage around in them for the dead mice or rats and left-over food (but they are persistent in trying to into the garbage cans).

I use my used snake & rodent bedding in my compost pile & tumbler also... it really fills the need for "brown matter"in the compost.... great stuff for the garden...

Graham

So I'm wondering what archeologists in the distant future will think when they dig around here and find all this crushed mica everywhere. What will they think it is from? Maybe a lost mica deposit somewhere nearby? Or perhaps a passing comet composed of mica? Do you think a "snake farm" will ever enter into that list of possible reasons?

Speaking as a fledgling archaeologist, I can confidently predict that it will be interpreted as "being of ritual significance".

Many dissertations and theses will be written, papers will be delivered about it at conferences and TV documentaries presented on it by maverick academics and weirdo nutjobs. Professional reputations will be won and lost on the resulting conflict and bitter words will be exchanged in academic publications with names such as "Proceedings of the Holocene Mica Studies Society".

99.99999999999999999999999% of the world will not care.

Originally Posted by bitsy

Speaking as a fledgling archaeologist, I can confidently predict that it will be interpreted as "being of ritual significance".

Many dissertations and theses will be written, papers will be delivered about it at conferences and TV documentaries presented on it by maverick academics and weirdo nutjobs. Professional reputations will be won and lost on the resulting conflict and bitter words will be exchanged in academic publications with names such as "Proceedings of the Holocene Mica Studies Society".

99.99999999999999999999999% of the world will not care.

I'm sure the snake egg shells scattered among the vermiculite will spark quite a bit of heated debate concerning ritualistic snake worship.

Maybe when the time comes for us to sell this land, I should use that as a marketing point to raise the asking price....

Originally Posted by wstphal

These are really good questions for which I have no answers. Maybe the local ratsnakes don't think domesticated Mus smells good? What is a wild gray rat's preferred food item, anyway? Or maybe they can smell the difference between fresh Mus scent & not-so-fresh & so avoid the compost piles as not likely to contain mice based on smell? I am just speculating here so feel free to let me know I'm way off base! LOL

I used to have my mice on the back screen porch area and had caught 2 snakes from having them there. One was just hanging on the screen top (a wild miami phase corn) and the other had squeezed in, ate 2 fuzzies and then TRIED to slither away (a yellow rat). The yellow rat, being so small and eating so much, moved more like a worm than a snake!

I have been so busy with life that I haven't been on in a very long time. I brought a few snakes to school as a "show and tell" and put pictures on my wiki space cornsnakes4science. I thought I have a few minutes lets see if any of the "old" crew was around, then I see that Rich is headed for the snakeless hills. Well I still have all 13 of my trouble makers, right now what to do the wild thing here in Connecticut. Most of then have come from Rich two are from Kathy Love and a few are either adopted or from a show....you know, ah, that one is so cute...... Happy to see that you are still sharing and caring about one of lives more interesting creatures. Sam

My guess Rich is mouse pee and poo just ain't too appetizing, even to a snake. So considering it is a composed pile of major amounts of mouse poo and pee I'm a thinkin' the smell of it is pretty rank to the snake and does not smell like nice fresh live mousey din din. Just my guess. LOL