1st Diamondbacks of the new year

[getut]

I've never been bothered by snakes. Spiders have always been the traditionally spooky thing for me, but ever since moving to our REALLY rural place now... having a 5 year old boy and a goofy dog. Its a different story. 2 of my 3 copperhead encounters last year really got my attention.

1) Out feeding the dog with the last little bit of light leaving. Me and the boy were sitting there just outside the garage on my trailer watching the dog eat. My boy got up and headed toward the garage to get in his battery powered 4x4 jeep and back it out in the driveway. Just as he was swinging his legs in the jeep I saw something move underneath it. Yep. Soon to be dead copperhead.

2) Me and the boy and the dog were walking down the driveway to get the paper. We all three walked within 3' of one laying on the concrete driveway. Child and dog were more hurt when I slapped them back toward the house in just about a single motion than they ever were by the snake.

 

[DougM]

((I have never in my life actually had 1 come to me. And I've been around them for going on 40yrs now. ))

Well all I can say is move to southern Ohio and you will find Black snakes and they will chase you and they can get up to 10 feet long..
DougM

 

[Panache]

If you have King snakes in your area make friends with them. They think rattler and c'head are tasty. I have about 3 on my place along with several pine snakes. As long as I can identify it as non-posionus from a distance it lives. If it supprises me-up-close-and-personal it is history. My 38 cal american express does them in. Every non-posionus snake I let live is eating things the bad snakes want.

 

[Golfgar4]

How timely is your post?

I was talking with my daughter last night, and she was telling me how sad she was. Apparently earlier in the day, a dear friend of hers who now lives in Australia was out walking with her dog. I don't know the breed of dog, but I think it may have been a Black Lab.

Anyway, as they were walking, they came across a poisonous snake (don't know what kind) that apparently became upset about the intrusion. The snake was preparing to attack when the dog went after it to protect it's owner. The dog was bitten during the attack. I don't know what happened to the snake, but my daughter's friend rushed the dog to the vet, where it was given the anti-venom. Unfortunately, the dog suffered some type of negative reaction to the anti-venom and died a short time later.

We've never had to worry about snakes in my area. But once we start to travel, and will be in many different areas where snakes are more prevalent, I've thought about what we'll need to do when we'll be out walking our Yorkie. She's so darn friendly with everybody and everything, she'd want to play with the darn thing instead of run away from it! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[ByronBob]

Picture me as Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom.

Snakes, I hate snakes................

 

[EddieWalker]

Last year when I was still married, I was watching TV one evening. Our cat was bringing leaves in one at a time through the doggy door. Each trip would only take a minute or two.

I noticed she was limping all of a sudden, but acting normal, the next trip in she was limping allot worse. I picked her up and saw that her front foot was swelling up. I showed my ex, the foot was swelling as we looked at it.

She called the vet, who said it sounded like a snake bite. She took the cat to the vet for treatment while I went snake hunting. I never found the snake.

The vet had three other snake bite victims that night, all cotton mouths. The bill was around $300 give or take.

A couple months later the cat disapeared. She was fearless and we figured she got bit again and didn't make it back.

 

[DUMBDOG]

In the last fifteen years, we must have been on the road at least a year traveling, either on the motorcycle or motorhome. We have run across a total of three snakes, a rattler in Wyoming that tried to stay away from everyone and was at least a hundred feet away, easy to see due to lack of vegitation. One that would could not tell what kind it was crossed about two feet in front of us in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The third was last night while cleaning up a tree that was blown down by the hurricane. The wife was picking up a palm leaf that was under the tree and out from under it came a four foot black snake. The snake went towards the house, do not know if it is still there under the bushes or not. It surprised her and I did not get to see it as it moved that fast. The black snake is not posinious but she did not know that. She does not like snakes and I am worse than she is.

The best advice to avoid them is stay out of the brush and you will hardly ever see one. Back in ND all we have is garden snakes, so down here in Fl it is a little different with six kinds of venomous snakes and 39 other kinds that will just scare the crap out of you.

 

[Golfgar4]

Dave,

I don't need 39 types to scare me......one will do it! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

DO NOT LIKE SNAKES!

Thanks for the comments, though. I expect that we'll be walking in well traveled areas (footpaths, roadways, sidewalks, etc.) and won't be spending a lot of time in the brush. Like I said, I'm more concerned for our dog than I am for myself.

 

[Marine1]

Traveling in the well traveled paths won't guarantee that you won't see a snake. Many snakes will sun themselves on roads and paths as the dirt or rocks will gather the heat better than the grasses will. I have run across 10 dangerous snakes in my lifetime and all but one was on a dirt road or path.
The point is, they can be anywhere so you must be aware of your surroundings in snake prone areas.
They can be nasty critters so let's all be careful out there.

 

[getut]

Its actually pretty funny. I assume when you say garden snake that you mean a garter snake.

There are MANY different types of garter snakes.. all non poisonous. But garters are probably one of the most ill natured snakes out there. Kind of like the chihuahua's of snakes. Not much bite but they sure think they have it.