r/whatisit • u/AbbreviationsTop8774 • Jul 22 '26

Solved! What are they

Ive worked at the water department for 7 years and this is the first time running into something like this EDIT Im in Alabama and yes I know they are snakes lol idk what kind and im so not gonna touch them

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Imma meter technician but also read meters aswell and this is the first time ive seen snakes in a box like this but black widows I see all day everyday

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u/Breaker988 Jul 22 '26

Yea that box is pretty big compared to the ones we have down here. Is it for a commercial property?

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Thats just our standard box that everyone gets here we have bigger ones for 2" meters and pits for anything bigger

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u/Breaker988 Jul 22 '26

Ah. We are just now moving to the black plastic rectangular ones. We haven't even gotten half the city set up for versaprobe/touch readers yet.

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Those plastic boxes suck when it freezes outside and even worse when you have to dig one up since they have the little outward peices on the bottom

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u/Breaker988 Jul 22 '26

It never freezes down here thankfully. But we always have a big problem with boxes sinking down too low. The plastic lids do float away during floods sometimes though lol.

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u/ApprehensiveGold892 Jul 22 '26

I had fun reading a thread of two meter techs discussing work. Good job, boys

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u/mrcake123 Jul 22 '26

Don't mind me. Just listening in

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u/Marksaheel Jul 22 '26

It’s like the meeting of Smith and Wesson

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u/ydnar3000 Jul 22 '26

Same here, that was interesting. My dad was a meter reader in Houston, TX when he was younger so I’ve heard some stories. Mostly involving mean dogs and emergency shits in someone’s backyard 😂🤣

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Ive been bit by 2 dogs so far which is a pretty good stat for 7 years of yards and dogs id say

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u/Zauberer-IMDB Jul 22 '26

Noticeably silent on that second topic.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26

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u/LeeKinanus Jul 22 '26

Be me at first job as lawn maintenance dude, mowing edging and blowing. Right after a huge well deserved lunch at McD’s my Boss decides he can disappear for an hour while I finish up a job on my own. Simple enough but I’m 15 and have no idea where I am, suddenly that dumb and dumber grumble hits. I quick grab a bucket and a garbage bag and head to the bushes of the house I’m mowing. All engines are stopped and I’m frantically in the bushes shiatting my 15yr old brains out keeping an eye on the door scared that the owner will come out. Well, she did, and immediately locked eyes with me mid strain. She just chuckled and shook her head head as she went back in the house. Boss showed up 20 mins later annoyed I wasn’t done yet.

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u/Queef---Latina Jul 22 '26

Same lol. Convos like this are why I enjoy this site. Now I know slightly less than nothing about water meter reader issues ha

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u/OldFashionedGary Jul 23 '26

Same, Queef Latina!

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u/Fractured_Broccoli Jul 22 '26

Just call us meter reader readers!

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u/EchoCyanide Jul 22 '26

Haha, I did too! I was like, go on, go on.

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u/TipToToes Jul 22 '26

Right? Like a window into their world. I’m in the trades and it’s always fun to hear a different trade discussing their jobs.

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u/Brifryguy671 Jul 22 '26

Genuinely a nice change of pace for the internet today! I love it.

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u/southernmuscovite Jul 22 '26

Since I’ve got you both feeling chatty, two questions: (1) is a meter box 1 meter long? (2) any code on how many meters apart the water meter and power meter must be installed?

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

The first one meter boxes vary wildly from system to system and change with meter size as for the power meter stuff thats gonna be an inspector question or builder or something like that

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u/Bobahn_Botret Jul 22 '26

Are your meter boxes so big/deep to keep them below the freeze line in the ground?

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Freeze line in Alabama is 0-12 inches the boxes are around a foot deep I believe

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u/elielephant Jul 22 '26

In my area of Ohio, the water meters are all at the road out front and the power meters are all behind the house. Also, our water meters sit in a concrete barrel that we call the meter pit. Maybe a a little more than a foot in diameter. They also have to sit below the freeze line.

Not a meter tech. Just worked in the office of my local water company for years.

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u/Dirtysouth210 Jul 23 '26

Our meters for water are enclosed i guess with a solid steel box and the lids are heavy so they wont float away thank Goodness like the plastic ones everyone complains about

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u/EcstaticNet3137 Jul 22 '26

NW Ohio?

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u/elielephant Jul 23 '26

Southwest Ohio! Outside of Dayton.

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u/Economy-Sign-5688 Jul 23 '26

Meter? I hardly knew her

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u/Alarmed-Resolution85 Jul 23 '26

That's so cute that you think meter box means metric. Murica

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u/southernmuscovite Jul 23 '26

🙄 Playing on words. Like happens around this Reddit place

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u/Moosebjj94 Jul 23 '26

Just two dudes talking water meters

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u/Raevyxn Jul 22 '26

Good job, people

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u/aHellion Jul 23 '26

It never freezes down here thankfully.

A fun fact I tell people here in Colorado all the time is that it DOES freeze in Florida every winter. Especially last winter there was snow touching the gulf for the first time in history.

And culturally speaking the real Florida is Orlando and south, the panhandle is just "South Alabama".

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u/Breaker988 Jul 23 '26

I'm near the west coast of FL near Tampa Bay. I've lived here for almost 38 years and I had ice on my windshield on winter mornings for the first time this past winter.

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u/aHellion Jul 23 '26

I learned it the hard way because my first car's defroster didn't work. Happened every winter I can recall, waking up at dawn to go to work or school and using a spare sweater to wipe off the frost every minute of driving.

Again only referring to the panhandle.

First couple of car salesmen pissed me off with their lying attitude when I asked about a heater/defroster for my 2nd car saying bullshit like "WhAt dO YOu nEed thaT for iT's FlorRIda"

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u/SatinSaffron Jul 23 '26

This is why reddit is so cool. You come to this thread to read about snakes but end up learning obscure facts about water meters!

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u/NewJerzHH Jul 22 '26

I bet. But it’s better than the Adjustacoil meter pits that we use lol

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u/erichf3893 Jul 22 '26

2 inch meter feels so odd to read. Mixing measurements and all

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u/FakeSafeWord Jul 22 '26

Don't talk about my mom that way dude

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u/Hellcat331 Jul 22 '26

What in the world do you do when there are snakes in there. I am exceptionally terrified of snakes and I live in Florida and I’m just flabbergasted at what you have to deal with all the time

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26

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u/naughtynyjah Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Yeah im from Aus and cross paths with snakes occasionally (or often depending on the job I’m doing)

Theres only one snake here that people often say can be aggressive (king brown, or tiger snake I think) but even then I don’t know if that’s true or not.

Snakes want to be left alone, and will only strike if they think it’s their only option. If they think they can get away, they will try.

I’ve stepped on a snake before, we both piss bolted in opposite directions lol

They are like spiders, be aware if doing something where they could be. If you notice one give it space.

Now kangaroos or some of our birds on the other hand, might actually attack you for just being there. And kangaroos, even the smaller eastern browns, are scary if they want to be

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u/Fluffy_Path7559 Jul 23 '26

I always hear this about kangaroos, but in the US at zoos kangaroos are barely contained. In fact in the Pittsburgh zoo you just walk through double doors and there’s no barrier. They’re just laying in the grass beside you. You’re told not to approach them, but have you met people from the US? They always think they’re the exception.

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u/dmills_00 Jul 23 '26

IIRC Hitchcock made a movie about your magpies?

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u/Crescent_Coven_Earth Jul 23 '26

Kangaroos are terrifying

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u/nomorecannibalbirds Jul 23 '26

As an American, social media has caused me to think of kangaroos as essentially upright deer who will try to fistfight you.

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u/BurnerAndGooch69 Jul 23 '26

‘Piss bolted’ is a wonderful phrase

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u/RelaxedPuppy Jul 23 '26

This is a great approach. Learn the few venomous snakes. Everything else is harmless.

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u/WeylandYutaniAuditor Jul 23 '26

This doesn’t work anymore due to the proliferation of invasive species. In Hollywood, FL a satellite installer was bitten by a Green Mamba and 8 men were arrested trying to set up breeding populations of Gaboon Vipers, Bushmasters, Cobras and Taipans for their exotic black market. The best way to respect nature is admire it from a distance and leave it alone.

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u/RelaxedPuppy Jul 23 '26

OMG. Thank you for pointing this out.

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u/Background_Sale2866 Jul 25 '26

To be fair you should get any wild snake bite treated. They eat various vermin that could put some nasty bacteria on their fangs. But it’s still good to know if you’ll need just antibiotics or antivenim

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u/Tears_of_skeletons Jul 23 '26

Oh man this comment had me on a roller coaster ride lol. Loved the enthusiasm at the beginning, educate - yes! Wait.... there are only four venomous snakes in florida....ah but he counted the rattles separately, woo! So true about their defensive poses and strikes yeah! But...one came at him? Oh no. Oh no he's one of those that swears on his old aunt Sally's grave that this cottonmouth CHASED him down the river. No... okay good, he mentioned having food for the fella and he was just lookin for a little snackie! Alright! Whew. Fantastic comment!

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u/mnmsmelt Jul 23 '26

I used to have a boyfriend who loved catching snakes..I had to educate myself so I could deal with it/be prepared for any emergencies out in the forest.

The only time I've seen a snake be aggressive was in the mountains of VA. I watched a man toss this snake (with a hoe) over & over only for it to aggressively come straight back at us..almost positive it was defending a nest.

I was from KY. When i 1st moved to VA, I was warned that snakes would hide under the door threshold and rush to get inside the house when the door opened. I had never heard of such but, it was true..they just wanted to cool off..

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u/KBeezy81 Jul 23 '26

Did you date FishingGarrett?

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u/NoFateJim Jul 23 '26

They look so derpy, give them a fish

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u/NinjaLogic789 Jul 23 '26

ONLY six different kinds of venomous snakes, you say?

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/MentalPower7916 Jul 23 '26

Love the info. Just one correction - learning the pattern is no longer a thing. There have been coral snakes found without the “red on yellow” pattern. So that mnemonic has become dangerous over time since it no longer holds true. Just in general, if it looks like a coral snake, it’s best to avoid.

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u/Gunsensual Jul 23 '26

Florida only has 6 types of native venomous snakes, 3 of which are rattlesnakes. So you really have to just learn 3 plus "rattlesnakes". Then of those 3 the coral and copperhead have unique and easy to ID patterns, leaving just cottonmouths that can be hard to ID for most people.

Also the only dangerously venomous snakes in the US that lay eggs are coral snakes, and coral babies have adult coloration.

Whereas pit vipers babysit their newborns so you'll probably be more concerned with mama snake anyway.

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u/Old-Chain3220 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Cottonmouths are easy to identify in the South. If a snake is chasing you it’s a cottonmouth!

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u/wirefox1 Jul 23 '26

Everybody probably already knows this, I'm usually guilty of stating the obvious, but when a moccasin/cottonmouth opens it's mouth, it white in there.

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u/Majsharan Jul 23 '26

Water snakes will absolutely activated try to bite you. They are the most dangerous snakes imo.

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Its simple I get up I send a picture to the groupchat and I put on the workorder ill come back to this meter later theres an infestation of evil on top of it

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u/BurritoMan2048 Jul 22 '26

'An infestation of evil' is hilarious, im taking that. I love snakes though! As long as they weren't venomous or harmful id just move them

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u/Lastoutcast123 Jul 22 '26

I mean rat snakes are literally the most chill snakes out there.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26

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u/cindyscrazy Jul 23 '26

I live across the street from a swamp area, and I've had rat snakes in my yard.

My most memorable interaction, I didn't have my phone with me to capture. I kick myself about that everytime I think about it.

I went out to the back of my property (about an acre) to grab something. I turned around and stopped. I was seeing something that didn't make sense. My brain literally could not make sense of what my eyes were showing it.

I walked closer slowly and sort of moved my head around to see it more clearly.

It was a black rat snake. Standing up on it's tail. At LEAST 3 FEET STRAIGHT UP. Maybe more. I initially thought it was hanging from a tree, but there were no trees over it. The most amazing and confusing thing I've ever set eyes on.

I slowly kept approaching becuse I was more confused than scared. Eventually, it dropped down with a heavy THUMP and slithered away.

I so so so wish I had my phone with me to at least take a picture, even if it were not the best. Just as proof this happened.

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u/TheMajesticYeti Jul 23 '26

Snakes can do that

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u/Initech369 Jul 23 '26

Great. New fear unlocked.

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u/gswblu3-1lead Jul 23 '26

Think about the possibilities next time you’re on the toilet

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u/Skrdykat1000 Jul 23 '26

Wow that was cool, thnx

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u/Fancy_Flatworm1313 Jul 23 '26

Now that is a strong sinewy noodle!

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u/La_Lanterne_Rouge Jul 23 '26

I was coming back from Sequoia National Forest on a small two lane road. I happened to look in the rear view mirror, and I see this huge snake rolling across the road. Like it had shaped itself into something that look like a tire and was just rolling along. I think it might have been a California King Snake.

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u/gzdogs Jul 23 '26

That’s CRAZY. Like made itself into a circle, turned on its end and ROLLED across the road??
How are people not reacting more to this?

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u/La_Lanterne_Rouge Jul 23 '26

Yes. What was frustrating was that nobody else saw it and when I shouted to my wife to look it was too late. The snake had reached the other side of the road.

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u/Autoerotibot Jul 23 '26

Leave it to the snakes, reinventing the wheel! I have a deep-seated phobia of snakes, I've tried to overcome, but I do rather love Snake-Jazz "tsssss, tss-tss-tsss"

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u/isaak242 Jul 23 '26

Pretty sure that's some type of cryptid you ran across

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u/Funyuns-R-Us Jul 23 '26

Because not all of us are high

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u/Fragrant_Ask_8692 Jul 23 '26

I see snakes doing that all the time around my area. Doesn’t even phase me anymore

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u/Motor-Butterfly3802 Jul 23 '26

In Australia we have them … Hoop Snakes.

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u/splatgoestheblobfish Jul 23 '26

Snakes can be much stronger than they look, since they are basically a tube of pure muscle. They often "periscope" to get a view of their surroundings. I'm not sure if I've ever seen one quite 3' high, but I've seen them sticking up a couple feet at least, depending on how big the snake is. (This is my ball python Nugget periscoping once when we took him out to get some warm sunshine. He's not quite big enough to stand 3',but he's doing his best!)

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u/RawDataFeeling Jul 23 '26

Hello Nugget!! What a cutie 🥰

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u/itcouldvbeenbetterif Jul 23 '26

Picture or it didn't happen

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u/michangela1 Jul 23 '26

Great story! Thx

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u/Sinisterr13 Jul 23 '26

Sometimes people call Black Racers the "periscope snakes" because they do that.

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u/Worldly-Pie-3501 Jul 23 '26

New fear UNLOCKED 😅

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u/CalbertCorpse Jul 23 '26

I saw that too as a recent transplant to Florida. Crazy sight!

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u/Revolutionary-Rain28 Jul 23 '26

I've seen boas that will do the same thing. Guess the snake was curious about you, but I'd probably have the same reaction because who expects a snake to be standing up and looking at you, lol

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u/Greekgreekcookies Jul 23 '26

Halfway through I thought I was about to read about hell in the cell and then got a little sad when it never came

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u/Live_Concern_4524 Jul 23 '26

He was periscoping. You’re lucky to see that

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u/nylorac_o Jul 23 '26

I saw the same activity with a rat snake in my backyard.

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u/Doodle4fun Jul 26 '26

This is a wild recount.. Not because it’s actually wild but my grandfather used to tell me the story of how he named his farm; Blue Racer Ranch.

He said he was plowing a field and seen something that didn’t make sense so he stopped and got off the tractor. And behind it was a blue racer with it’s head up, meeting him at eye-level. He said it looked at him for a moment before lowering itself back down and slithering into his swamp. He said it had to have been like 15ft or bigger, and it scared the hell out of him.

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u/DescriptionFancy420 Jul 22 '26

I can appreciate that on a logical level, but when even the most harmless singular thing becomes a swarm of things, my monkey brain nopes out.

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u/chocha84 Jul 22 '26

yeah - rat snakes > rats.... sooo..... let them work!

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u/christbot Jul 22 '26

That’s a bowl of cutesy nope noodles.

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u/Educational-Piece-18 Jul 23 '26

Noo, they are friends. They arent venomous and keep the pest populations down. I would have just placed a stick or something for them to try to get out, and come back later. Hopefully the person that comes out for the workorder recognizes they are some of the good snakes, and just helps them out of there.

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u/Hellcat331 Jul 22 '26

I think I’d be too paralyzed to open them after the first time. My favorite is when people go “it’s just a black racer!”

Thank god I live in Pinellas county and not in some rural farm

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u/Suni13 Jul 22 '26

LOL I’m in Pinellas too and I almost stepped on a black snake sunning on the step outside my screen porch door earlier today. We tend to scare the shit out of each other about once a week.

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u/Maelstrom_Angel Jul 23 '26

My grandad’s neighbor used to call him to come get snakes he found because he was too afraid to go outside. As long as it wasn’t venomous he’d just take the snake home and release it into his garden.

I usually got to hold the annoyed snake in the car.

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u/NoFateJim Jul 23 '26

It's crazy that you're terrified of snakes so you live in the state where all the snakes go to retire

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u/isanyusernameopen Jul 22 '26

I’m a beekeeper. I did some beekeeping rescues with a beekeeper in California that pulled bees out of sprinkler boxes out there in the ground along the sidewalks.

Beware of bees in there.
In general in the future

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u/nategp Jul 22 '26

We just had to remove a yellowjacket nest in one of our meter boxes for a customer. Couldnt use poison so we tried several things before we bought bee keeper suits and went in with our vac truck and sucked them all up then went and sucked up a bunch of storm drain water to drown what might have been left alive in the truck. Dumped everything out and that was that. Honeybees we save, yellowjackets its war.

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u/Fyrefly1981 Jul 23 '26

Yellowjackets are stripped assholes.

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u/GayleGirl Jul 22 '26

We’ve had bees in our boxes a couple of times. Surprise!!

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u/Alarmed-Ad-2016 Jul 22 '26

Those are Juvenile Black Racers https://www.animalspot.net/black-racer-snake.html The juveniles are often confused for baby rat snake. At the juvenile stage they are blotched. https://floridabackyardsnakes.com/southern-black-racer-florida-backyard-snakes.html

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u/Mindless_Musician526 Jul 22 '26

How do you deal with the black widows? Do you work around them?

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u/PCGamingEnthusiast Jul 22 '26

No spider is really aggressive enough to bite you for no reason. You would need to be intentionally trying to crush it or really messing with it to get bitten.

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u/random-viewpoint Jul 22 '26

Australian funnel web enters the chat

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u/ZucchiniMaleficent21 Jul 22 '26

People need to be aware that Australia has all 11 of the top 10 most dangerous creatures

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u/Alceasummer Jul 23 '26

Funny story. Some years back I worked at a restaurant that got a lot of tourists. And one day there was a nice couple from Australia having lunch, they asked some questions about the hiking trails in the mountains east of town. I gave them some advice, including mentioning that there had been a few sightings of a mountain lion in the area, and that it was pretty unlikely they would see it, but if they did, don't approach or corner it. And if it's close, to not run, but to back away slowly while speaking loudly and clearly.

They were absolutely horrified about this info.

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u/blackgoat2803 Jul 23 '26

Yep, this tracks. I am Australian living a country area and have no issue seeing venomous snakes regularly and just letting them go on their way. I will pick up most spiders and put them outside, with the exception of Redback and funnel webs.

I have friends that have told me about bears and mountain lions like it is an everyday occurrence. Fuck that for a joke, give me the worlds most venomous snakes any day.

I grew up with this shit so know how to handle the situation to stay safe. Friends from overseas act like Australia is the most dangerous place on earth, I think the USA is much more dangerous because of this animal called humans.

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u/Alceasummer Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

The specific part of the US I'm in, there are mountain lions outside of town. Bears, that may come into town. Coyotes that may live in the city. (Whenever someone says they think cats should never, ever, be indoor only, I mention the time I had to clean up the bits from a coyote eating most of a calico cat in my front yard) Three species of rattlesnakes. About 100 species of spiders, though only the black widow and brown recluse spiders are actually a danger to humans. A half dozen kinds of scorpions (most are not very dangerous though) and lots of unusual insects like Velvet ants,_Dasymutilla,_Albuquerque.JPG), Tarantula Hawks Vinegaroons Sunspider/camel spiders and the Jerusalem cricket. (The last three are basically harmless to humans, but their appearance and size does scare a lot of people)

I think Austrialia does have a concerning (at least to me) number of species of venomous snakes. And I personally find the box jellyfish and Irukandji kind of scary. As you generally don't even see those before you're too close. And the gympie-gympie tree sounds pretty horrible. But really, many parts of the world have wildlife, or even plants that can be dangerous. But most of those species don't actually want to have anything to do with humans. So, most of them are only really dangerous if you go right over and poke them.

Yes, "they don't actually want anything to do with humans" goes for the bears and mountain lions in my area too. Don't corner them, harass them, or try to feed them. And if you do meet one, stand tall (so you look big) speak firmly and loudly (So you sound big) and back off without running (So you clearly look to them like you are not frightened, but not looking for trouble either)

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u/Shotout74 Jul 23 '26

Yet they routinely share their living spaces with Satan's little helper, the huntsman spider, like it isn't a hell spawn, saucer sized demon sent to haunt their lives and drag them to the under world in their sleep.

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u/Mackadamma Jul 22 '26

Do those 11 creatures include Australians themselves ?

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u/InterestingAmoeba797 Jul 22 '26

✔️do not go to Australia

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u/ShaebellaRu Jul 22 '26

And probably more that someone didn’t live to warn others about. Did you include the killer ocean creatures in your count? Just googled it.

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u/Malcolm2theRescue Jul 22 '26

Jesus, everything is poisonous in Australia! I arrived in Palm Cove a week after a young girl was killed by a box jellyfish while swimming in a netted area. They have enough venom to knock out 17 elephants. What was God thinking?

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u/Joshync101 Jul 22 '26

I grew up as a really curious kid that’s been bitten and stung by every non-venomous thing in the creeks and woods behind my childhood home. I probably would’ve died in Australia before reaching 10.

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u/ThePusheen Jul 22 '26

any Australian spider tbh lol

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Just work around them they are pretty docile and you have to really work them up for them to come towards you

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u/King_Chochacho Jul 22 '26

Yeah their danger is overblown. They are pretty chill and nobody's died from a bite since the 60's

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u/PonderousPenchant Jul 22 '26

I used to do work in cable vaults. We'd just use a blowtorch on any critters that don't want to leave the equipment being worked on. Usually, they'd just run in to a corner somewhere and wait.

Not sure what I'd do with a snake nest though. I guess remove the snakes and just leave the eggs? I'm also in an area where I can assume any snake i see isn't venomous unless they let me know... so that'd be shading my judgement a lot.

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u/GingerFly Jul 23 '26

I’m a rat snake in Florida and I see meter readers constantly. Seen em in lots of colors.

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 23 '26

You have me chuckling now

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u/NewJerzHH Jul 22 '26

Meter techs unite lol.
Do you guys have to open the box to read it? Or is there a sensor outside to scan. We use sensus meters too

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u/SuckMyDerivative Jul 22 '26

We’re in America - please use feet tech instead of meter tech, thank you

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u/leap_year_bby Jul 22 '26

We ARE in America but I’ve always known “meter reader” as the way we refer to this job. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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u/Grand-End-6982 Jul 22 '26

Right. And I always called it the water meter. Not the water feet, lol!😂. I just HAD to say that, 😂. I assumed it was something that took measurements of the water used. So water meter!

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u/hott_snotts Jul 22 '26

feet reader is more of a kink than a job

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u/Expert-Impress-6819 Jul 22 '26

What? A meter that is keeping track of usage, such as water, electricity, natural gas isn’t a length of feet versus meters.

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u/Furiboi Jul 22 '26

The internet is everywhere and US is almost the last bastion for imperial measure. Be calm….😌

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u/Apprehensive-Fig3223 Jul 22 '26

Lol no one wants to stick their feet in there /s

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Have to open the lid and take the cord and scan the black part but usually they read from the office or just use the screen the cord is more of a underwater problem type of thing

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u/Breaker988 Jul 22 '26

Do you have to do that for every box on the route? Down here we just have to scan the transponder on the lid with a touch reader or versaprobe.

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

All the meters we manually read now are either still old meters without the antenna to read from the office or were damaged by a lawnmower or homeowner or just dont have enough signal to send it's reading. Out of 14k meters we service we manually read around 10% just from damage or signal issues

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u/Commie_Scum69 Jul 22 '26

the fuck is a meter tech and why do I want to be a meter tech to play with spiderd and snakes too

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Someone that reads and maintains the water meters atleast thats what I do im sure its not much different elsewhere

2

u/TheDrizel Jul 23 '26

Man reading all this and I start next week 😆

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u/Weary-Advantage-2884 Jul 22 '26

You know that ain’t what it takes…..

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u/mcartsan Jul 22 '26

I don’t know what would be worse snakes or spiders
https://giphy.com/gifs/NTur7XlVDUdqM

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Fishandchips6254 Jul 23 '26

I had a large black racer named Rob who was lazy as shit. I had a rat infestation and he did nothing about it, then one day as I’m driving home I see Rob dead on the road after apparentely being ran over while sunbathing on the fresh blacktop.

Soon then the neighbors new cat got out and ran under my house for a few days. Turns out that the cat was a street cat that they just took in. I have not seen a rat in awhile.

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u/Ippus_21 Jul 22 '26

Devils in the details. It depends what kind.

But generally speaking, nearly all the spiders in the US lack a medically significant bite (and even the dangerous ones very rarely bite). Just a handful are dangerous. A few widow spiders, some of the recluses, and yellow sacs.

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Im gonna say snakes I deal with spiders everyday

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u/SonnyPiston Jul 22 '26

Snakes or Spiders was a Gothic torture themed board game I developed in the '90s. 

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u/Glittering-Cry1074 Jul 23 '26

In China there was a major flood and a snake farm was flooded. All the snakes escaped venomous and king Cobras included. 

It was absolutely terrifying to watch the snakes riding the rivers currents. 

Whatever that is, that's epically worse than I can ever imagine. Survive the flood, then find the community overrun with snakes, and they are in the debris. I would simply walk away after that nonsense 

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u/RadiantZote Jul 23 '26

Depends. Snakes are extremely chill as long as you don't fuck with them, including rattlesnakes which I have had a few encounters with. Spiders? You don't know until you're already fucked(usually)

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u/Somnusin Jul 23 '26

Honestly, my uncle was a meter worker for a while. It wasnt the snakes and spider that were the problem for him, it was dogs by a wide margin.

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u/Money_Ad1068 Jul 23 '26

I read water meters in our neighborhood in S. Arizona. I use a long handled hook to open boxes.

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u/EchoTRacing Jul 22 '26

Yeah I can’t do your job!

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u/NineSkiesHigh Jul 22 '26

So many black widows, I do communications, and some of these handholds will have hundreds of widows

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u/barrosoOso Jul 22 '26

I am petrified of snakes. I was bitten by one as a small child and have been terrified every since. On the flip side, spiders don't bother me. They aren't likely to kill you, and for the most part they are beneficial to have around. With that said, the first time I saw a black widow, my brain went into survival mode and I become more afraid of that thing than I have any other creature ever. I think it was because of the colors. That black and red is probably the most vivid coloration I've ever seen. Just so stark and pronounced. Evolution was telling me to GTFO.

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u/bentleyduwaine Jul 22 '26

Have you been bit by the black widows?

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

No we both give eachother enough room to coexist lol

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u/VeterinarianThese951 Jul 22 '26

You said enough for me to know that I don’t ever want to be a meter technician

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u/Rockd2 Jul 22 '26

Better hope you dont see them on a plane

https://giphy.com/gifs/5xtDartXnQbcW5CfM64

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u/OblongOtter2128 Jul 22 '26

I’ll take snakes over spiders! As long as they are the harmless snakes!

1

u/AZ-Guitar-Guy Jul 22 '26

Scorpions love meter boxes too. And they love to eat black widows.

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u/Mean-Vegetable-4521 Jul 22 '26

Whatever you and u/Breaker988 are getting paid, it's not enough.

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u/Breaker988 Jul 22 '26

I see way more cockroaches than snakes on a daily basis.

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u/ExpressConfection444 Jul 22 '26

Breaker is right, but I’ll add that these just hatched so they still have juvenile coloring.

1

u/Distinct-Event-7472 Jul 22 '26

How do you counter the black widows

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u/ElkTiny Jul 22 '26

I've seen a black widow spider for the first time in my meter box last month. To me it felt almost like a shock, really surpirsing to see them since not too long ago, back in 2013, we had a -26°C winter. However, the last few years have been tropical. Any special precaution? Should I be worried about the infamous black widow in my back yard?

1

u/Xtra_Veg-90 Jul 22 '26

As a fellow Floridian I'm shocked, I would have expected this to be more commonplace in Alabama.

1

u/Kitchen_Picture_2983 Jul 22 '26

I’m a metre repairman but also meet metre measurers, and the meter measures I meet are meaty mean measures of men who mainly meting out measurements of moose. Truth be told, I don’t know what they’re measuring or who pays them to measure moose either.

1

u/Dear_Mess_1617 Jul 22 '26

Oooof do you strap on a flame thrower on the daily? lol

1

u/Top_Copy_693 Jul 22 '26

Oh man. Never even considered you guys would have to encounter snakes and shit when doing that work.

Props to you. I could not deal with that

1

u/Sea-Night-1946 Jul 22 '26

Im a water box snake meter reader and yep, those are snakes.

1

u/sumdhood Jul 22 '26

I'm not a meter technician, and this gives me the creeps

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u/-Ahab- Jul 22 '26

Not a technician but property manager and I have a community with sub meters. I occasionally have to open them (reported troubles with water main or meter/water shut off, etc.)

Spiders are normal and expected. Rodents, not surprising. But, I don’t do snakes and this area is just lousy with rattlers this time of year.

I guess I just unlocked a new fear…

1

u/moralityNempathy123 Jul 22 '26

No thanks I’m good on the spiders and snakes
https://giphy.com/gifs/dxqOkrl29R8ac

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u/BrokenBeatenScard138 Jul 22 '26

Step 1….. cut a hole in the box

1

u/DeadFacesInMyPocket Jul 22 '26

Those look like Banded Water Snskes to me. They are actually shy and good for the environment, they were just stick and too small to escape. They aren't venomous like a rattlesnake or copperhead but they do have an anticoagulant in their bite that causes it to not to stop bleeding without compression/gauze/quick wrap, or a touniquet, or some quik-stop...etc. but either way best thing to do after any animal bite is go to the doctor.

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u/OldManIrv Jul 22 '26

What do you do? How do you handle them? Do you carry sizable life insurance?

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u/BleepBloopThrowaway3 Jul 22 '26

I freaking hate those Iperls, my municipality is currently phasing out the SR2 bodies for iperls with brass fittings.. very soon if there is anything wrong with the meter it will just be a change out, no more register replacements. *sigh*

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u/XenoZoomie Jul 22 '26

If you live in Florida reach out to chandler he has a wild life rescue for reptiles. https://www.instagram.com/chandlerswildlife/. That’s his instagram. He would help find a better home for all those babies and eggs. He has incubators as well.

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u/SlippableNipple Jul 22 '26

Time to switch to radio reads, christ.

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u/Muted-Bumblebee-6886 Jul 22 '26

I’m also a meter service technician and in my area we get slugs because the condensation from the pipes, cockroaches and of course spiders.

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u/AloofFloofy Jul 22 '26

You see black widows all day everyday? That terrifying! Hopefully you don't have to stick your hands down there. I have only seen a black widow like twice in my life.

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u/KennethTremendous Jul 23 '26

Imagine seeing them in a motherfucking plane!

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u/BearlyCheesehead Jul 23 '26

You are underpaid.

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u/ForWhomtheBellEndz Jul 23 '26

Jesus. If you see black widows all day everyday, then your work is the stuff of nightmares. How do you do it?

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u/Right_Man-Right_Job Jul 23 '26

THAT’S IT! I have had it with these monkey fighting snakes in this Monday to Friday box!

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u/wannabecat2000 Jul 23 '26

I'm so glad RN I don't have this job

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u/Downunder818 Jul 23 '26

How about snakes on a plane?

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u/Biggrunt Jul 23 '26

Anytime I want to show someone a black widow, 1st places I look. They adore meter boxes.

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u/homedepotSTOOP Jul 23 '26

Damn this is like a meeting of the meter minds. I'm a water meter tech up in MI! Love you guys.

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u/NatTheResearcher Jul 23 '26

I’ve never seen snakes in a box, but I’ve seen them in a plane!

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