For Those of You that are Stomping Through the Woods...

[Lumber-Jack]

I'll exterminate black widows I find around the house, but rattle snakes just get relocated away from the house.
Killing them out in the wild seem a little cruel to me. Yeah they pack a mean sting, but more people are killed by bees every year than venomous snakes. They can hardly be considered aggressive, any rattler I've ever encountered did it's best to run (slither) away, it's only when they are surprised or cornered that they will try to bite a human.
But I realize lots of people have phobias of certain animals and things.
I tried to teach my kids early that snakes aren't inherently bad, but that some of them can be dangerous and need to be handled correctly.

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No animals or people were hurt in the making of this video, and the snake was safely relocated.

Mosquito’s are widely regarded as the most deadly creature on the planet, killing an estimated 3 million people per year.

 

[loadstarken]

TI'm still very vigilant though since the closest anti-venom is a 40+ mile drive.

Wow you're further out there than my in laws that live in Oroville!
I hate going out there in the summer because of the rattlesnakes and black widows!

 

[westkywood]

I'll exterminate black widows I find around the house, but rattle snakes just get relocated away from the house.
Killing them out in the wild seem a little cruel to me. Yeah they pack a mean sting, but more people are killed by bees every year than venomous snakes. They can hardly be considered aggressive, any rattler I've ever encountered did it's best to run (slither) away, it's only when they are surprised or cornered that they will try to bite a human.
But I realize lots of people have phobias of certain animals and things.
I tried to teach my kids early that snakes aren't inherently bad, but that some of them can be dangerous and need to be handled correctly.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

No animals or people were hurt in the making of this video, and the snake was safely relocated.

Mosquito’s are widely regarded as the most deadly creature on the planet, killing an estimated 3 million people per year.

Agree with you 100%. Killing anything in the wild because of irrational fears I'll never understand. Nice video.

 

[Jags]

Agree with you 100%. Killing anything in the wild because of irrational fears I'll never understand. Nice video.

I don't go hunting them down, but we do not share the same space. Period. My neighbor who is a snake lover (he has several), will relocate them. If he is around I do my best to let him do his thing, But if I get a timber rattler sunning himself in my front yard at the river...different thing. I don't consider it irrational because of the young ones or pets that are often running around. Snakes with fangs are fairly rare where I am at, but it happens. Copper head (cotton mouths) and timber rattlers are around.

 

[Applesister]

The only snakes I deal with work on the town board.

 

[mudbug250]

My sister lived in West Palm Beach Florida one time and had a house in a area that was still being developed. She called on day and she said she had found a snake in the back yard. I asked her what kind it was. She says,"It was a live one, but it is a dead one now!"

 

[privatejoker75]

Wow you're further out there than my in laws that live in Oroville!
I hate going out there in the summer because of the rattlesnakes and black widows!

We both love it here, luckily I work from home and wife works only a few miles away.

So far only 1 black widow and no rattlers though. We did have wolves up our driveway though....or VERY big coyotes (prints were bigger than my hand)

 

[privatejoker75]

Agree with you 100%. Killing anything in the wild because of irrational fears I'll never understand. Nice video.

Same here. The only thing i kill are spiders. We had mice in our attic, i trapped them all and released them on the other side of the river. I'm a pacifist I guess lol

 

[BrotherBart]

Four or five years ago I was sitting in my basement office after lighting the wood stove down there and getting ready for a busy day. The servers were humming along across the room behind me. I turned around to go up and get more coffee and a pretty good sized snake was coiled up on top of one of the servers keeping warm.

I escorted him outside.

 

[Paulywalnut]

The only Copperhead I've seen here was in the compost heap, trying to get warm. I slipped a golf iron under it and lifted it into a five-gallon bucket. As I understand it, they are not very aggressive.Called the snake guy at the zoo and told him a had a Copperhead for him. He said "Yeah, sure..." I took it over to him. He said "Hey, that's a Copperhead!"
Another time, my wife heard the Bluebirds pitching a fit, and yelled "Hey, there's a snake climbing up to that Bluebird house!" By the time I got there, he was part way inside. I grabbed his tail, swung him around my head a couple of times and flung him into the woods. All the SILs were impressed. But lots has happened since then and now they aren't all that impressed.

I'm thinking the bluebirds were impressed even more.

 

[westkywood]

I don't go hunting them down, but we do not share the same space. Period. My neighbor who is a snake lover (he has several), will relocate them. If he is around I do my best to let him do his thing, But if I get a timber rattler sunning himself in my front yard at the river...different thing. I don't consider it irrational because of the young ones or pets that are often running around. Snakes with fangs are fairly rare where I am at, but it happens. Copper head (cotton mouths) and timber rattlers are around.

Totally understand a venomous snake being in someones yard. Es[ecially with kids around. I wouldnt kill it, but most would. My irrational fear comment is aimed at people that carry a gun in the woods to kill every snake they see because they think it is going to chase them down or something. That is an irrational fear. They will not chase a person down. I see hundreds of venomous snakes a year and I've never had ONE chase me. Venomous or non-venomous.

 

[Ashful]

Back when I was very young, dad was surveying a construction site, when an excavator ran over a mamma snake. Thinking they were harmless, dad and a couple of the other workers took a few of the cute little baby snakes home in styrofoam coffee cups.

He put the two he took in an empty aquarium left over from my sisters hermit crabs, with a piece of wire mesh and a brick on top, but you-know-who couldn't leave them alone, and apparently took the brick off. Long story short, two baby copperheads got loose in our house!

Dad found one that day, and took it out to a big field behind the house, figuring it would probably die without mamma. He couldn't find the other, so mom and the kids went to stay with grandma for a while. The second one turned up sometime later, dead under a baseboard heater.

I don't know exactly when they figured out their cute little baby snakes were copper heads, but it was sometime while they were missing in the house. A few years later, a housing development was built on that field behind our house, and the local paper reported one day a very large copper head was found there. Ours?

 

[firebroad]

I have several rubber snakes that I use around the garden to discourage varmints. Works, too. One day the Grandson decided to get a rise out of his mother with one. She and her father used to keep ball pythons, but Grandson didn't know that. He left the rubber snake in a place she would spot it, and she just said, "Oh Gavyn, I'm not afraid of snakes, I used to keep them." Now, if he had left a toy spider or mouse around, she probably would have gone screaming into the woods...

 

[firebroad]

Copperheads can mess ya up - let my garden get out of control and a big pregnant one under a cucumber leaf got me with a full bite. 2 days in the hospital, these are pics AFTER the swelling went down a lot. That said, I still love snakes and take pics of them whenever I can..

Oh, THANKS, Osagebow, just what I wanted to see during gardening season., Still, I like your snake photos. We get black snakes, corn snakes and garters, and they are really helpful.

 

[Coal Reaper]

you guys in the northeast are all forgetting that its a 17 year cicada year!

 

[Ashful]

Really? Thought we just had a cicada year around 2004. Different breed / cycle?

 

[Coal Reaper]

Really? Thought we just had a cicada year around 2004. Different breed / cycle?

15 different broods apparently.

They're looking for just one thing: sex. And they've been waiting quite a long time.

Read more: http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/05/cicadas-expected-to-outnumber-people-600-to-1-88423.html#ixzz2ScSiGsrN​

 

[Ashful]

They're looking for just one thing: sex. And they've been waiting quite a long time.

Sounds like almost any man who's been married more than a few years.

 

[firebroad]

Sounds like almost any man who's been married more than a few years.

Ha ha ha!!

 

[Coal Reaper]

sounds like any man with over 2,500 post in a wood burning forum.

 

[Danno77]

we found a dude just like this in the yard last week. It was an indicator that I've done wrong by my kids:


He's not really venomous, not to humans at least (insert debate on term "venomous" and classes that apply). But he clearly is not a "garter snake" which is a term my children think applies to all snakes that are tiny.

Having seen me handle garter snakes and talk about how we like them and they eat bugs, etc, My kids think it's ok to pick up any old snake. Apparently that includes one that is brightly colored orange on the bottom and hisses and bites at you. So the lesson of the day had to become, "here's what a garter snake looks like. There are poisonous snakes around here, but to be on the safe side don't pick any of them up if it's not a garter snake. remember that poisonous snakes are all babies at some point."

Didn't want to have to deal with that. I thought son was dying the other day and that was from a wasp sting. I can't imagine that trip to the ER...

 

[Shane N]

Call me a bad guy. I'll kill any snake I see. I hate those bastards.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I would imagine if finding venomous snakes was an everyday occurrence around my home I'd be interested in population control too, even if it seemed a bit cruel. Fortunately it happens very rarely around here, so it's not a problem relocating them.

 

[osagebow]

we found a dude just like this in the yard last week. It was an indicator that I've done wrong by my kids:


He's not really venomous, not to humans at least (insert debate on term "venomous" and classes that apply). But he clearly is not a "garter snake" which is a term my children think applies to all snakes that are tiny.

Having seen me handle garter snakes and talk about how we like them and they eat bugs, etc, My kids think it's ok to pick up any old snake. Apparently that includes one that is brightly colored orange on the bottom and hisses and bites at you. So the lesson of the day had to become, "here's what a garter snake looks like. There are poisonous snakes around here, but to be on the safe side don't pick any of them up if it's not a garter snake. remember that poisonous snakes are all babies at some point."

Didn't want to have to deal with that. I thought son was dying the other day and that was from a wasp sting. I can't imagine that trip to the ER...

Those ringnecks are pretty! Weak saliva based venom is harmless (unless you are a salamander) despite the bright colors. Usually very docile but smelly as all get out! Have handled hundreds and remember maybe 3 or 4 attempting to bite. Usually cannot break the skin. Your truly venomous guys over there are all pit vipers- Copperheads, timber and massasauga rattlers, and maybe cottonmouths if you are in a swampy area or floodplain.

 

[Shari]

I have a cousin who lives in a rattlesnake area.

My cousin has an attached 2 car garage and in the summer time they park their cars in the garage with the windows open.

One day, my cousin hopped in the car to head off for work.......... got about a block away from home....... and felt a snake wrapping itself around her right ankle..........

Now when they park their cars the windows are always closed.