All things Snake - Boots to Bites

[STROIL]

We have copperheads and water moccasins in Illinois. I have a creek that seems to generate lots of both. Never been bitten, but I've seen a few slithering about and shot them right away. I REALLY am careful about looking under stuff before moving it, or lifting it up or reaching under it. Have found several very large copperheads that way. Luckily, the worst time, it was pretty cool out (like 45 degrees) so they were pretty dull-spirited from the cold. I carry a .38 with shot shells specifically for snakes. From 6-10 feet with good aim, one shot does them in. We also have black snakes and blue racers, both of which are not poisonous. I have shot a few of those before I was able to clearly see what they were. I kind of regret shooting them, as they are supposed to be great for keeping mice and rats down. If I can see clearly that it's just a black snake or racer, I won't shoot it -- but sometimes its hard to tell. Never have had any special boots or chaps, but I have thought about getting them for my kids.

 

[troutsqueezer]

In the California foothills we have rattlesnakes aplenty. You learn to live with them. You learn not to walk in the tall weeds, not to pick up or move rocks with your hands, not to pick up or move boards with your hands, not to reach into flower beds or anywhere you cannot see for two feet in all directions, you burn the diamond-shaped pattern into your brain so you can instinctively pick it out in bare dirt or coiled up next to your watering hose. You learn to look under and around your ATV, UTV and tractor before you approach them. After thirty years these actions are automatic.

I don't kill snakes. I pick them up using a snake handler's tool (Gentle Giant), put them into a box and relocate them down the road. They have a right to be here just as I do. If I chose to kill them it would have zero effect on the overall numbers of them in these parts, besides, they help keep the vermin populations down.

One time I had to relocate the same rattler three times. The first time I took him to the edge of the property and released him. He was back in the same spot the next day. Then I took him for a ride three quarters of a mile down the gravel road. He was back in the same spot the next day. Finally I took him two miles down to Folsom Lake and released him, never to be seen again.

The ones I am most leery of are the baby rattlers who don't have enough sense to stop pumping venom once they have bitten you.

I relocate around 7 to 10 snakes every season. If they are not in the immediate yard, I let them be.

BTW, I wear sandals everywhere I go (helps the plantar faciiutus), these are the same sandals I wear when I am welding and driving my tractor around.

 

[Larro Darro]

Here in NW Florida we have coral snakes, copper heads, cottonmouths, eastern diamond backs, ground {pygmy} rattlers, and I have even seen one canebrake rattler in our melon field about thirty years ago. I stepped on the canebrake rattler as a matter of fact, in my bare feet. I found out I could do the broad jump carrying two watermelons. I do try to wear shoes when I'm in tall grass. You hear of someone stepping on a cottonmouth and getting bit at least every couple of years.

Daddy got bit by a ground rattler when he was a boy. He was turning over old logs looking for fish bait between here and the river. They used the chewed tobacco on it. He was sick for a couple of days, but had no lasting ill effects. And he always looked before stepping from then on.

Three or four summers ago there were 8 large rattlers killed within a quarter mile of my crossroads. But I haven't seen any for the last couple of years. I don't kill snakes anymore. A snake has never cost me a dime, but rabbits, rats and mice have cost me thousands of dollars. They do not want to bite you. You are too big to eat. But the cottonmouth can be down right mean. I have had them come after me when I was in the swamps fishing. Back when I stayed in the woods more, I would search out the moccasins when fishing. They are doing it for a living, so you know there are fish around, or they wouldn't be there.

Larro

 

[Larro Darro]

This is what the canebrake looks like. They are a south Florida rattler. Don't know how that one got in my melon field.

 

[LJH]

Like Troutsqueezer, we have lots and lots of rattlesnakes and take all the same precautions. Last year I only saw four or five, some years we see many more and who knows how many we don't notice, eh? I hate to kill them too, but will (and have) to protect my dogs.

I wear boots everywhere, can't stand sandals or being barefoot but never tried snakeboots. I've seen them in the Cabela's catalog and wondered if they'd work.

 

[ArmyPair2]

For me last year seen 9 snakes that were 5 Timber's in my woodpiles and 4 Copperheads down by the creeks. In the last 4 years only killed one that was next to the house near the wife's garden but most of the time I leave them alone because they are part of the ego system. Around the house I keep the grass,weeds and brush cut back but when I am walking in the woods I try to make all kinds of sounds so they can get out of the way. When I do go out and about the first round in my chamber is what I call snake shot in 9mm

 

[bullbreaker]

Only wear snakeproof boots when hunting in sw/Fla. Around residential propertys though if I come across a stubborn venomous I have found that besides scatter gun best method of dealing with em is with a shoval (if one handy).
What I do is first give em a shoval full of dirt in face to distract and blind them, them wack em with shoval.
Most commom ones round these parts are cottomouths,pigmy rattlers, eastern diamondbacks.

pic 1 -coachwhip -I let those go.
pic 2-legless lizard (not sure if its even classified as snake) free pass for them also
pic 3-hognose -free pass
pic 4-eastern diamondback
pic 5-black snake/indigo -free pass
These and other species are all around here at any given time.

 

[Circle W]

With spring fast approaching, warmer weather will bring out the critters - snakes included. I thought this might be a good time to have a little Q&A to see if we could share experience(s) and perhaps learn something to help keep us all safe.

I know my property in northeastern Oklahoma, as for poisonous varieties, has Copperhead and Water Moccasin, although I've seen relatively few. I suspect there are Rattle Snakes but I've not had that pleasure. I wear 14" snake boots whenever I know I'll be in tall grass or in the wooded areas. I recently picked up an inexpensive 18.5" 20ga to keep handy in the field.

I'd like to hear: What do you wear for protection? What wisdom can you share from maintaining your property. equipment & barns? Have you done anything to try and reduce snake problems in your yard? Have you been bitten (even more than once?) and, if so, by what and what was your treatment and recovery? Have your boots or chaps been "tested?" Do you have a favorite firearm/caliber that you carry for snakes? And, there must be much more that I don't even know to ask.

Please chime in and educate this city boy turned country

Howdy neighbor!
Sounds like you are prepared to me, snake boots and a 20gauge are a pretty sound defense to me
You may have rattlesnakes around your area, I know we do here but the terrain in your neck of the woods is defintely different than mine so I'm not positive. If you do, they will be timber rattlers. I've also heard them called canebreak or velvet tail rattlesnakes as well. Luckily I've never had to deal with a bite, because I'm a good distance from the nearest hospital! They are a very neat looking snake to me, they have a distinct pattern. But it does give me chills walking up to it, even when it's headless

 

[farmer2009]

Your hognose looks different than ours. Killed one last year in flower bed as upon first look thought he was a copperhead. He was same color. After killing him realized he was a hognose. I leave non-venomous snakes alone unless laying on steps or porch. Then sorry to close.
Killed a copperhead first year we were here in hayfield. Pulled up on him with front tractor tire and "did the twist". Copperheads like it quiet as I haven't seen any since getting cattle. We have cottonmouths (mean) and rattlers. Rattlers aren't that plintiful though.
I always wear 8"boots and blue jeans or the firehose pants from Duluth trading. Carry a stick or shotgun and try to keep a dog with me. Also use a stick or hoe to turn over boards or tin during warm weather.

 

[delgra]

Here in Eastern Ontario we are not known for snakes on the ground just the ones in Parliament. My neighbor, the MD, tells me most snake bites are on the hands. Maybe from retrieving golf balls in Florida? Our most dangerous things in the woods are widow makers and black flies and mosquitoes in the spring. Ride on dudes!