Senior Meter Technician Scott Ringener knows that when spring weather has sprung, he’ll be sharing his work space with more than just other Oncor employees.

Take last year, when Ringener drove to a substation north of Midland, Texas to check a meter. He pulled his truck just alongside a barbed-wire fence by a dusty pasture of mesquite and cactus.

“I walked around the truck and lo and behold, he was right there, stretched out at the front of the truck,” Ringener said. “He” was a 3-foot-long diamondback rattlesnake.

“You watch your step when you’re out in places like that,” he said.

In the great outdoors across north Texas, snakes, spiders, wasps and more critters that bite and sting are stirring, stretching their wings, legs and fangs.

Oncor employees like Ringener who work outdoors have all crossed paths with their share of slithering and crawling creatures.

“It just can’t help but startle you,” he said. “We scared each other at about the same time. I kind of jumped and he coiled up instantly. I watched him for a little bit. I thought, ‘He’s not going to move as long as he sees me.’ ”

So Ringener edged back into his truck and waited and watched until he saw the rattler slink back to the pasture.

In his 31 years with Oncor, Ringener said he’s come across rattlesnakes a half-dozen times. “You’ve got to be on your toes,” he said. “This is the time of year when the snakes are really active.”

Keep your hands out of dark places

Oncor Safety Analyst Patricia Ortiz said field employees are trained regularly about working outside and the possible dangers that lurk in the grass, beneath old boards and piles of leaves, and even around Oncor equipment.

“Field employees are aware to never put their hands, feet or arms anywhere where you can’t see,” Ortiz said. “If you have to walk through high grass, use a stick to brush or move the grass in front of you. And be sure to walk around piles of debris, tree stumps and logs. Don’t step over them.”

Ortiz said if you see a snake, slowly step back and let it pass. Don’t try to touch it. Poisonous spiders, like the black widow, lurk in dark, secluded and protected areas like boxes, firewood, below-ground water meters, corners, closets, basements and areas filled with clutter.

When it’s warm, scorpions become more nocturnal. Wasps are busier in the spring and summer. If you see one, remain still and protect your head and face. If you have to run, do so in a straight line without waving your arms.

A bite to remember

Ortiz said that in recent years, a few employees have been bitten by spiders or stung by wasps, but no one has suffered a snake bite, although a few have come close.

Doctors believe a black widow bit Journeyman Lineman Daniel Chandler, of Tyler, Texas, while he was putting away his gear after working on a pedestal. He thinks the spider crawled from the pedestal, onto a pair of gloves and then bit his right hand.

“I didn’t think much of it at the time because I’ve had lots of spider bites,” Chandler said. But within about four days, he could barely move his index finger. A local doctor told him to go to the hospital.

“They said if I didn’t do anything about it, I was going to lose the finger or my hand,” Chandler said. So doctors operated that day, leaving an open wound that Chandler had to treat with iodine-soaked gauze several times a day.

Today, Chandler’s hand is fine, but he stays on the lookout for spiders.

Last year, a wasp stung Journeyman Lineman Johnny Duncan of Waco, Texas, while he was working on a pedestal in a residential area. The wasp flew out of the pedestal and inside his shirt, stinging Duncan on the abdomen.

“It swelled up,” Duncan said. “It was painful. I would tell people to definitely slow down and take the time to look around.”

Snake at home in Oncor cabinet

Scotty Vickers, a Transmission Patrolman in Wichita Falls, Texas, knows all about close encounters with snakes. In late April, he had an unpleasant surprise at the Pleasant Valley substation when he opened a breaker cabinet.

Curled up near the top of the cabinet was a 3-foot-long Texas rat snake, which is non-poisonous. After Vickers alerted his supervisor and dispatch office, the snake was safely removed.

Vickers has seen a few snakes on the job. “I’ve got one substation I’m heading to now and we’ve seen lots of rattlesnakes in the area,” said Vickers, a 30-year employee. “You’ve got to be careful. I came across one that was 4 feet long one morning.”

He said snakes often get up against a slab, a fence or a building. “You don’t want to be kneeling down somewhere without looking and kicking around,” Vickers said. “You just got to keep your eye out for that kind of stuff.”