Rattle Snake

[aesanders]

You guys ought to climb onto a tractor, fire it up, and then watch a 6' rattler as big as your arm crawl out from under the hood of the tractor and onto the platform between your feet and keep crawling till it reaches the back of the tractor and then off onto the ground.

That kinda makes for a bad day from the start, the hangover wore off quic that day..

I would have one heck of a hangover the next day though.

Did you squish it so you wouldn't go through the same episode twice?

 

[dmccarty]

You guys ought to climb onto a tractor, fire it up, and then watch a 6' rattler as big as your arm crawl out from under the hood of the tractor and onto the platform between your feet and keep crawling till it reaches the back of the tractor and then off onto the ground.

Got a couple of questions for ya.
1) Where you completely still when it went between your legs?
2) Did you breathe?
3) How long did it take to move between your legs and drop to the ground? I'm guessing pretty close to forever.
4) Most important question of all, did you just throw the underwear away or wash them for reuse?

That kinda makes for a bad day from the start, the hangover wore off quic that day..

Sounds like it was a GOOD day to me. It could have been much worse!!!!!

When I was a kid my grandparents had a house on a lake in FLA. We where in the lake swimming and/or fishing every single day. One morning we got up and I was the first one out of the house. There was a concrete walkway that went down the side of the house and ended at the end of the house where for some reason there was a wood platform. I went flying out of the house running down the walkway and looked down just in time to say a big fat ugly copperhead or moc laying curled up on that wood. I jump WAY over him. My cousin was next and I yelled snake! By this time the snake was moving toward the big door that went into the crawl space under the house. My Cuz went for one of the Crossmans while I watched the snake. It got to the crawl space before Cuz got the Crossman. We LOOKED into the crawlspace but did not venture in past daylight. We spent the rest of the summer very carefully removing fishing gear and toys from that crawlspace.....

I have only seen two copperheads at our place. Well three. My dad removed the head of one copperhead from its body. We have some very large black snakes. At least one 6 feet long. I have seen its shed skin and it in person once. Lots of smaller 2 footers around as well. They are welcome....

Later,
Dan

 

[Birdhunter1]

That happened when I was working for the county highway dept my first summer after high school graduation (hence the almost everyday hangover). I had seen them drop out from under the hood onto the ground before but never come across the operators station. When we parked our tractors it was usually whatever safe place we could park 2-3 tractors and mowers and being we were often in the boondocks stuff like that happened once in a while. Some of the older guys always warned us younger guys about this, they said to safely from a distance visually check everything as best you can, don't check the oil, radiator, nothing. Just get on the tractor, start it, let it run a few minutes and don't move and don't reach into somewhere yo can't see well. After about 10 minutes then check the oil. Often we'd do all of our checks at the end of the day and clean the radiators out with a leaf blower when we finished so we didn't have to take a chance with a snake in the mornigs.

Luckily, I didn't move. It was hard, my heart was beating like after running up 5 flights of stairs and I was almost white but I didn't dare move. And yes I had a hangover the next day too, but back when I was 18 that wasn't an uncommon thing.

 

[jbunkley]

After careful study I have determined that there are only four kinds of snakes that I am deathly affraid of: Big ones, Little ones, Live ones & Dead ones.

 

[sandman2234]

This one was heading in the wrong direction. (Towards my neighbors house, and mine just past that.) I chased him with the bush hog, till he coiled up between 3 trees. Daughter brought the Contender with the .410 barrel and I made short work of him. Must have hit him with the bush hog because the rattles and the last part of his tail were cut off when I finally finished him off.
David from jax

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/sandman2234/Brandiskidsandsnakes029.jpg

 

[stones]

Here in south Texas we tend to have those buggers all year long, I will find some pics of the ones we have had to contend with here and post some. Our worst year was last year when we seemed to have several batches of small ones (10 in 5 days here in the front yard), I had the very lucky habit of putting on the steel toes every morning and had one of the 6" strike my boot. After a small dance of "I can stomp you" I finally won and started my way to a hang over promptly @ 9am..

The best thing we have found to stop this is to keep all brush cleared and keep the barn with feed and corn rodent free.

 

[Safinsp]

I hear you! Rattlesnakes are one of the main reasons I decided to buy a tractor and find the great bunch of people in these forums. Last July, I was mowing some tall grass behind my house with a push mower. My blue heeler loved to bite the wheels of the mower and he was headed towards me. Pretty soon, he rolled over...I didn't think anything of it as he would roll in whatever smelled the funkiest! I mowed a couple more feet, and there was a darned rattlesnake all coiled up and ready to strike me. I put two and two together and figured the snake had bitten my dog, so I yelled at my small daughter, who was walking my direction following my dog, to get in the house. I went after my .22 rifle and came back out to kill the snake, which I did. I then rushed my dog to the vet (about 1/2 hour away) who treated him with medication and sent home some medication for me to administer to the dog throughout the following week. I then paid a $200.00 bill. The next day the dog passed away. It was pretty sad as we had him for over 10 years. I truly believe Lucky saved my daughter from being struck. Since then, I have seen three additional rattlesnakes near my property. These are the northern blacktail variety that are really toxic. It has been a bad year for snakes in my part of the country. After that, I knew my push mower was not going to cut it. I need to see the ground on these five acres!

Be careful out there and stay safe.

 

[Turbys_1700]

I was mowing the other day and rustled up a 5 foot black snake...
Let him go but watched him for over an hour as I was mowing...
He wasn't bothering anything...
We'ver always had black snakes here on the farm and let them be...
Never seen a copperhead or rattler..
Seen a couple of king snakes...
I don't like the bastards...
But realize that a black one is a good one...
Ususally they are tying to get away as fast as they can...
They will bite you if you step on them or pick on them...
But I can live with it...
The key is to keep the grass mowed and areas clean...
They don't like open areas...

 

[weesa20]

I live in a development (only 1/4 acre lots) and they are clearing another 40 acres behind me to add to the development. I was out working in my treeline and came accross a juvenile copperhead (copper-headless after it met my shovel) then later that day I was aerating with the GC and found a small brown snake that I had run over in the yard. We have also had black snakes in the yard but I leave them alone. The copperhead was the first poisonness snake I have come across.

I think all the work behind me clearing out for the new part of the development has stirred up the snakes. I have some of the only "heavy" forest left in the development and so they probably come to my land. something has eaten all my geckos though, rabitts don't come around anymore and the hawks and owls have moved on, too. Pretty depressing.

Working on getting out to the country.

W

 

[nolefan]

Had a good size Black snake come up in the yard a few months back. I want them around to keep the mice at bay. Have not seen any copperheads although the locals say there are plenty around in certain areas. Always hate to hear of someone loosing a pet.

 

[Safinsp]

That blacksnake would scare the #$@! out of me! We have mainly bull snakes, gartersnakes, a few red-racers and of course rattlers. But on the bright side, the nice thing about living in the country, is that dealing with snakes and critters sure beats having to put of with some of the humans that could be around us in the city these days. Thanks for the kind words about the pet. That heeler had a hard life. He survived a gunshot years ago, and all kinds of cuts and injuries in his 10 years, but this snake finally did him in. We sure miss him.

 

[hans2]

Grandparents were bringing the children home at dusk after a day on the town and from their car saw this rattler on the sidewalk between the driveway and front door. They called from their cell phone. The snake coiled up and started to rattle when I came outside. While we were discussing which tool to use for killing (awfully close to the house for shotgun), the cat walked within 8" of the snake (twice!) and the Lab within 18". The cat and the dog did not acknowledge the snake's presence or my hollering at them to COME HERE nor did the snake seem to care about the pets. I thought that was very strange. Shotgun was chosen; snake was 45".

 

[oliver28472]

Driving home from breakfast I saw a hawk near the road ditch. He was flopping around and I was not sure if he had something or was injured. I turned around and drove back to where he was just in time to see him fly off with a live black snake. Man I wished I had my camera. They went about 50 yards and landed. The snake was trying to get away and striking the hawk too. The snake was about 5' long.

 

[Big_Cajun]

I've come across several cane-break rattlers (timber rattlers to some) and have noticed that they are very docile. Cottonmouths are of a completely different disposition. What really stinks about them is that they like to climb to get sun. I've known of people to be struck in the thighs/hips from cottonmouths sunning on palmettos and on foliage. Very unfriendly critters. I hope God gives me the opportunity to always see them before they see me.

BC

 

[lively1]

We have the usual gardener snake, black snakes, water snakes, mocs and copperheads (very rare), but we do have some rattlers in the bluffs near the river and heavy timber. I have seen a number of black snakes around the house. My wife got friendly with one when she was working in the landscaping one day. She screamed bloody murder and I came running... I was able to catch the black snake and took him to the timber. Black snakes are really helpfull eliminating varmits. I have attached a pic of a black snake my sister-in-law saw at our house this summer. I've seen sheds near the house that are over 6'. They must eat very well.

 

[3RRL]

Man,
Snakes are so creepy.

 

[jlangton]

Man,
Snakes are so creepy.

I'm with you...
JL

 

[AndyMA]

I found this interesting site on snakes in Mass. I find this line particularly interesting: "The overwhelming majority of reports of encounters with poisonous snakes in New England are nothing more than cases of mistaken identity."

Reality

Andy

 

[ccsial]

From the site Andy posted:
"Hog-nose snake sometimes called the "puff adder," this habitual eater of toads will inflate its body, hiss loudly, lunge about ferociously and spread a surprising cobra-like hood."

Around here they are also called blow snakes.

I encountered one of these while walking through the pines many years ago. It was about 6 feet from me. I thought a cobra got loose from a zoo for a second. Talk about a loud hiss, and then there was that hood. It is an encounter I'll never forget. My heart skipped a few beats. It was lucky I was unarmed. I didn't know what kind it was but the farmer next door told me about their behavior. Have not seen once since.

 

[mjarrels]

When I was a kid, we had a fence post with a hole in it and I had to look inside that hole... biggest black snake I ever saw eye to eye.

mark