Help!!! Snake!!!!

[JINMA224XR]

<font color="blue"> I went ahead and refilled the pond and will keep a watch on it. I think I may try the minnow trap idea and see if the sneaky SOB comes back. I would prefer to have a corpse. </font>

Hey Sailor Bob,

Have your implements of distruction close at hand, so that when you see him next time, you can take action.

One thing that you don't want to do is play with him. Use the BlitzKrieg strategy. Make it Swift, quick and cut the Head off.

Then throw him out on the road to be smashed into smitherines & back into dust.

Get your TRactors Running &
Have a nice day,
Joe /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Iplayfarmer]

<font color="blue"> I would prefer to have a corpse.
</font>

I agree with the "finality" associated with seeing the remains, but I have to join the list of posts admonishing caution. I'm from rattlesnake country, and around here there are lots of stories about kids who kill a snake and then get bit by the head days later. The snake's not alive days later, but there's still some energy left in the nervous system that can cause odd things to happen.

I liked Joe's suggestion to throw the body out in the road and let it get smashed up beyond recognition. Of course, now you get into the realm of causing panic in the streets.

 

[ford15005]

sounds like you received a number of good suggestions. a little late but, next time use the yellow pages; under "rent a mongoose" /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[riptides]

Just yesterday I took a black snake bite on my finger.

Thought I had it trapped, head to ground, holding it tight with a broom handle.

NOT

Darn thing moved quickly and struck WAY FAST.

Needless to say, instead of holding on, instinct took over and he went one way, and I went the other.

The place he dwells, is called the "Snake house". No one goes in there but me. Hint, hint.....

Unfortunate, that I must relocate him while I "reconstruct" his house.

Soooooo..... just when you THINK you know what your doing.... get an expert.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[beenthere]

As a young lad, we would catch rattlesnakes and skin them. One we caught was particularly big, so we decided to drown this one, and then skin it with the head on for a better mount.
We had it pretty tired from striking at a stick, so thought it was near its end of 'energy'. Tied a large rock onto it's head end and put him in a large garbage can filled with water.
About an hour later, I chased a foul ball that rolled up to the can and while on one knee, removed the lid to see how this 'dead' snake was doing. I looked at it, eyeball to eyeball at about 10" distance. Nearly died seeing that snakes mouth open wide and expected the worst. Fortunately for me, the rock was still tied to the head, but the snake had lifted the rock to the top for air. Never want to be looking eyeball to eyeball at a snake that way again. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Hope this one is dispatched or at least chased away.

 

[Redfox]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">(

I went ahead and refilled the pond and will keep a watch on it. I think I may try the minnow trap idea and see if the sneaky SOB comes back. I would prefer to have a corpse.

)</font>

I'd leave the pond dry for a week or so. No food, no water, no water snake. Then, after filling it, I'd try some of that snake repellent around the pond. Additionally, Snakes and Dogs don't get along too well, so a reasonably sized pet dog for the grand kids would help keep snakes out of the yard.

I found this Link that has some species information on snakes in your area.

 

[SailorBob]

<font color="blue"> </font> I found this Link that has some species information on snakes in your area.

<font color="black"> </font> I Harris County, Texas the Houston area? If so we have similar geography and conditions. That was an interesting website. I can see how easy it would be to identify a snake without a really good look at it. I still believe it to be a cotton mouth because of it's bright white inside of his mouth and the markings on the outside.

 

[Phred]

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.

But if you feel the need to kill it a stick to the back of the head is all that it usually requies.


Bob: for you just make it a long stick.
Fred

 

[goodoleboy]

A shovel has been handy last few times ive encountered snakes.
A buddy likes to run to the house grab his gun and shoot at them with his neighbors only a half acre away on his rocky terrain.Bullets ricochet and continue to travel until something stops it. Either Air resistance or someone elses property. If you were to use a gun a shotgun type pellet would be my choice.
Of course there are many here on TBN with much more experience than me.

 

[froggy]

Here is a link for DFW:

snakes

 

[Slamfire]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( 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 )</font>

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]

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]

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]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">( 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. )</font>

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]

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]

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

 

[SpeckuldTrout]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I'da thought a teen would prefer one of the brightly colored ones. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif )</font>

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]

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]

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]

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