The Forestry Forum

What would you do?

Shoot now ask questions later.   :D :D

Quote from: WH_Conley on February 29, 2008, 11:34:19 PM
What would you do?

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Sometimes I do this. Especially if my little dog is around. If I can't identify it quickly as a friendly snake it gets whacked.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13635/Rat%20Snake.jpg)

Sometimes by accident the Weed Wacker does the whacking. ;)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13635/Snake%20versus%20weed%20wacker%20002.jpg)

Man, I thought that this thread was going to be about lawyers...   :D

None of the above... 8)

http://youtu.be/8Djp1a2FVs4

Mooseherder too bad you didnt get a quick id on those. The top one is a cornsnake, they got a mark on the top of there head that looks like a corn kernel. There top grade for pest and snake control. And the second one is not a snake but a legless lizard. I bet his tail came off easy and you cant see it to good but they have a ear hole behind there jaw. I think its called a glass snake cornsnake would have got him too if he caught him on top of the ground.
I know how it is i gota deal with any that the wife sees and i dont handle any live ones around the little ones. I dont wont them picking up any little copperheads cause they seen me moving a king,corn,garder,gopher,hog, or any other kind of snake out of my wifes line of site. So i end up wacking some that dont deserve it.

i bet you have all kinds of snakes down in louisianna.up here in the mountains of nc they're just arent very many.  :)

You know it depends on the kind of snake. Black snakes I don't bother. Rattlers and Copperheads I don't have any use for.

Rattlesnakes are the only nasty ones I have had to deal with, fortunately, not up close. I find snakes quite fascinating and they are great for pest control.

I know what you mean about nasty snakes.It's that time of year for snow snakes.Those things can really put a hurt on ya.

An article on the internet this morning about, "Humans hardwired to fear snakes."  Google search "snakes, hardwire"

I dont like snakes   :-\ ... good , bad , middle ... Shoot um , hit um, run over um ... bang um , what ever is easier um.. Only thing I dont do is thump um .

Don't kill the non-poisonous ones. 

They are only trying to make a living, and unless they come into the house, kindly remove them to a place away from the house.  It is a shame to kill the innocent ones because of a fear of the dangerous ones.  That is like shooting someone who drives up into your yard because they might be a thief :).

In some states, it is against the law to kill the innocent ones.

iffit's a viper...buh-byee!

pretty much everything else is alright...from a distance..and if it's in the house it's toast..

Little black snake lives in one of my sheds...i do try to persuade him to stay out of the rafters though.

Well the first thing I would do is go change my underwear....then get ready for the world to end.....NOOOOOO snakes way up here. Way to cold for them.  We just got large hungry bears. ;D

I might see a garter snake here once a year, but could go two or three. I know there are black snakes around, and rattlers the next town over. Just don't see them enough to worry about, although I will say the last one I saw was on the wrong end of a load of .22MAG snake shot. Not going under a piece of equipment with a 4' snake, no how!


Dave

Years ago when I was in college a fellow down the hall was doing a master's thesis on the public's general dislike for snakes. As part of his routine, he would go to a lonely stretch of highway and place a very realistic rubber snake on the road. He would place it so that the driver would have to go out of their way to run over it. Then he would hide in the woods and wait to record whatever happened. As I recall, almost 99% went out of their way to hit the rubber snake. On one particular occasion, after the driver ran over the fake snake, he stopped, backed up until the rear tire was on the snake and then pealed out, flipping the rubber snake many yards into the woods. It took my researcher friend a good while to find the remnants of the now distroyed rubber snake( he was laughing for such a long period of time, he forgot where it landed) and he had to request additional funds to acquire another one. If I remember correctly, he got an A on his paper. I just wish I had obtained a copy but I heard it was a very popular publication.

My Dad and Uncle dry land farmed in North Dakota when I was a kid and I use to get to go to the fields with them.  They had one combine driver who use to stand 30 feet away and peg rocks at the combine in the mornings before he would get near it.  The rattlesnakes would crawl in under the equipment at night because it was nice and warm and he was scared to death of snakes.

I can remember counting a dozen dead snakes on the highway each trip between the fields and home and yet we ran and played in the stubble and never worried about them.

I've heard of people parking equipment on a patch of bare ground and raking the ground smooth. Then in the morning you look for squiggle marks. :D


Dave

If It's got rattles It's coming home for supper! I have never tried any other snake but rattlesnake tastes great!
Beyond that I let them all go, we have so many mice in the cabin I like having snakes around. Just don't want to find one in my sleeping bag :o

I don't know if I'd try rattlesnake, McDonalds is just so much safer. ::) ;D


Dave

me no likey the snakes!

I was getting ready to grease the head on my cutting machine. Set grease gun down about an inch from it. went did something else came back. I picked up the grease gun started greaseing the bottom grase fitting and out came this snakes head about an inch from my hand. i could  feal its tounge when it stuck it out. Well i about crapped myself. I jumped back and yelled at my skidder driver to come over there and see what kind of snake it was. I wasnt going close to it. He grabs a little stick walks up there and jumps back and said we need a bigger stick.It was a timber rattler :o. Needless to say snake didnt make it. The thing about it was We was on an conservation ground not suppost to kill the right. I asked the conservation agent what he would of done and he said the same thing. Later that week an agent showed up at my workers house saying he wanted to snake. He had already got rid of it. Good thing I dont know what the fines are for killing one i hear pretty steap.

I dont like Copperheads just sneaky land mocans in drag. Had one come up out of the leaf litter between my hands and my face once while i was laying on my stomach hooking a chain up to brush that i was pulling up by the roots out. He would have gotten me if i wouldnt have had gloves on.
Ever seen a snake climb a big tree? They wedge there body into the ridges in the bark and go almost straight up its very slick and they dont mess around they get on up there.
I like snakes i think they are very benifical animals. I realy like the racers, there harmless but they put up a good bluff.

Most of the year I will give them a path to escape.  They always take it.  But when the critters are molting I am the one booking it out of there  :D
We have bunches of snakes but you don't hardly see them.  Mostly corn snakes, racers, queen snakes, ring necks, copper heads and timber rattlers.

Seen one rattle snake must have come over from Arkansas - he had three Arky faces tatooed on his side  :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10186/DSC02272f.JPG)


  This is a king snake here at the log yard.  He is about 7 ft long.  I have caught him 3 times so far.

  For the most part I just catch them.  They's so cute!  I have how ever been bitten 2 times by 'rattlers and once by a copper.  Cotton mouths are the worst when it is very hot and you are trying to fish under the willows.  I do evoke Genessis 3:15 on the pision ones as that is what the Good Book says to do.

When we were sneakin up and down the little feeder streams, looking for sunken logs, we always had to keep an eye peeled up on the limbs over head, fer Moccasins laying there waitin to ambush sumpin.  ::) ::) :o :o :D :D

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12489/snake.jpg)

Farmer got tired of losing sheep so he set up an electric fence.  According to the email the wire strands are 10" apart.  Nice set of chompers huh? :o

Electric fence is not tied directly to metal stakes. I believe the whole thing is faked. Look  at the spacing ribs on the rebar ???  ::) ::)

The electric fence wire is about 2 feet inside the other fence.  I should have put that pic in also so it would be a little clearer.  Faked or not if those teeth are real I would be the last one on earth (well maybe behind Jeff) that would try to wrastle him for National Geographic.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12489/snake2.jpg)

Ahhhh, The REST of the story  ;) ;D ;D ;D

Like Paul Harvey, I wanted to keep you in suspense. :D ;D ;)

For some reason I feel no pity for that thing.


Dave

Don't look to fake look at the ground behind the snake were the tail was rubbing the ground. I  am glad we have smaller snakes around here. But they are just as dangerous. I ve seen plenty of copperheads as big around as my arm. I wish i had bigger arms. ;D

Quote from: Coon on February 29, 2008, 11:47:05 PM
Shoot now ask questions later.   :D :D

Sounds good to me!!!

People have that little poem for coral snakes that I can't ever seem to remember but I have one of my own.

Snake that flees is friend of me.
Snake that attacks, is dead Jack!

Seems to work for all snakes too and it is a bit hardwired if you know what I mean.  ;D

Now That snake would be a Meal. Are snakes good for diets?

I have little fear of snakes but I will kill every one on my place because of my wifes fear of them. I have never seen or heard of anyone as scared of snakes as my wife, they quite litterally petrify her, I have had to take the wheel while she was driving and one crossed the road, she just froze up like someone pushed the off button on her.

Snake blood really pops the figure in good walnut.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10125/P7140027.JPG)

I don't bother with them as long as they don't bother with me. I will do in a poisonous snake if it takes up residance around the house or work areas. not much chance of that though. Lindy's birds pretty much keep them in check. I had a big rat snake take up residance in my  tool shed/feed shed once. I pretty much left him alone even though he was quite territorial because he was making a big differance in the mouse population. I finally had to cart him off because the kids got to complaining about his aggression. I took him into the woods acroos the raod. He was back in about two days, so I carried him off about half a mile. Took a week to get back. Last time I hauled him away it was about 5 miles. I finally got rid of that time till another one showed up next spring.

It obviously did not appreciate you hauling it off so unceremoniously ;D.

It surely wouldn't have liked the other option, bang bang, shoot shoot.

You are right, but I am not sure that snakes are great thinkers :).

I dont' worry about them...between the five cats, the Jack Russell, and the chickens, I don't see many.

if it's poisonous..it dies. It's good to be on this end of the food chain.

Feed 'em golf balls.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10007/golfball.jpg)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10007/golfball2.jpg)

Granny had a couple of round ceramic balls about the size, shape and color of chicken eggs. Leave them in the hen nest, few days later she'd find a dead chicken snake somewhere around the chicken house, cut the snake open, retrieve the "eggs" and put them back in the hen nest. Kept the snake population under control.

I had two snake "incidents" yesterday.  My brother and I were picking up metal t-posts that we had removed from the ground this winter.  Since everything has greened up, we had a hard time finding the posts in the high grass and weeds.  Made me a little jumpy digging around in the weeds because I was worried about snakes, especially rattlesnakes and copperheads.  Sure enough, I walked right up on a snake (about 2 feet away from it before I saw it).  Luckily, it was just a kingsnake, one of the good ones.  I let it be.

After supper, I checked in on the Forum while my two women (wife and daughter) went on a walk with our beagle Callie.  A few minutes after they left, I heard my daughter yelling for me from the back door.  It was that kind of insistent yell that always signaled one thing, snake.  You see, these women do not like snakes at all.  I finally got them to let me peacefully carry the innocent snakes away out into the woods instead of passing final judgment on them.  The poisonous ones, though, get tried and are found guilty as charged for being too close to the house.

Well, I got the garden rake and proceeded across the yard, across the road, and into the hardwood.  The cat had found the snake about 20 feet on the other side of the road from the yard (let me say here that a snake in the "yard" is much more liable to get the ultimate sentence, innocent or not, if it is actually in the "yard").  It was a red bellied water snake (http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/snakes/nerery.htm).  I picked the snake up with the rake to walk the snake out to the "woods" and to freedom from the hanging judges.  But, the snake wanted no part of the rake carrying and wiggled off into the leaves.  A chase ensued.  The snake got down into the leaves and won.  Plumb disappeared.  The disappearance cause alarm among the jury.  They are still stepping lightly in that part of the "yard-woods" :).

Have any of you heard of Rodney Carrington? I love his bit on snakes funny stuff.

Hey WH !    You didn't say nuttin' bout no snakes when I was up there yeserday...

If I see them first AND I think they are harmless, Live and Let Live.  BUT, if they surprise me, or I'm not sure, closest available weapon, knife, machette, shovel, shotgun.  I ain't particular...

WDH, that red bellied water snake looks just like a moccasin when you almost step on them.  :)  We've really got them around here and our variety looks a bit different. Sometimes the only way to tell the difference is to slap at them with a stick or something. They will usually sull up and try to tuck their head, but at the same time their head will fan out like a spreading adder. If it's a moccasin, they're agressive. According to the range map, Tom doesn't have any. You would think that Okefenokee would be running over with them.

They are a dead ringer for a moccasin, just like you say.  If it wasn't for that red belly, that one would have crossed the Rives Styx by now :).

Quote from: woodbowl on May 11, 2008, 10:46:46 PM
According to the range map, Tom doesn't have any. You would think that Okefenokee would be running over with them.

When I lived in Woodbine, GA and fished in the Big Satilla River, which drains some of the northern Okefenokee Swamp, I sure killed more moccasins then a care to talk about.  One day I killed more snakes than I caught fish.   Other time, I killed a BIG pair that was mating in my back yard - A BIG PAIR.

My wife was working for security at Kingsbay submarine base when they got a call about a snake stuck in the fence.  It was a moccasin that was so big in diameter that it got stuck in the fence when it tried to enter the day care center.  The cop was so scared; it took him 7 shots to hit it. :o :o :o  They changed the chain link fence out after this and put in the smaller holed chain link.

Bruce

I found this gentleman on a Texas road.  Someone's tire had previously come along and dispatched him to the happy hunting grounds.......

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_1925.JPG)

One snake?  What a piker!

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10007/snakes%7E0.jpg)

I forgot the close up for the non squamish types.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10007/snakes1.jpg)

Looks like supper time in Texas!!!! Tastes like chicken I hear. Is that true?

Killed a Coral Snake, yesterday, while sawing.

Quote from: ADAMINMO on May 20, 2008, 05:10:50 PM
Looks like supper time in Texas!!!! Tastes like chicken I hear. Is that true?

Kinda, with enough beer.

Actually, the meat is white, and a little tough.  It doesn't taste too bad fried, but the musky smell that is so hair raising when you smell it in the woods, knowing that the bugger is somewhere near, does not go completely away after cooking.  Some are more musky (muskier :)) than others.  It sure does detract from the dining experience when the musk is strong. 

Hence, the beer.

One good 12 gauge buck shot is all i can say i would be shoting at that pile of snakes. Like Indiana jones said. I hate snakes. I ran over a copperhead yesterday , forwards and backwards.  bike_rider bike_rider

Quote from: semologger on May 22, 2008, 11:59:54 PM
I ran over a copperhead yesterday , forwards and backwards.  bike_rider bike_rider

:D :D :D :D :D

TR, I'd say that pile of snakes would make for awful efficient scattergunning. ;)


Dave

That pit of snakes reminds me of an old Western movie, where I think Clint Eastwood hid a saddle bag of loot in a pit of Rattlers can't recall the name could of been the "The Good The Bad and The Ugly".

We live on the creek and Venomous snakes are common around our farm, they're starting to hibbernate now. My next door neighbour was bitten on the foot 3mths back by a Rough Scaled Snake, it was dark and flooding he went out to move the generator in bare feet and was hit on a vein. The Neurotoxic venom knocked his kiddney's about and his blood thinned dramatically, ten times that of someone on wolferine, the venom really wasted his muscles and he was touch and go for 3 weeks. Young Mark's a horse breaker and has youth and fittness on his side which got him through, he now has a healthy respect for snakes (we call em "Joe Blakes") down here.

Last year I got home to see our Jack Russell having a go at a Red Bellied Black snake, Nicky grabbed the dog, I caught the snake and couldn't see any marks made by the dog, I said, "I think we got to her in time" then Nicky said, "There's a bit of red between her toes, sure enough she'd been bitten, I got a pressure bandage on straight away and to the vets inside 1hr, we nearly lost her that night but she came home 2 days and $500 :(later........Hasn't stopped her chasing them but.

My first instinct when I saw that pile of 'em was a stick of dynamite.  But then I remembered the You Tube video of the whale and decided the dynamite might not be such a good idea.  Raining cats and dogs is one thing.  Raining rattle snakes just doesn't seem  like such a good idea...

:-\ :-\ :-\

We went down the river today seen 2 water moccasoins. One didnt make it bro in law got him with a 9mm. It was wrapped around railing on the dock. The other swam right next to friends 6 year old boy. :o That boy was walking on water getting out. Took him a while to get back in the water. Wont be the last on we will see.

I agree with Warren, surprise me and we'll see do it twice thogh they are toast. I have started putting the common ones in the shop and mill to help stem the rats. They logged out a section behind the place and I can't seem to catch up to the mice and rats. On a positive note when I told the family that I was putting snakes in the buildings tools stopped  being (borrowed) while I was at work. HEH HEH. CV

WildDog, I grew up in Southwest Georgia in an area riddled with rattlesnakes and cottonmouths.  I also used to catch them and transport them to some big holding pens they had at one of the plantations in the area.  Once or twice a year, some fella from the Ross Allen Reptile Institute down in Silver Springs, Florida would stop in and purchase them.  Bringing $2.50/ft, and me being a college kid in constant need of cash, who was I to pass that up.  ::)  I once caught over $50 worth of snakes in a single day while riding between peanut fields working as a crop scout.

So, while I have a healthy respect for our native venomous snakes, I don't panic if I happen to get near one or see one.

But that would change over night if I were ever to move to Australia.  You folks have snakes down there that give me nightmares.  Certain species are as agile as our rat snakes, as fast as our racers, as wily and as large as our king snakes, and much more venomous than our coral snakes.  :o

You would not see me attempting to catch or handle any venomous Australian snake.  I'll stick with the slow moving and fairly predictable American pit vipers.

Their spiders are pretty ugly too.

Bruce

Lanier_Lurker what did the reptile institute want with the snakes, was it venom for antivenene? Sounds like a dangerous way to make some cash.

I'm sure glad they don't offer money for wild caught venomous snakes here or my son would be out chasing them....anything for a buck.

We were aerial baiting yesterday at work with a bunch of farmers, we had about 2 hrs down time with the helicopter and most of that time was spent talking snakes, everyone had a story or 10 to share. I'll repeat a couple of mine.

One afternoon I was riding through a sheep camp on dusk when my horse shied, i noticed a Tiger snake flat on the ground, to get a good hit with a stock whip on a snake it's no good while he's flat you need his head raised, with the horse carrying on he raised his head, when the whip went out it wrapped around the snake but hooked on, as my arm came back in the reverse motion the 3ft snake came with it and landed acrossthe pomel of my saddle then fortunatley fell to the ground, these are one of our most dangerous. With most of our nasty types you can grab their tail and they can't climb their own body but the Tiger can requiring the handler to keep flicking him down or rotating his tail, these guys have heaps of venom and large fangs.

My worst experience was totally my own fault and came about from showing off. I was courting my wife, when she was working as a Jillaroo out west, we were swimming in a dam when I noticed a King Brown on the bank heading down a  crack in the dried mud, I grabbed it's tail and went to crack its head off like a stock whip, when i brought the snake/whip down it cracked up high between my legs with a loud smack and stung like hell on my wet leg, there was bood mixing with the water and running down my leg, I panicked wondering how you put a tornaque on your groin :( she calmed me down and worked out the blood was from the snakes partially severed head. :-[ :-[ :-[ I learn't my lesson, now days I let snakes be unless they're around the house and then I usually relocate them.

Quote from: WildDog on June 01, 2008, 03:49:51 AM
Lanier_Lurker what did the reptile institute want with the snakes, was it venom for antivenene? Sounds like a dangerous way to make some cash.

Yes, they had an antivenin program.  They also supplied snakes to zoos and other facilities.

Here is some info on Ross Allen.  http://www.lostparks.com/rossal.html

Quote from: Jeff on March 01, 2008, 12:48:44 AM


http://youtu.be/8Djp1a2FVs4

Updated to a youtube video. ;D

Por Fa VOR.  ::) ::) That little feller wasn't even venomous.  ::) :D :D :D

I have been catching the Fer De lance's and Coral's, here. I use them. Secret project.  :) :)

Good one Jeff. :D :D :D

Good grief, this is an old thread I'd never seen before. :D

Much to manys dismay here I've stopped and picked up bull snakes to bring back to the farm, just drop them down the first rat hole I can find, better than a cat I say  ;D.  By the way we don't have any poisonous ones around here (that I've seen), you have to get a little farther west.

We have a deal. They don't bite me. I don't kill them. So far, the truce is holding. ;D

Up here, we mostly have Garter snakes and Milk snakes.

However there is a little tan colored snake here with a bright shiny copper-colored belly that no one likes.

I don't ever remember killing a snake in my life, except once while dove hunting in South Dakota I happened to spot a 12-14 inch Prairrie Rattler and he was introduced to my 870!

Wife came into the house about 20 minutes ago, and said "Papi, possibly is a snake in the chicken house". I grab the flashlight (it's dark in there at this time of day) and change to my outside shoes, and go to the chicken house. Where is it I asked? It's right under that shelf, on the floor. She had reached under there looking for newborn chicks, and actually touched it.

I got down on one knee, and shot the light under there. There was a Terciopelo-Fer de Lance, that measured 47" long, after our fight was over. There was no way to drag it out, so, I gently but firmly tried to ease it out from under the shelf. Problem is, the coop is built low, because I have no need to go in there and the wife is short. The Fer de Lance is also known as the "Velvet Snake", because the skin feels like velvet. It's NOT slick like other snakes.

Anyway, I am stepping lightly and easing the thing out and she is NOT pleased. Tail is shaking like a Rattler, but, they have no rattles. Now, she starts striking at me, and, I'm doing the high step in low quarters. I'm trying to get it where I can cut it with the Machete, but, she gets closer and closer. Last strike ended up being 8" away from my leg.  :o Finally I saw my chance and bashed the Machete into the snake right behind the ears. Perfect shot, and head rolls away.

Now, I check my drawers. No strong odor, so, I proceed to scoop up the head on the blade of the Machete, and carry it out into the open. The fangs measured just under ¾" long, each.  :o Then I went back for the body. It had a bulge in it, and, that is why I didn't get bit. She was digesting a chick. Didn't tell the wife about that.

Anyway, thew skin is now in the brine jug, eventually to be encased in Acrylic resin and made into Pen Blanks. The skin is really beautiful, AFTER removing the needles. She also had 7 swelled egg sacks inside her. SO, that's 8 Fer de Lance, less to worry about.

Bull snake vs squirrel.

http://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/predator-hunting/articlecontent/6/2013/5195/video-bull-snake-and-squirrel-fight-on-the-back-patio

Good on ya Harold. Glad you dispensed it with no injuries to yourself. Hope to see some pics.