Creating a Lake

[caver]

What I think is a black rat snake at my place Labor Day weekend.
I measured him out at about 5.5 feet plus.
http://caver.smugmug.com/photos/157348225-M.jpg
Possibly its mate the previous day going after barn swallows.
It was only about 3.5 feet long
http://caver.smugmug.com/photos/157348190-M.jpg

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you everyone!!!!

Steph did a bunch of online searches for cotton mouths and water mocisins without finding any good matches. We didn't think it was a cotton mouth because we didn't see any fangs, and it's belly was too white.

After doing a google search for black rat snake, we don't have any doubts that's what it was. This is a HUGE relief for Steph as she was terrified that the kids might have come across a poisonous snake and never seen it.

The kids are 10 and almost 7, which means they lack common sense and don't pay attention to what they are doing, or where they are going. WE realize that anything is possible out here, but it's still a relief to know it wasn't dangerous.

Thank you.

Eddie

 

[RobJ]

The kids are 10 and almost 7, which means they lack common sense and don't pay attention to what they are doing, or where they are going.

Don't count the young ones totally out. My son spotted 2 copperheads one year while setting up and checking feeders. One was about 2' to my side. He was about 8-9 years old and not very tall. I guess if you are 4' tall or less you see the world differently than my 6'2". Same kid at 18 is aproaching 6' these days...

See snakes...kill snakes is my motto...sorry.

 

[patrick_g]

Don't count the young ones totally out. My son spotted 2 copperheads one year while setting up and checking feeders. One was about 2' to my side. He was about 8-9 years old and not very tall. I guess if you are 4' tall or less you see the world differently than my 6'2". Same kid at 18 is aproaching 6' these days...

See snakes...kill snakes is my motto...sorry.

Hope you don't mind the extra rat population you have and all the diseased fleas they carry and so forth. Tick larvae are hosted by rats. It is no big deal, they don't range too widely and most of the excess will be where the snakes are removed.

About spotting snakes... When I as about 13 and a friend and I were gathering up a mess of bull frogs for our two families to eat in a shared dinner, we were walking the edge of this one pond intent on discovering the location of a bullfrog we could here (sounded really big) but couldn't spot. Our dads were waiting off to one side and started pointing and hollering. We thought they had spotted the frog of interest so we looked at the part of the pond whee they pointed and edged back and forth some to try to get sight of it.

The real deal was that there was a huge cottonmouth right by us and we were practically walking on it while our attention was averted to the pond. Eventually we got the message and we both shot about the same time with our .22 single shot squirrel (frog?) guns. We were very fortunate that one or both of us didn't take a hit from that monster.

Pat

 

[EddieWalker]

I really like the Jaguar rat and mouse poison that they sell at Tractor Supply to keep down the population. Snakes can eat all the vermin they want away from the house, but around it, I'm using poison. When I saw that snake, one of the things I thought about was that I hadn't put any poison out in awhile. I figure the snake was here because there's food for it to eat. I've put out poison again and expect it to work pretty well at eliminating the food source. No food for the snakes, then no snakes.

Eddie

 

[patrick_g]

Eddie, One downside is collateral damage. Raptors, sitting there atop the foodchain tend to end up eating poisoned rats before they hide away and die. This is not a good thing for the raptors. Then you may be one of the old school who shoot all the birds of prey they can so poisoning them may be a bonus for you.

I have bought snake repellent in granular form by the gallon jug. It works pretty good and goes straight to the intended target. Doesn't kill them but makes them not want to be where the stuff is placed. Doesn't kill beneficial animals like rat eating critters who fly or slither.

Pat

 

[RobJ]

Hope you don't mind the extra rat population you have and all the diseased fleas they carry and so forth. Tick larvae are hosted by rats. It is no big deal, they don't range too widely and most of the excess will be where the snakes are removed.

I don't have a problem with them now. A few cats roam the area and might happen upon a meal. Or when we are up there my little mini dauchund will locate them. There are not many places to hide around our weekend place. I've got no problems with any rats in the fields. But ANY snake under my BH or FM, they make that mistake once. I'm at the top of the food chain around my place!!

 

[patrick_g]

I don't have a problem with them now.
I'm at the top of the food chain around my place!!

Only if you eat what you kill.

Pat

 

[Renze]

The company i work at is in a small industrial area. The place next to us used to be a waste and recycling business. It was taken over by a competitor last spring, and now the company is moved to the headquarters of the new owner, a few km away.

The waste service used to have a dog around, which was released between the fences over night, to keep rats under control.

Last month they cleared the whole area and moved the 2x2 meter big concrete plates on which the waste was stored. The whole area was channeled under by rats.

The last 2 weeks we saw skinny rats walking around, sometimes we find a dead one on the premises in the morning. The critters dont have anything to eat anymore since the waste is gone.

 

[Spiveyman]

Only if you eat what you kill.

Good point, perhaps more aptly put, Rob is at the top of the predator chain at his place. This is also a position I hold on mine, though I do tend to leave things alone that I don't expect will bother my 3 year old. If there's a doubt though, I don't have a problem taking care of the situation.

 

[patrick_g]

Spiveyman, There are, of course, differing degrees of tree huggerness. I, for one, do not have callouses on my chest from tightly embracing barked flora.

When in doubt, err on the side of safety. Rats carry disease agents and they too constitute a hazard to humans. Rats and mice are the majority hosts of ticks in the nymph stage and ticks are terrible spreaders of disease. Mosquitoes are the single most deadly disease carrier as regards human deaths. Mosquitoes can breed in a tiny little puddle and produce thousands of offspring in just a few days. Discarded tires are mosquito factories. If we are safety conscious we should try to rid ourselves of mosquito breeding grounds.

Insect born disease is less spectacular than snake bite but accounts for more deaths and disease by far than poisonous snakes. If you want youngsters to be safe in your area you need to consider the other threats also.

Of course draining a ditch, picking up old tires, or swatting a mosquito doesn't make for a good subject of macho posturing or doesn't make a very good Kodak moment as a picture of a dead snake but cold be as or more important in the long run.

Pat

We get much more emotional over snakes but they aren't the only danger to humans

 

[Spiveyman]

Patrick, Very good points there. As far as snakes go, my problem is ignorance, not being able to positively identify the good ones from the bad ones - by bad I mean poisonous. When I was a kid I caught a little round eye'd snake in the wood pile and kept it for a pet until I went to camp and my mom got rid of it. I think snakes are cool, but I knew that one was "safe." As varmits go I'd put rats way higher on my "need to kill" list, and probably mosquito's higher still. I get bit by mosquito's EVERY time I go out side, I've never seen a rat... well, ever come to think of it. And only seen a few snakes in my life, most of which were probably not poisonous. So bring back the DDT, whipe those suckers out. That eagle egg deal was a farse anyway right? The place where snakes trump mosquitos and rats are the thread of imminent death as opposed to a nasty drawn out death, and not being able to tell what is what. They need signs on their back, like all purple snakes are evil, all pink one's are OK. Either that or I just need to study up on them to figure out which kinds to make boots out of and which to leave alone.

 

[wushaw]

Funny thing about you guys bringing up snakes.

Friday night, I was laying out my air hose, to do some work Saturday morning, and noticed this guy on my side porch. It was just about dark out, but luckily I spoted him far enough away not to sceam too loudly!!

We're pretty sure it's a cotton mouth, but then, every black snake with a white mouth is a cotton mouth to me.

Anybody know for sure?

Eddie

I can't belive I missed this snake picture

Eddie you have killed the notorious Texas rat snake, very viscious to mices and rats.
He/she must have sniffed out a mouse/rat scent.
You have mieces and you will have more snakes unless you get rid of the mieces.

 

[patrick_g]

All this talk about snakes is attracting them! MY wife dragged me away from an important activity to look at a snake a couple feet up the side of the house. It was able to climb by using the mortar joints of the brick! It was about 14 inches long and two toned brown, just a baby as the adults are 30-40 inches. When I got really close to use my foor for a yardstick (its big but not really that big, my foot that is) the snake was terrified and went into hyperdrive trying to wriggle across the porch slab to get away from me. One day he may be eating rodents but he is a tad small for that now.

According to her snake ID book it is a Prarie something or other, harmless to people. It had none of the characteristics that make poisonous ID.

Pat

 

[RobJ]

Good point, perhaps more aptly put, Rob is at the top of the predator chain at his place. This is also a position I hold on mine, though I do tend to leave things alone that I don't expect will bother my 3 year old. If there's a doubt though, I don't have a problem taking care of the situation.

Correct, wonder of Patrick has eaten squirrel? IE Rat with fuzzy tail.

Many forget the X-Y factor. So far my wife can handle the small brown scorpians we see around the place, mostly dead because I posion, some alive. But if it becomes a habit of seeing 4' rat snakes every weekend she's up then that's not good for me either!! Heaven forbid if a snake ever made it in the house.

 

[wushaw]

RobJ, your in Houston....when I lived in Humble, Cleveland and New Caney I found more snakes in that area than anywhere else I have lived, I found one coral snake and several copper heads in Humble, rat snakes in Clevland and Copper heads, rough green snakes and rat snakes, Hog nose both western and eastern variteys in New Caney and most were in the yard.

The Houston area is just chock full of snakes of many different spieces.

 

[CTW]

Hey Eddie,

Sorry if I missed it earlier in the thread, but did you install a windmill to pump what into your lake?

 

[EddieWalker]

CTW,

No windmill. I thought about it, and looked into it, but for the money, I just didn't see the advantage to it. They are thousands of dollars to buy, plus the price of digging a well deep made it hard to justify considering how much water I'd get, versus what I lose to evaporation and what it costs in gasoline to just pump it in from the creek.

Once it started raining, my lake filled up really quick. When I'm done with the changes I'm making to my land with roads and pastures, I'll increase my watershed quite a bit. That will give me even more water when it rains.

As it is, I spent half a year not being able to mow below the spillway due to the constant flow of water out of the lake. Right now, I need to get my 6inch pipe overflow operating and then build a cement dam across the earthen spillway to get as much water through the pipe as I can.

The cement dam will only be about two to 4 inches high, but it's goint to be level and profide my foundation for my bridge across the spillway.

Eddie

 

[patrick_g]

Correct, wonder of Patrick has eaten squirrel? IE Rat with fuzzy tail.

Many forget the X-Y factor. So far my wife can handle the small brown scorpians we see around the place, mostly dead because I posion, some alive. But if it becomes a habit of seeing 4' rat snakes every weekend she's up then that's not good for me either!! Heaven forbid if a snake ever made it in the house.

Rob, I haven't shot any squirrels lately but have eaten plenty of them in previous years. The only wild animals I have harvested in last 10 years is bunny rabits, cotton tails who were eating my wifes lettuce and such. Boy, the young ones about 3/4 to 7/8 grown are tender and tasty.

We have red squirrels that get run over around here all the time (not too bright even with natural selection at work) as well as Bob White quail and bull frogs all of which I used to hunt for food but none of these are in sufficient quantity on my land to harvest, just barely enough to listen to and watch.

Too bad I don't care for raccoon as there is a considerable surplus of those. I have eaten rattlesnake but never tried any other species. At Chinese buffet I have been known to call one of the entrees rat on a stick (probably isn't rat.)

Pat

 

[Bird]

Pat, did you skin out the squirrels' heads and cook them, too? One little bite of meat on each cheek, then open the skull to get the brains. I've read in recent years that such a practice has had dire health consequences in some cases, but it was common practice when I was a kid.

I've eaten barbecued racoon on several occasions and found it quite tasty, but the first time was when I was teenager, and my Mother found the aroma of it cooking to be repulsive and said she'd never cook another one.

And as for the Chinese buffets, that's currently mine and my wife's favorite place to eat out, but I really don't care much for the texture of octopus and squid; kind of like chewing rubber.