Green Mojave’s are hard to kill

[jaxs]

Puff adder non-native, but non-venomous???

The discussion is about snakes native to the Americas and I am talking about;
Scientific Name: Heterodon platirhinos
Common Names: Eastern Hognose Snake, Puff Adder, Spreading adder, Hissing Adder
Geographic Range: Eastern Canada and United States
It isn't my nature to play Drama Queen by interjecting something from half way round the world.

 

[the old grind]

Are you selling tickets? Did you just refine a list of non-venomous snakes? Many adders are loose in America, as are pythons and petty name callers, Your Honor. Awww, did I muck up your thread? What's my sentence for getting your knickers in a bunch?

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Are you selling tickets? Did you just refine a list of non-venomous snakes? Many adders are loose in America, as are pythons and petty name callers, Your Honor. Awww, did I muck up your thread? What's my sentence for getting your knickers in a bunch?

Come on fellows; semantics. Hog nosed snakes are common in Oklahoma and Texas and are also called puff adders by a lot of folks. We don't have many cobras and other exotics in these parts; the most exotic think I can think of is that tough old China man, the Pheasant.

I know that Florida and some other states are troubled with escaped exotics ...like ancondas and boa constrictors...flourishing in the swamps and elsewhere.

 

[ponytug]

That's a problem with common names. I had never heard of a hognose being called a puff adder. The only puff adders I knew of were in Africa, and are highly venomous. (Britis aietans)

Learn something new all the time, thanks!

All the best,

Peter

 

[deserteagle71]

ALL rattlers are tough to kill. A couple years ago I inadvertently ran over one while driving down a narrow dirt road with my 4x4 conversion van - a rig weighing 8,000 lbs. I stopped and got out to check on it and it was obvious I'd run over the head as the jaw was askew from its normal position. The rattler was still full of fight, though. It wasn't about to retreat - just coiled and ready to strike. But I knew with its injuries it would not live long so I shot it to put it out of its misery.

Here in Nevada rattlers are just part of the landscape. If I come across one in the outback I leave it alone. If it is around human habitation, it dies. This one was on my deck 4 years ago:

The reason I kill every rattler I find around a house is this:

Kids running around, carefree and playing, shouldn't have to have suffer rattlesnake bites!

When they are hiding in the brush they are very hard to see - why I always wear proper boots when I'm out and about:

 

[ponytug]

@deserteagle71 Wow, that one at the house was an old one.

We do the same thing; house/barn, that is the end. It is also why we have outside cats to keep the lizard/rodent population down around the house so as not to lure in any snakes.

Out in the pasture, have at it. Anything to reduce the rodent population.

We have had horses bitten. The first time was no fun; IM penicillin twice a day, gangrenous tissue sloughing off, pieces of garden hoses ready in case his nose swelled much more. As best as we can reconstruct it, the rattlesnake had no rattles. After he was bitten, he hunted the snake down and kicked it pancake flat. We found the pancake. The second time, he had antibodies, so it wasn't so bad. He had a slightly swollen leg and we couldn't figure out why. A couple of days later as the wound matured, the two fang marks became obvious.

As I reached for a ground squirrel trap earlier this summer, there was a sudden hissing from the burrow. I leapt back, and then carefully maneuvered the trap out of the burrow to give the rattlesnake free hunting. I find it is easy to get blasé about having them around, and forgetting to look carefully this time of year when they have trouble sensing humans coming.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Jchonline]

I would have shot it, run over it, hit it with a shovel, lit it on fire, then thrown it in a volcano. Man I hate snakes!

Secret: The reason I live at 8600ft is no snakes...at all.

 

[plowhog]

Kids running around, carefree and playing, shouldn't have to have suffer rattlesnake bites!

I came the back way to my CA property last year to find a Honda civic askew on the narrow rural road with passenger door open. Male driver sitting in driver seat.

I stopped; whereupon a 2nd male approached my driver side with a live rattlesnake cradled in his arms. He asked if I wanted to get a close look at it and I said NO!

I slowly went past the Honda, asking the driver why his passenger had a live rattlesnake in his arms. The driver looked aghast and said his passenger saw it on the road and wanted him to stop. The passenger was worried the rattlesnake would get hurt-- so he caught it to release it away from the road. And within about 100 yards of my neighbor who has a 2 year old that plays outside every day .....

 

[Cougsfan]

In the Palouse I hardly ever see a snake, yet alone a rattle snake. When we lived in the Columbia River Basin we saw rattlers all the time. The majority of the snakes we saw were rattlers. Wasn't too unusual to see one up next to the house. I'd just take a shovel or a rake and sling it out in the sage brush behind the house. When riding horses it was not unusual to have the horses stop when they heard a rattler. (They could pick up the sound of a rattler quicker than we could). We'd just go around. I have never understood the average person's phobia over snakes. Rattlers aren't aggressive and will go out of their way not to bite you. They don't want to waste their venom on something they can't eat. I would bet most of the people that die from getting bit by a rattle snake got bit because they tormented the snake. More people die from bee stings in the US each year than from snake bites, yet people don't relish in cutting the heads off a honey bee. I am sure I will get flamed for this reply but that is my lifelong observation.

 

[deserteagle71]

@deserteagle71 I find it is easy to get blasé about having them around, and forgetting to look carefully this time of year when they have trouble sensing humans coming.

All the best,

Peter

I had a coworker many years ago...big guy, 6'3" with a really powerful build. But his body was kind of twisted, and he walked funny. One day I asked him why. He told me that when he was 18 years old he was walking through some tall sagebrush - and was bitten on the side just above the hip by a rattlesnake that was up in one of the bushes. He was very sick for a long time, and the venom destroyed so much muscle and some of the nerves in the area of the bite that it crippled him for life. Ever since I heard that I've been VERY careful when making my way through tall sage.