Since ancient times, creeping reptiles have acquired the most controversial reputation. In some legends and myths they appear as wise advisers and protectors. Other legends attribute to snakes “cooperation” with evil spirits and hatred of the human race.

Therefore, for many centuries, people simultaneously loved and hated these cold-blooded creatures, relied on their intelligence, extolled their beauty and feared sinister abilities, both mystical and real. And nowadays no one remains indifferent to the sight of a reptile. Some openly admire the gracefully wriggling body and matte shimmering skin, while others run away in fear, fearing a poisonous bite or accidental touching a disgustingly cold creature. And superstitious people, when they see a snake, always remember the bad omens associated with its appearance.

What to expect if you see a snake?

Few people will experience joy if they unexpectedly stumble upon a reptile in the forest, in the country, in their own home or any other place. Indeed, in addition to the prospect of being bitten, such a rendezvous, as a rule, promises a person a variety of troubles. However, a more accurate interpretation of the sign depends on specific circumstances.

• A reptile at the entrance to a house is a threatening warning from fate about the dangers threatening the household. The darkest option involves the death of one of the family members, and softer versions advise not to lose vigilance, to be wiser and more careful in words and actions in order to avoid negative consequences.
• Meeting a snake on the road is considered not a very good omen, but only if the reptile crosses your path. It is believed that in this way the scaly creature cuts off your path to achieving your goal. The belief is considered especially unfavorable for newlyweds, whose marriage in this case will probably not stand the test of time.
• A snake seen in a cemetery has long been considered the embodiment of the soul of one of the deceased ancestors. Apparently, therefore, it is not considered an ominous omen, but only if you did not harm the reptile. A cemetery inhabitant who has suffered at your hands in some way will certainly provide a streak of bad luck in retaliation.
• It’s good if you noticed a snake at the construction site of your own home, in the yard or basement of an existing house. Such a neighborhood is considered very favorable for all household members, as it promises the family peace, prosperity and stable favor of fortune. True, it is much calmer to coexist with a harmless snake than with a dangerous viper. However, it is still not worth killing a poisonous neighbor, so as, according to ancient belief, not to incur five years of misfortune.
• A snake spotted on the way to visit is an excellent omen. After all, it guarantees not only a fun feast, but also a lot of other pleasant entertainment. Vipers are considered especially effective in this sense, but other reptiles promise an equally lively party and guarantee pleasant company.
• Sometimes it happens not to see the snake itself, but only its “crawling out”. Such a find is not only a good sign, but also a useful magical item. After all, the skin of a reptile is an excellent amulet that cures migraines and joint diseases, and wards off the evil eye or damage.
• What does it mean to see a whole bunch of creeping reptiles at once? Oddly enough, this omen does not promise any particular horror to the eyewitness. In the spring, the phenomenon only predicts a cool and rainy summer, and the summer version promises a damp and cold autumn.

Other “snake” signs

The future can be predicted not only by a meeting with a snake, but also by other life situations in which scaly oracles and their individual parts participate.

• The happy owner of a dried snake head can hope to avoid any, even the most dangerous, disease.
• For a fisherman, the most desirable talisman is the tooth or tongue (sting) of a reptile. Their presence guarantees an excellent bite anywhere and at any time.
• The lucky person who survives a snake bite will retain his incredible luck for the rest of his life, which will certainly be long and prosperous.
• Snake eggs are endowed with special magic. If you are lucky enough to discover such a rarity, then keep the happy event secret from everyone and quietly hide the trophy in the house. Then your household will never be in need, peace and tranquility will reign in the family, and the building itself will not be threatened by fires and other natural disasters.
• Anyone who, before going into the forest, puts a leaf of “snake” grass under his heel, a plant with the botanical name “Veronica officinalis,” or arms himself with an ash twig, may not be afraid of meeting poisonous reptiles.
• Our ancestors knew that on Exaltation (September 27) it was forbidden to go into the forest or swamp, and simply leaving the doors open to the street was also unsafe. After all, according to ancient beliefs, this is the last day for snakes before hibernation. They are actively looking for shelter during the cold season, and therefore may well take a fancy to your home, and besides, they show increased aggression towards any random disturbance, for example, a gaping traveler.
• Contrary to the pagan superstition that promises five years of misfortune for killing a snake, in Christian countries there is a belief that is just the opposite. In Orthodoxy, creeping reptiles are considered accomplices of the devil, and therefore their destruction is a godly deed, and forty sins are forgiven for it at once. However, following the signs, one should not, for the sake of one’s own benefit, forget about Christian mercy towards any of God’s creatures.

Few people know that initially it was not a cat who came to the threshold of a new house, but an old man. It was believed that this was a kind of sacrifice from those entering a new stage of life. Over time, they decided that they needed to be more humane, so they replaced the old people with animals.

What awaits you in the near future:

Find out what awaits you in the near future.

Sign - to see a snake

The Slavs have always had an ambiguous attitude towards snakes.

• On the one hand, it is a symbol of wisdom and dexterity, an important patron and a fairly popular totem.
• At the same time, the Serpent is the personification of hostile forces that strive to harm a person and lead him astray.

It is no coincidence that Satan appears to people in this guise. In general, signs about snakes can also be interpreted in two ways. Some of them are for good, and others are for troubles and problems.

Meeting a snake is a sign “depending on the situation”

In the house - why?

Slavic omens strictly stipulated the place where the “rendezvous” with the reptile took place.

• A snake crawled into the house - a sign of illness and sorrow, even death.
• But meeting her on the road is a sign of happiness and success. Especially if the path initially lay on a holiday, on a visit - the party will turn out to be fun, noisy and without consequences.
• The hissing reptile in the cemetery is a messenger from deceased ancestors, who thus warn of the danger threatening the family.

In the yard, on the road

• During the construction of a new house, a snake in the yard (especially if it is a harmless snake or snake) can promise a comfortable life for all future inhabitants.
• On a highway, a crawling creature is unlikely to attract attention, but running over a snake is a sign of frequent car breakdowns.

It is interesting that the exact number of reptiles does not matter: it can be one individual or many snakes - the sign does not say anything about the “transition of quantity into quality.”

Pregnant women, in the forest, in the swamp

For a pregnant woman to see even a dead snake is a very alarming sign. Ancestors believed that he warned of future problems with childbirth. It is possible that the baby will be born sickly or ugly.

But a poisonous snake in a forest or swamp is a very real danger, without any mysticism. In former times, only a few managed to survive the bite of a viper or copperhead, but then fate promised these rare lucky ones a long life without disease.

A killed snake is another complex omen

They said different things about the extermination of creeping reptiles. What happens if you kill a snake? Signs on this score promised diametrically opposite things.

• They either promised the “snake fighters” deliverance from any sins, or warned: such a person would not see happiness for five years!
• And some healers and sorcerers assured: people who eat snake meat are not affected by time - they do not get sick or grow old.

About amulets

Since reptiles were not only a “scarecrow”, but also an important life-affirming symbol, amulets made from their remains were considered the strongest amulet. The shed skin of a snake was especially valued - signs assured that such an artifact would easily relieve any pain. They carried the dried head with them in order to protect themselves from accidental death, and the teeth - so as not to catch any infection.

Nowadays, one can often observe negative attitudes towards snakes rather than admiration or admiration. However, in ancient cultures, these graceful creatures rarely appeared in a negative guise. They were revered as a symbol of health and longevity, and were sung as the embodiment of wisdom and prudence. Indeed, already thousands of years ago, snake venom was used by healers to treat many diseases, and the desire of the reptile to avoid dangerous contacts whenever possible demonstrates its caution and prudence.

However, with the advent of Christianity, crawling reptiles began to be perceived as accomplices of the devil. And the sad consequences of a poisonous bite, coupled with a cold, unpleasantly writhing body, do not add to the attractiveness of snakes in the eyes of many. Apparently, this is why the expression “creeping reptile” has long received a negative meaning, and most signs associated with the appearance of a reptile in the house have a negative interpretation.

Being around snakes in your dacha is not only unpleasant, but also dangerous. Even a non-venomous one can bite painfully - he has teeth. What can we say about the much less harmless copperhead and the extremely dangerous viper? Therefore, if you notice the presence of snakes in your area, you need to get rid of them as soon as possible. However, under no circumstances should you kill them. They are an integral part of the biosphere of the region in which your dacha is located, and in fact, it was you who came to their territory, and not they to yours. Therefore, we must try to ensure a peaceful outcome for them and, most importantly, discourage them from visiting the site once and for all.

Snakes in the garden: an invisible danger

A snake attacks a person only in two cases - if it is frightened or provoked. However, this does not make things any calmer. Not all adults, having heard a suspicious rustling in the bushes next to their bare feet, are able to quickly cope with the rush of adrenaline, allowing the snake to crawl on its way. If we are talking about children, then their meeting with any of the representatives of this species is extremely undesirable. After all, fright can cause a child to suffer serious mental trauma, not to mention the deadly danger of a snake bite for a child’s body.

Reptiles are predominantly nocturnal, which complicates their detection and identification. However, the presence of snakes in the area is always noticeable to an experienced eye. Their main food is rodents, which are found all over the place. Therefore, if no one eats the garden crops you planted, there are no hedgehogs in the vicinity of your dacha, and you yourself do not have a cat or dog, most likely there are snakes on your site. They live in burrows, which they prefer to dig in swampy, shaded vegetation and therefore always cool and slightly moist soil. In addition, snakes periodically shed their skin. Its remains, which are called “creeps,” can be found in their habitats and migration areas - in thick grass, bushes, near reservoirs and rivers, in areas with high soil moisture, etc.

The most dangerous time in terms of encounters with the snake brethren is early to mid-summer. It is then that the breeding season begins for most species that are found in our country, and they themselves become very irritable.

Snake habits

If there are grass snakes in your summer cottage, there is no need to be especially afraid of them. Their bites are not poisonous, and they themselves are much more afraid of humans, so when they see you, they will most likely try to retreat as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, it is quite common for them to show their snake nature - when there is danger of contact, they can hiss threateningly, take a “stance” and even rush to the legs or other parts of the body with the aim of biting.

The main food of the snake is lizards, frogs and rodents, and its natural enemies are birds of prey, storks and some representatives of the order of mammals. The mating season already falls in April-May.

The copperhead, easily recognizable by its characteristic color, loves open, well-warmed areas by the sun. It is found in regions covered with deciduous, coniferous or mixed forests and can even swim, although it does not hunt in water and certainly does not hide from enemies. The copperhead feeds on lizards and other small reptiles, as well as rodents and sometimes insects.

When meeting a person, snakes of this breed curl up into a ball and freeze, hiding their heads, although they may well behave aggressively. The copperhead awakens no earlier than April, and mates at the end of April - at the beginning of May.

The viper lives in swampy forest zones and transition zones between rivers or forests and meadows, but for some reason it gravitates toward human-cultivated areas. It is almost impossible to confuse it with another species - the characteristic color with a zigzag stripe along the back will tell you exactly which one you are dealing with.

Fortunately, the viper has a fairly calm character and never attacks for no apparent reason. However, its bite is very poisonous and, in the absence of necessary medical care, may well lead to very unpleasant consequences.

How to get rid of snakes in the country: humane methods

You should not kill snakes, and not only because in nature they perform very useful functions. Before death, reptiles emit a special aroma, similar to the one with which they attract their relatives for reproduction. As a result, others will soon appear in the area where you killed the snake. Therefore, if this has already happened, the snake corpse must be urgently taken away from the summer cottage without touching it with your hands. The same applies to “crawls” discovered by you and your loved ones.

The first thing you need to do in order to get rid of snakes in your dacha is cleaning the area. By the way, it’s worth doing it regularly, removing branches and other debris. Large boulders should also be removed from the area and old stumps, logs and bushes should be removed - the latter form a dense shadow, where, as well as in the coolness under stones and in old wood, snakes like to rest and hunt.

The main points of cleaning a summer cottage in the photo

If your neighbors have been visiting their dachas for a long time, you should remove the thickets and debris behind them - this is the only way you can guarantee the exodus of reptiles away from your area.

Another effective and peaceful way to expel snakes is repelling with vibration generators or ultrasound, which is equally unpleasant for them.

However, technology is not capable of giving a 100% result, so it is better to use folk remedies. So, snakes do not like natural wool, therefore, by laying it around the perimeter of the site, at the threshold of the dacha and other buildings, and in any other places where a snake can crawl, you are quite likely to force them to go away.

Reptiles cannot stand the smell of garlic, so they will rush to quickly leave the area if you plant this plant in sufficient quantities not only in your garden, but also in areas where they are most likely to appear - along the perimeter of the fence, around bushes, etc.

Radical ways to expel snakes

You can drive away the snake collective from your summer cottage if you exterminate rodents, lizards, frogs and insects. A strong young cat can handle this, and will happily catch everything that rustles and crawls in the bushes and tall grass, including snakes. You can also get a Jagd Terrier dog. This dog is very difficult to raise and care for, but he is a real threat to amphibians.

There is also a “recipe” for snakes like hedgehogs. They feed on insects and plants, but do not tolerate the presence of reptiles, mercilessly destroying them. The only thing is that hedgehogs are quite difficult to attract, and if this is successful, they need to be constantly fed.

The perimeter of the dacha, areas under the barn or house, and especially under its threshold, can be watered or laid with rags soaked in saltpeter, herbicide or other chemicals. But this can seriously harm your area and significantly reduce the comfort of your rest. Harsh chemicals have a pungent odor and, if used incorrectly, can burn out literally everything it comes into contact with, excluding the appearance of vegetation in the treatment areas for several years.

Snakes are terrified of high temperatures and can smell flames and a burning smell from a kilometer away. But burning grass, rubber and other petroleum-based materials in a summer cottage is a rather dangerous decision and harmful to the ecology of the area. Much less damage will be caused by hanging bells, small windmills or rattles on the site. Only the sounds they make will irritate you more, and as soon as you take them off, the snakes will come back.

Snakes make nests in compost pits, manure piles, garden debris, or inside old rotten tree stumps. If you find one, do not try to destroy the snake’s lair yourself - let professionals who are well prepared to deal with poisonous representatives of the snake kingdom do this.

What to do if you encounter a snake or are bitten by a snake?

Regardless of what you did to drive snakes away from your summer cottage, the guarantee that they will not return by the next spring-summer season is quite weak. What to do if the likelihood of encountering amphibians in your yard, vegetable garden, garden, or areas adjacent to your dacha still remains high?

In this case, your housekeeping responsibilities should include:

1. Training children and other household members in actions that reduce to zero the risk of a chance meeting, and in such case, the possibility of direct contact.
2. Mandatory sealing of cracks and holes in the floor and other building structures of the country house and outbuildings.
3. Treating old snake holes with mothballs.
4. Luring and catching snakes for the purpose of subsequently releasing them into the wild away from the dacha.
5. Organizing a country first aid kit with a set of medical supplies and medications to provide first aid for a snake bite.
6. Arrangement of sheds, wood sheds and other outbuildings so that their design excludes the possibility of penetration and hidden dislocation of snakes.
7. Purchasing high rubber shoes and thick protective clothing for working on the site, in particular in thickets and in marshy or damp areas.
8. Regular prevention of the area by treating problem areas and the perimeter with agricultural or special chemicals, ash or other repellents.

If you are nevertheless bitten by a poisonous snake, remember that independent attempts to neutralize the poison can have much more dire consequences than the intoxication itself. Therefore, in this situation, it is urgent to immobilize the victim and call an ambulance, or take him to the first aid station yourself.

Before the doctor arrives, you need to apply a cold compress to the bite site, remove rings and other jewelry, as well as items of clothing that, in case of swelling, may impede blood circulation.

Video: Emergency actions for a snake bite

Hello! Today we’ll talk about the ancient inhabitants of our planet – snakes. Archaeologists believe that snakes appeared on earth about 130 million years ago.

People's attitude towards them is not clear. From admiration and reverence to fierce hatred.

There are many myths and beliefs associated with them; they are credited with witchcraft qualities, the ability to heal and destroy.

In legends and myths, snakes are endowed with wisdom and fantastic capabilities.

To this day, many recipes have been preserved for using snake venom and fat to heal many ailments.

All the snakes are crawling out snake weddings June 22(on Isaac). On this day it is deadly to go into the forest or be in the path of snakes.

The same danger awaits a person who finds himself in the path of snakes September 27 (on Exaltation) when they crawl to hide underground.

Popular beliefs claim that it is on this day that snakes and grass snakes crawl to one place under the ground with their mother to spend the winter. The signal that they can leave the womb of their mother, the earth, will be the first spring thunder.

In the old days, on September 27, peasants carefully closed all doors, gates and gates so that snakes and snakes would not hide under stacks of straw, hay or dung heaps. It is believed that snakes do not bite since the Exaltation holiday. There is even a belief that a snake that has bitten a person on this day will not be able to find its way to its mother underground. She will crawl until she dies from frost or until she is killed by a person.

Folk legends have preserved many signs associated with the snake.

1. Snake eggs are believed to have magical powers. A person who has found a snake egg should not talk about the find, and even more so should not show the find to anyone. The egg must be hidden in your home. This house will not be afraid of fire; it will always have prosperity, happiness and prosperity.
2. You can be cured of a fatal disease by wearing a dried snake head around your neck.
3. A pregnant woman should not look at a snake to avoid deformation of the child.
4. Snakes will never get into a house if a cat lives in it.
5. In order for a fisherman to always have a good catch of fish, he needs to tear out the sting from the snake and always carry it with him when fishing.
6. The oldest superstition says that whoever eats snakes will remain forever young.
7. It is a very bad omen if a snake crawls into the house. This is a harbinger of the death of the mistress or owner of the house.
8. If on the way to church a snake crawls across the path of the newlyweds, then the marriage will be short-lived and not happy.
9. Snakes are very cunning and vindictive. You cannot offend a snake, because it will find and bite the offender even after a few years.
10. In the Urals there are snakes, the great snake and the money snake, which help the person they like to get rich.
11. The shed skin of a snake is a magical item. If you apply it to your head (tie it to a hat or scarf), you can heal a headache. If you apply it to your feet, you can get rid of rheumatism.
12. You can save yourself from fever if you carry a snake tooth with you.
13. Unfortunately, you dream about a snake.
14. If snakes crawl out of their holes very early in the spring, then the summer will be cold.
15. Snakes swimming in the water in summer predict a cold autumn.
16. Carry a souvenir with a picture of a snake with you, it will give you wisdom.

In the human imagination, snakes are cunning and sophistication, wisdom and evil, magic and cunning.

There is no need to be afraid of snakes; when meeting them you just need to be careful. There is harmony in nature; for it there are no monsters or beauties. It was man who divided everyone living on Earth into good and bad, ugly and beautiful, useful and harmful, etc. And who gave him this right? Man needs to reconsider his attitude towards nature, not destroy its inhabitants, and thereby extend the possibility of his existence on this planet.