InDefenseofPlants on Instagram: "We interrupt your regular botanical content to sing the praises of snakes like this timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). I recently read some research that indicates timber rattlesnakes are really important for controlling disease-spreading ticks. A study from 2013 by Kabay and others showed that, by eating mice and other small mammals, a single rattlesnake can remove 2,500-4,500 ticks from an environment annually. I know a lot of people aren't a big fan of sn