Coulevre

[Hoddy]

We have snakes here which our neighbours, who haven’t actually seen them, say must be coulevres. I translate coulevre as grass snake (natrix natrix) which are harmless. The rather aggressive behaviour of some of ours sent me searching and I’ve discovered that ours are actually Western Whip Snakes (coluber viridiflavus). My problem is that I can’t find a French word for them  except coulevre. Are there any experts out there ?

Hoddy

[Christine Animal]

Perhaps these exotic snakes go with the exotice weeds over here.

There are a lot of "vipères" (dangerous), could that be it?  Where are you in France?

Here they seem to show the difference between a vipère and a couleuvre  http://perso.wanadoo.fr/ceillac/vipere-dossier.htm  

Christine

[Teamedup]

Hoddy I googled this on google.fr and it came up with couleuvre verte et jaune.

 

http://www.lemanlake.com/pages/faune/reptil.htm

 

There is a list of snakes on that site.

 

I hate snakes and so had to look and see what aggressive grass snakes were like.

[Hoddy]

Thanks for that TU. Those are the ones. They are described as rapid and aggressive which confirms my original thought that they've got to go.

I need to start another thread. Perhaps we should have a forum devoted to pests.

Hoddy

[Christine Animal]

That couleuvre verte et jaune looks just like what we had on our sideboard in the hall last Summer.  We didn't know what it was.  A long and slim snake.  It was very quick and when we tried to push it outside it managed to go under a door and disappeared between the stone steps down to the cellar.  We never saw it again and I always feel it may come out, but I now know that at least it is not harmful.

[Hoddy]

I want to make a distinction between harmful and poisonous, Christine. Although they aren't poisonous they can give you a very nasty bite. I'm afraid mine have got to go, an odd one I could just about tolerate, but there are too many of them.

Hoddy