"Seeing that snake reminds me about the only good thing about Illinois and that is we only have one creature that is really fearful and that is the Brown Recluse Spider - and those bites are pretty rare."

Let's not leave out the Black Widow spider. Sure, most folks have indoor plumbing in Illinois, so they rarely have to carry a stick to the outhouse in order to dispatch those pesky webs, but the spiders are still around, waiting in random batches of undisturbed rubble, and in cinder blocks, and so forth.

A few other spiders are turning out to be good candidates for danger as well, though I don't know whether their range includes Illinois or not. (Scientists are reluctant to add new venemous species to the list of possible health dangers without plenty of evidence, and it took many years even to get the brown recluse recognized for the danger it poses.)

Also, don't forget about Copperheads. Now there's a nasty little pit viper that can ruin your day. You've also got water moccasins (cottonmouth viper) on the south end of the state.

And then there's Blago. Wow, what a piece of work. That guy creeps me out far more than any spider or snake ever did. The funny thing? He seems to be a live version of Mayor Quimby of The Simpsons, right down to the way he talks.

Herring405