Snakes, The Good, The Bad, and the ugly

[mitchdb]

I'm not real crazy about snakes. Someone mentioned earlier about not knowing snakes that well. I don't know that much about them either and I'm not willing to take the chance. Especially with little kids!

This one climbed up in the inside of my wheel on my truck. When I drove off, it had a few chunks taken out of it. I was told it was a rat snake!

I was standing on the back tire (the one that he was heading for) getting something out of my bed. I jumped backwards off the tire and heard a rustling sound behind me. I turned around and he was coiled up with his mouth open, I nearly came unglued.

 

[mitchdb]

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[mitchdb]

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[Junkman]

You might say that you scared him as much as he scared you. It appears to be a common rat snake that eats mice and other critters. They are beneficial to the environment and you should welcome him in your woods. He will keep the mouse population down. Even if it were a poisonous snake, you have a greater chance of being harmed, than harming it, if you should try to kill it. I believe that a hasty retreat is the best course of action when faced with the unknown. Only when there is no choice to retreat, would deadly force be reasonable in my opinion. As I have stated, the snake wants to avoid you as much as you want to avoid it. Apparently you were not that intimidated by it, because you stayed around to take pictures.

 

[Treed_in_TX]

My wife and I were living on a 1500 acre ranch in Texas a few years ago. She was carrying a foldup table fromt the porch around to the garage to put it away when she felt something thump her shoe hard. She looked down to see a 4 foot rattlesnake coiled up in the grass next to the sidewalk. Well she's not the kind to just take something like that so she ran to the garage, picked up a shovel and pinned that snake to the ground. She did a fair amount of damage to it by the time I got home from work 20 minutes later. I killed it with a ball peen hammer. We then skinned it and keep the skin on the wall in the guest room. People don't over stay their welcome. Anyway, the snakes rattle was missing. It only had a plasticy nub at the end of its tail and it could not make any noise. It was very lucky Kristi had shoes on that day since she went barefoot much of the time. Part of this was my fault in that I had let the grass grow too high. I kept it much shorter after that.

The other incident with a rattler was coming home from grocery shopping one day there was a good size rattler next to the kitchen door. Our stupid cats were having a good time batting at its tail and springing out of the way when the snake struck. We didn't lose a cat that day but we probably should have. I went and got my 12 ft pruning saw with the telescoping pole and moved the snake a few hundred feet from the house before releasing it. It was none too happy about my handling it but we both survived with no physical scars.

 

[polecat]

personally ..if there r kids around then ALL the poisonous snakes go!!!!!!!have no fear of snakes and have seen and decapitated a few 5' rattlers in alabama near the barns but if it's him/me or aloved one ..yer gonna lose!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[mitchdb]

personally ..if there r kids around then ALL the poisonous snakes go!!!!!!!

I AGREE! All poisonous snakes must go, even some of the non poisonous just for the fact that they are a snake.

My thought: Until I become a snake expert ( I don't see that happening though), all snakes are dangerous!

 

[txdon]

The snakes are in their mating season now and they are about. Here's one that stopped by this weekend. a yellow bellied racer, nonpoisonous, still alive. He posed perfectly still for about five minutes.

 

[txdon]

Zoom helps to identify the snake.

 

[1bush2hog]

Since purchasing 75 acres last summer, I had not seen any snakes other than non-poisonous, even though I was aware of the potential for others on the property.

Well, I was bush-hogging on Sat. and happened to look down and see a 4ft rattler stretched out and crawling in a previously mowed area, about 6ft away from the tractor.

20 years ago, killing it would have been my first thought, but instead I stopped to run over and grab my camera which was about 30 yards away /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif. I ran back over with camera in hand and out of breath, only to find my subject had disappeared.

Talk about a weird feeling /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif...I quickly glanced around my feet and poof I was back in my tractor seat with one serious leap /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. Didn't know I could still move like that.

I love all creatures from the right distance!