Snakes !!!

[Bird]

I've spent most of my life in southern Oklahoma and north central Texas; think I've seen a rattlesnake in the wild twice in my life, never seen a coral snake, but have seen hundreds of water moccasins and probably a couple dozen copperheads. Of course, I've seen lots of non-venomous snakes that other folks called copperheads./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif And I've seen two snakes on my own property in the last 7 years; both non-venomous varieties.

 

[MarkV]

Jeff-We have scorpions here in N. Georgia also. They are small and I understand a different variety than you had out west. Their bite is more like a bee sting rather than deadly. Depending on your body make up, you can get pretty sick for a few days. Spring is the time we see them the most.

MarkV

 

[P.K. Burke]

Neil:
Here's a picture of a little critter that dropped in on my place last year. He (she) was about 30'' long and had 12 buttons. I chased it out to the hills in back of my place because its inhabited by thousands of ground squirrels and I figured he would be good population control. I don't have any kids running around here so I didn't want to kill it if it could be beneficial in the control of rodents.

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Neil,

I told you them Texans would be able to figure it out. Sitting here in the great North Country, we don't have critters like that, because our ancestors pretty much stomped, shot and beat them into extinction. Rattlesnakes are just barely hanging on and are almost on the endangered list, and are so rare I'm not sure I've ever seen one.

About the worst we got is blue racers and blow snakes, both of which busy themselves with eating the field mice in the yard and generally leave me alone.

SHF

 

[Jeff396]

No, I just didn't go out at night anymore!

Jeff

 

[Jeff396]

I have heard that they are out here but choose to conveniently put it out of my mind. My wife got stung three times. The time it got her on the finger she got shooting pains up to her elbow and then it went pretty numb for a couple of weeks. I'm not too sure they are ever deadly unless you're allergic, but the smaller Bark scorpions just hurt a whole lot more. Oh yeah, I just remembered the killer bees. We had more than a few swarms fly over the house which pretty well freaked me out. We had a few deaths from those bad boys each year in Tucson.

Jeff

 

[RanchMan]

Add the mountain lions to your list and it sounds a lot like Texas!

 

[RanchMan]

Wish I had your luck avoiding them! Last summer I saw 10 rattlebugs. I don't care for those poison ropes at all.

Murphy's law always seems to strike when I'm at the ranch in that if I see one, I don't have anything to dispatch it handy, & by the time I do find something, its gone.

My wife did catch a big one on video, but was kindof freaked out so she had a hard time keeping focused on the critter (a lot of pictures of thick grass and loud conversation with her saying "is it coming this way?!?" filled up the majority of the tape).

Of course, I would have preferred to "shoot" it with something other than videotape...

 

[JoeR]

Are the Western Diamondbacks more aggressive than the Eastern Diamondbacks? Every Diamonback I have seen, has avoided me, more than I avoided it. In other words, they were leaving the area before I even knew I was getting close to them. On the other hand, the Cottonmouths tend to challenge me when I stumble across them. In Florida we have plenty of poisonous insects and reptiles, but I absolutely despise RED ANTS/Fire Ants!!! A group of fire ants has the same punch as on scorpion sting... At least it feels that way to me.

Joe

 

[RanchMan]

The W.D. tends to be defensive instead of overtly offensive - the problem though is that they "agitate" easily, so if you come across one, it is likely to hold its ground. I haven't been chased to date.

All of them I've come across to date either warned me by using their rattle or were oblivious to my presence. Unless I'm prepared to "duel", I've always stopped, then slowly backed away. So far what has happened is that they hold their ground for a minute or two, then exit stage-left.

fire ants- yup - dislike those things as well (another bad import like the killer bee)