Unusual afternoon at the office - snake!

[3RRL]

Poisonous snakes always draw my attention because I hate them soooo much. I was going to post some of those gigantic rattlesnake photos but I remembered that Eddie hates even looking at them! So I passed on doing it. The General Store in Three Rivers has a stuffed one that must be 9 feet long on display as you enter the little store. It is really creepy to think about running into one like that... Makes the 5 and 6 footers I have on the property look anemic.

 

[ejtaylor822]

I posted this story on a fishing site I belong to and a few of the folks were genuinely tick'd that we killed a copperhead???? Didn't understand why we didn't (1) leave it alone, or, (2) catch it and release it somewhere else? Never heard of such for a poisonous snake.

I was dumbfounded. Poisonous snake in the city in front of an office building and we are suppose to leave it alone. Or, catch it and release it.

Eddie

 

[riptides]

Just day before yesterday, the wife got a pic of me holding up a brandnew 6 foot long snake skin.

Yep, I am still trying to catch that guy. He even has his own place on the farm, called the snakehouse. Great place to stow beer and steaks, no one goes in there.

I'll see if I can get the pic up in the AM.

-Mike Z.

 

[Sigarms]

Live about 20 minutes northwest of Winston. So far this year only two black snakes, now you guys got me looking.

However, the first snake was interesting. Changing out my A/C and gas furnace, and was running the lineset through a drop ceiling in the basement. Had to take the ceiling tiles out, up on a ladder of course doing this. Take the third tile out, and what was looking at me, a black snake!

Almost crapped my pants and lucky I didn't fall off the ladder. The snake was probably more afraid of me, but I didn't think that at the time.

Must of gotten in through an opening that didn't notice where the electric is run to some outbuildings. Needless to say, it was interesting getting that snake out, no way did I want to leave him up there, and I went around the house with some furnace cement to make sure there were no other openings.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

 

[MotorSeven]

I definatly would'nt fault anyone for killing a rattler or copperhead, and i have done-in my share. But, maybe i am getting wiser or older and stupid(or nuts), but i am not sure if i will wack the next one i see on my place, unless i am going to fry 'em up. We(family) all have snake boots, and i preach to look before reaching/stepping/crawling thru the thick stuff, especially downed trees. I want to treat them just like a hornets nest, and give them a wide berth...of course the hornets don't crawl around under foot . I think that they have their place in the "system" and they do eat alot of rodents, so i am posting a tenative truce.
The odds of getting hurt on the tractor are way more than getting bit by a snake. I have done a ton of outdoor activities and have seen my share of poisonous snakes, and have never been knowingly struck at. I did get chased by a cottonmouth, apparently he didn't take to kindly to being struck with a boat paddle while he was sunning on a branch a foot above the river(young and stupid), and if the dang thing could have climbed into the boat, he would still be driving it. A cottonmouth did get my Golden on the paw(duck hunting in S Fla amongst the skeeters, gators and cottonmouths). The vet gave him a shot of antibotics and his paw looked like a catchers mitt for a couple of days, then he healed up fine. If bit, and you know the identity of the snake, a calm drive to the ER usually results in successfull treatment. I personally don't know anyone that has been bit or struck at.

So, i am curious, how many of you have actuallty been struck at or bit or know personally someone that has? It doesn't count if you were messing with the snake like i was. Hmmm, maybe that Q should be a new thread?, Ok, i will post it, but tomorrow i am leaving for a 3 week camping trip, so won't check it after Mon for a while.

I am much more fearfull of the potential of running across a "two legged" snake slithering around on my property, and do take precautions for "them" also.

RD

 

[dancer]

Though I don't know him, I want to thank EddieWalker for establishing the "don't show me" rule for snakes! I don't want to see them either. However, here at my place in western Arkansas it would be possible on a real bad day to see two species of rattlesnake, copperheads, and cottonmouth within a hundred yard walk. Doesn't happen often but the possibility exists. One of the finest displays of skill I ever saw was several years ago when I had an excavator crew in to clear the back 10 acres of our place. The trackhoe operator would uproot a hackberry and often a copperhead would launch. It was a thing of beauty to watch him reach out and "stomp" those snakes, on the run, with the flat of the bucket and then lift the flattened critter delicately with a single bucket tooth and drape it over a limb reserved for it alongside its brethren.

 

[EddieWalker]

Dancer,

I had no idea so many knew of my fear of snakes that extends to pictures of them too!! hahahaha

But I want to thank you for that heartwarming story of killing snakes. I know some people here like snakes and enjoy seeing them, but it's real hard to defend copper heads. An operator that's able to kill several in a day is worth every penny you pay him!!!

I've found a few over the years with my backhoe while taking out old rotten stumps and trees that have been on the ground so long they are rotting. For some reason copperheads like old, rotting stumps and trees. Of the ones I've dug up, I've only managed to kill a few with my hoe bucket. It's not as easy as I'd have thought it would be.

Eddie

 

[txdon]

So, i am curious, how many of you have actuallty been struck at or bit or know personally someone that has? It doesn't count if you were messing with the snake like i was. Hmmm, maybe that Q should be a new thread?, Ok, i will post it, but tomorrow i am leaving for a 3 week camping trip, so won't check it after Mon for a while.

I am much more fearfull of the potential of running across a "two legged" snake slithering around on my property, and do take precautions for "them" also.

RD

I know two people who have been bitten by copperheads. The first was a girl I knew in high school. She pick up a piece of wood and got bit in the hand. The next was my cousin last year. She was walking with sandals in her yard and got bit on her foot. Both survived, but both had terrible pain and tissue damage. My cousin still limps. Copperheads are evil, I have observed them at length and they are the only snake on my farm that don't run when they detect you - they prepare to strike- it is best to see them before they see you!!!!