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Where We Left Off:
The Northern Cardinals made reasonable demands on us regarding co-existing in the same environment.
**Phobia Warning: Snake Content**
Year of the Snake:
A year ago, the weather was milder which allowed Gus, Ollie, and I more time outside. This is when the mobile command unit was ravaged by mice. The mice did more damage than you can imagine. Once they nibble apart walls and the roof, water easily got in and destroyed the structure of the trailer.
The other things that follow after mice cleverly snuck into the mobile command unit are their predators. One type of predator is the often misunderstood and maligned snake. On January 11, 2024, Gus and I discovered two snakes and one mouse long dead in a (vile) glue trap. Glue traps don’t discriminate—anything moving over it while get caught. Gus could have gotten stuck in one. I’ve discussed how much I hate those traps before so I won’t spend the energy on that again.
How To Preserve a Small Gorgon or Snake:
The first issue was to try carefully separating the animals from the glue trap. I was only able to get the largest, one of the snakes, and put it in a plastic bag. When Gus finished his part of the investigation inside the mobile command unit, we went home.
I had a bag of silica sand which I’ve used to try to preserve / dehydrate flowers, leaves, and some other organic material to practice using them in epoxy resin. The silica wasn’t enough to fill the entire foil tray I had and was barely enough to cover the snake.
Since I had no place indoors to keep this, I placed a second foil tray on top. I put them inside a kitchen garbage bag. Labeled it: Dead Snake.
I wrapped that inside a vinyl tablecloth and placed items from the porch on top of it so that nothing would blow away.
After 11 months, Gus and I unveiled the specimen (see video) and decided it was good enough to add to our collection.
Case Findings:
The mystery here was to see if the same dehydration material used to preserve wedding flowers could be used on a reptile that was in the process of decomposition. It was gooey. The silica worked. This is the stuff you see in tiny packets stamped “do not eat” inside electronics and food. The freeze-dried cat treats even have a packet in them. The silica comes in different forms from beads to fine sand; and sometimes it’s called silica gel though I don’t know why.
There was no tackiness or gelantinous adipocere on the specimen. For the time being, there are still plenty of sand crystals on the snake because I haven’t had proper time to try and brush them off.
Case Status: Closed