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

[firebroad]

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.

 

[firebroad]

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...

First time I saw a Northern Ringneck, it was so little it had gotten itself tangled in a cobweb under the porch rocker. I had no idea what it was, or if it were poisonous, so I got my gloves on to get it out. I was so unnerved though, so I asked my young neighbor who was washing his car if he would do the honors. He identified it as a copperhead, but I knew that it wasn't. I had him relocate it underneath the shed to get fat on bugs, and later on vermin.

 

[westkywood]

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?

Snakes do not care for their young. Babies are on their own.

 

[westkywood]

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

Why? Can you explain why you hate them so much? Just always interested in hearing why.

 

[westkywood]

First time I saw a Northern Ringneck, it was so little it had gotten itself tangled in a cobweb under the porch rocker. I had no idea what it was, or if it were poisonous, so I got my gloves on to get it out. I was so unnerved though, so I asked my young neighbor who was washing his car if he would do the honors. He identified it as a copperhead, but I knew that it wasn't. I had him relocate it underneath the shed to get fat on bugs, and later on vermin.

Ha. EVERY snake is identified as a Copperhead. Or if its near water, its gotta be a Cottonmouth.

 

[Wood Duck]

If you're worried about serious injury, stinging insects kill more people than snakes kill. I can tolerate bees, which at least serve a purpose, but I really have no patience for Yellowjackets and Hornets. Not like I can do much about them except swear at them or come back on a cool night with bug spray.

 

[Delta-T]

I see poisonous snakes just as frequently as I see unicorns, and I'm not reactive to bees/hornets/wasps...but I hates me some ticks (had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever). I dont even wear shorts when walking in or near the woods anymore. Deet from ankles to hat, dryer sheets in pockets (have no idea if that works really, but I read it somewheres). Never again! Bloodthirsty savages.

 

[Shane N]

Why? Can you explain why you hate them so much? Just always interested in hearing why.

They just freak me out and are completely disgusting. The place I grew up at had harmless garter snakes everywhere. You are walking around the yard and all of a sudden one jumps out and "bites" you.

Don't worry, I don't just hate snakes. I kill spiders too.

 

[Shane N]

I see poisonous snakes just as frequently as I see unicorns, and I'm not reactive to bees/hornets/wasps...but I hates me some ticks (had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever). I dont even wear shorts when walking in or near the woods anymore. Deet from ankles to hat, dryer sheets in pockets (have no idea if that works really, but I read it somewheres). Never again! Bloodthirsty savages.

Use products with permethrin instead of deet. Much much better tick repellent. (http://www.lymeneteurope.org/info/deet-versus-permethrin-as-a-tick-repellent)

 

[gmule]

Where I live there are only 2 snakes that dangerous to humans the Western Rattle snake and the Plains Rattle snake. At my altitude of 8500 feet asl we seldom see any snakes. I think it is due more to the harsh winters than altitude. Snakes eat a lot of mice and other rodent type pests. The rodents here carry the plague or the hantavirus. I would rather have the snakes than the rodents.

 

[bmblank]

They just freak me out and are completely disgusting. The place I grew up at had harmless garter snakes everywhere. You are walking around the yard and all of a sudden one jumps out and "bites" you.

Don't worry, I don't just hate snakes. I kill spiders too.

I hate insects of any sort. If it naturally has more than 4 legs i don't like it. That being said, if its outside it can do its own thing. Except sink bugs. I kill those because I'm positive it'll end up in my house if i don't kill it. Some people get those lady bugs (Japanese beetles), where i live its sink bugs.
If it naturally has 4 legs or less it doesn't bother me. Snakes, worms, frogs, hell, even leaches don't bother me.