Snaaaake!

[dmccarty]

Anyone notice Eddie has not said anything in this thread?

We had a black snake climbing our brick at the house. Thankfully it was on the OUTSIDE of the house! I'm sure he was looking for a way into the house but he never found it....

As far as I know. There was one place he could have gotten behind the brick but he never got that far. That day. That I know of.

I have told this story before but its still funny/scary.

When where where looking for land there was a property that had a house that was about 100 years old. In pretty good shape. On a section of land next to the house was a power pole, well, and well house. Looks like they had a trailer there years ago. We where very serious about this place so on one of our visits I walked over to look at the old trailer site. The well house was just a box with metal roofing as the siding and roof. The box was something like 6'x3' by eye level high. The box had a lid that opened up.

So I opened it up. And as I did so, enough light spilled into the dark box for me to see the guick, slithering movement of something long and black. About six inches from my face!

I dropped the lid ASAP. I DID NOT shriek like a little girl. Or at least nobody heard me. I DID have to throw away the Fruit of the Looms. It took a few minutes for my heart to regain its place inside my chest.

I DID NOT open the box again. I left Pandora inside.

Later,
Dan

 

[N80]

Three short snake stories:

1) Hunting down on a plantation near Charleston. Early fall. I'm about 16. This place is full of rattlers. Walking along, see a snake a few feet away, makes me jump a little. Looks black. No big deal. Then it starts rattling and I really do a quick two-step to get away. Once I get a safe distance away, I see that it is a black snake but he's buzzing his tail in the dry leaves! Many non-poisonous snakes will do this as a bluff. It works.

2) Years later, same place, same time of year. I'm up in a low ladder stand. I hear something coming in the leaves about twenty yards away. Its a huge snake moving through the grass with his head up above the leaves and stuff. But, it has an enormous, freakishly large green head! On either side of its head are long floppy antenna with little feelers on the ends. As you can imagine I'm starting to get a weird, Twilight Zone sort of feeling. Is it an escaped cobra? But what about those antenna? He isn't coming toward me so I can't see him well so I get out the binocs to take a look.

What on earth was it? A huge black snake with an equally huge bullfrog in his mouth with the back legs flopping around on either side!

3) We were trying to sell our house in Charelston. We had a serious buyer looking the place over when he encountered my son's 5' long and very realistic looking rubber snake on the back walk. Talk about screaming like a little girl! He sounded just like a woman screaming. He was so embarassed. So I tell my son to get the fake snake of the walkway and put it away somewhere. About 10 days later the same buyer comes by for another look. He comes around back and again, we hear the same feminine shreak! My son had put the snake away in the crepe myrtle tree hanging menacingly down over the walkway.

The guy bought the house!

 

[waynokakid]

Snake p0rn!

BAN EM!

"Don't look Ethel!"

 

[jbrumberg]

You guys are lucky. I have not seen a Black Racer in years . They can be aggressive , but that is part of the fun of trying to catch one . I am a 12 year old trapped in a 55 year old body . Jay

 

[Sigarms]

Well since we're on snake stories My funniest.

Kayaking the Gauley river, and a river guide has a plastic snake that he's using to scare people in the raft. Funny as all heck, and I go paddling up to the guy and ask him if I could use his plastic snake for a prank on my other buddy paddling with me. The guide is hesitant, and he tells me it's his favorite, BUT as long as I take good care of it, he'll let me borrow it for a couple of minutes.

Well, I paddle up to the raft, get his snake, and put it on my boat and go paddling up behind my buddy. I get about 10' behind him (keep in mind, we're both in kayaks on the river), and I hollar out to him to look out that a snake is right behind him. I then throw the rubber snake at him (my buddy) and he turns around looking at the snake in mid air coming at him.

Well, the snake lands about 4' off his stern, hits the water, and SINKS like a brick. All this time the raft guide is watching along with everyone else in the raft.

I look at the guide and all I could do was say I was sorry, and then bought him another one.

I would of thought he would of told me that darn snake didn't float.

Yes, not a "real snake story", but a funny one at least to myself.

 

[texasjohn]

waynokakid... hmm... if I couldn't see enough of the tail to convince me differently, I'd swear that the bottom snake is a timber rattler... but, I guess not or you would have mentioned it.

 

[plowking]

Last week, I was dumping my truck at the receiving area of local treatment facility, I have septic business, anyhow, I was standing near tall grass next to manhole cover, the grass moved under my feet. I was standing on a black snakes tail, I moved quickly. The plant has since had the grass mowed, but not because of my encounter. plowking

 

[waynokakid]

waynokakid... hmm... if I couldn't see enough of the tail to convince me differently, I'd swear that the bottom snake is a timber rattler... but, I guess not or you would have mentioned it.

Tex, we do have timber rattlers around here. But they are rarely seen. I have a closer picture of their heads and the eyes are not cat like, or they don't have the pit behind the eyes. Those snakes are what we call King snakes or salt and pepper black snakes.

 

[texasjohn]

Yep, rather rare:
Today, every state inhabited by timber rattlesnakes has laws protecting the species, including Texas. In Texas, it is listed as a threatened species. This means that people cannot take, transport, have in their possession or sell timber rattlesnakes.

 

[tallyho8]

While I was reading this thread, my Blueticks started barking and I went to see what they were barking at. This is what I found. I am afraid they injured him so I just removed him from the kennel and set him aside and got a photo. Do you know what kind he is?