Arkansas, If You Smell Cucumbers In Your Yard/Home, Better Run

Some smells are lovely, fresh flowers, rain, bread baking in the kitchen, sweet smells like cotton candy or chocolate, and springtime smells like honeysuckle or fresh-cut grass are wonderful. That's why the headline first caught my attention. "If You Smell Cucumbers, You Better Run?" Strap-in, we're about to learn something completely new, how the smell of cucumbers can be deadly. 

My wife and I call them "smell-goodies," those wax melts you buy at the store with all kinds of scents, some good, some not so good, depending on your tastes.

Personally, my favorites usually involve something fresh-baked like cookies or bread, or what I consider very refreshing scents like orange, lemon, or tangerine. I love fruity smells like mango and strawberries, or maybe the dreaded cucumber.

Cucumber is one of those very refreshing, eye-opening kind of smells, so to see a headline that is a bit scary throws me for a loop. How can cucumbers be dangerous?

The answer is, they are not. Other than making me gassy that is. But that's another story.

It's not the cucumber that's dangerous though, it's just the smell. If you smell cucumbers in your house or outside and you know there's no one slicing actual cucumbers anywhere near you at the time, you may be facing a critter that is very dangerous, even deadly.

Agkistrodon Contortrix

Better known as the Copperhead, the reason we say you better run is because when you smell cucumbers, you may have just stepped on it. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas describes them as pit vipers, one of 6 dangerous snakes that reside in the State. HouseDigest.com says when you startle, touch, or step on a copperhead they release a scent that smells like cucumbers. Rattlesnakes excrete this scent as well.

If you get bit by a copperhead or rattlesnake seek medical attention immediately.

If that smell is inside your house, you should probably call a professional, that is unless you consider yourself a "snake wrangler."

That's a hard NO from me, I'm calling someone who knows what they're doing. I'll just go back to eating cucumbers and getting gassy thanks.

Get our free mobile app