Help!!! Snake!!!!

Slamfire · Aug 2, 2005

( I know that a lot of people prefer to kill them on sight.
But all I will add is that if you kill off the snakes you will be eat up with mice.
And if you ever have a mouse/rat make a nest under the hood or your car/truck you will wish for that snake.
One rat/mouse can destroy an engine wiring harness in days.

Fred )

Not to mention a clutch, I just spent $900 replacing mine, the nest was built in the bell housing, and each time I stepped on the clutch the material got under the fingers, pretty soon the clutch plate and flywheel were too hot. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

SpeckuldTrout · Aug 2, 2005

I'm always amazed by how much fear and hatred snakes seem to generate in people. They don't "come after you" unless you are blocking their escape, they can't bite you "days after they're dead" (why would anybody be screwing around with an animal that's been dead for days anyway?) Fear wise, you might as well be _continually_ freaked out about getting West Nile Virus from the mosquitos breeding in your pond or getting Hantavirus from the droppings of rodents (rodents that some snake might've eaten if he wasn't currently dead, smashed to smithereens out in the road) or getting lyme disease from the ticks on those same rodents, or having some mouse or rat chew into the wiring of your house and burn it down.

What DrRod said is right, in North America your chances of getting bitten by a snake you weren't aware of are almost nil. I would guess you'd be more likely to get bitten if you subsitute a racoon, possum, or feral cat for a snake in any given situation. Most snakes just try to get away. Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, and Cottonmouths will stand their ground because they really aren't fast enough to escape most animals that threaten them. But they don't normally strike unless cornered and provoked, and even then will give as much warning as they're able beforehand.

At the risk of causing panic in the streets /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif attached is a picture of my niece holding the baby kingsnake I gave her for her 17th birthday. I think she liked it better than any other present I've ever given her. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

wushaw · Aug 2, 2005

Any snake species large enough to swallow a mouse/rat is better than any cat and when the mieces are gone so is the snake to find more mieces.

Redfox · Aug 2, 2005

( Any snake species large enough to swallow a mouse/rat is better than any cat and when the mieces are gone so is the snake to find more mieces. )

We had a rat snake take up residence in a loose rock wall in our back yard. I was happy to leave him be and let him eat all the chipmunks, field mice, and other vermin he wanted. My dog, on the other hand, took offence with his daring to live in her yard. As soon as you let her out, she'd stand guard at his ledge and bark like crazy. He moved on. I know he wasn't a copper head, cotton mouth or other pit viper, and I would not have been accepting of a venomous snake. Yet, I now know that I can trust my dog to keep the copperheads away.

Mavrik02 · Aug 2, 2005

Caught a rattlesnake in Montana several years ago. Cut its head off, skinned it, boiled the meat, and ate it (it was much better than the goat we had that day). Anyway, I cut the heart up in four peices and let it sit in the summer sun. Came back four hours later and all four pieces were still beating! That was just too creepy for me!

Slamfire · Aug 3, 2005

I'da thought a teen would prefer one of the brightly colored ones. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

SpeckuldTrout · Aug 3, 2005

( I'da thought a teen would prefer one of the brightly colored ones. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif )

Yeah, I suspected, but wasn't positive, she would want a pet snake. So when this one showed up in my yard a week before her birthday I figured if she didn't want to keep it we could just let it go again. In hindsight, something fancier may've been even better.

Larstan · Aug 4, 2005

My two cents, the fact that you can't seem to find and or see this snake long enough to whack it with a stick should tell you something. He is just as anxious to stay out of your way as you are his. Like all wild animals his daily activity is to stay alive and that means a food source, the easier the better and he will stay as long as easy chow is available. I grew up in Arizona catching rattlesnakes as far back as I can remember and I always had to hunt them, the few unintentional encounters were always a big surprise for both of us and if I did nothing the snake would turn and go the other way as quickly as he could. Drain the pond your fish are dead already, leave it drained for a week or so and get a dog to keep'em away after. Or get a holster and pack your gun around your farm because that is not the only snake in the grass /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

kybota · Aug 4, 2005

Your post got me to thinking about one of the unintentional encounters with snakes I've had (coincindentally, just this weekend a black snake was laying right in the middle of a trail I was hiking at Cave-In Rock State Park in Illinois despite a sign at the trail head stating that your chances of encountering snakes was about nil).

Anyway, while hunting squirrels when I was a teenager (don't eat them anymore, so I don't hunt them anymore), I found myself on a steep hillside overlooking a good sized creek, with an ancient family cemetary directly behind me, and it was so serene there I just decided to sit and stay awhile and take it in. After about five minutes I looked down beside me and a snake was sitting there in arm's reach, less than two feet away. Copperheads are the only poisonous snakes in the Louisville area ('cept maybe a stray timber rattler occasionally in some areas) and he wan't a copperhead so it didn't bother me.

Don't know what he was, since the only other kind I can readily identify are garter, black and king snakes. That snake sat still there beside me for at least 20 minutes. The setting was entrancing and every now and then I'd glance at him to see if he had moved. But he never budged an inch, probably thinking he hadn't been discovered.

When I finally was ready to move on, I looked at him staring at me and decided that he thought he had fooled me and I wasn't going to let him get the better of me. So as I stood up, I picked him up tossed him into the brush a few feet in front of me and said something like "I knew you were there" as he crawled away.

Oh, what a teenage ego can conjure up.

Junkman · Aug 5, 2005

I couldn't sleep, so I have been up for the past 3 hours reading. After reading this entire post from start to finish, I now know that the rest of my day has been ruined. I have handled many non poisonous snakes in my occupation, but I have never grown to really liking them as pets or any thing else. Just reading about snakes has ruined my day. As for dogs killing snakes, not always is this the outcome. I have known of dogs that have been bitten by poisonous snakes and have died. I would rather have my dog and allow the snake to live. From my way of thinking, there is room enough for snakes in the wild and as long as they don't enter my dwelling, I will stay out of theirs. With old age comes wisdom. Wisdom tells me that you don't mess with something that can cause you great harm or injury. Wisdom also tells me that when confronted with a problem that I can't handle, to let the people that are trained to handle that problem do so. I am certain that if you try, you will be able to find people that know how to deal with snake removal safely and quickly. After all, you are not the only person in the county that is afraid of snakes and has a snake problem. I think that I will try to get some rest..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif