You never know...Snakes Alive!!!!...or dead

I know one place that one was this afternoon...

I had finished up splitting the pine I got last weekend and the little bit of white oak I had left in rounds. I'd *slightly* straigtened up around the wood stacks and was putting the rakes in the garage. Mind you, our garage is kinda cluttered....really!, no kiddin' Anyhow, I sat the rakes against the wall and something made me look down to the baseboard beside the yard tools. There it lay, thinking I hadn't seen it. Well, the closest thing I had was a flat scoop and I knew I had one shot at it or it would disappear into the clutter of the garage...where the wife washes clothes. :grrr:

I took careful aim and nailed him across the back. But, he was mad and definitely still alive. I couldn't let him go so I kept him pinned donw till I could get my hands on the trusty, rusty BUSH-HOOK! (I like snakes, but...too bad if you're a really big snake lover)

Anyhow, after a few tense moments I managed to retrieve it from the clutter. It was small, around 2' long. Just a couple of rattlers. Timber rattler. Nice way to end the day.

My wife really didn't like it when I told her about the cool green snake that was in the "gap" between our house and her mother's trailer...she really ain't gonna like this...but, I gotta tell her so she'll be on the look out. I guess the dry weather is getting every thing moving and looking for food and water.

Summary: Timber Rattler + My Garage = DEAD SNAKE

Yours truly,
Ed

PS... This snake had a big stink to it, too!

:lol: +100 Right on.

I've been up on upper deck 35 floors + during high-rise office tower construction,high bridges,parking ramps,atriums connecting 2 buildings etc,up 70-80ft in a tree,over 150 ft up on scaffolding,underground 50-60 ft in tunnels underneath buildings,along a river & under streets - None of that bothers me,if I've been away from it for a while,it sometimes takes me a few hrs or so to get acclimated again,then I'm fine.

Spiders,ticks etc I brush them off,more annoyance than anything.But snakes are my one true phobia.

If I see one in the woods,its dead,even a little bastard lol.Dont even visit the reptile exhibit at zoos if I know what part they're in first.Alligators & Crocs are cool though,always like checking them out.

Samd here. i dont even like to see a dead one. just nasty and freaky looking

I was just talking to a state forester - a real, good, balance of business and environment guy. He said that breeding / growing conditions need to be just right for rattle snakes, thus they never get too far from one of these spots. We've owned this farm since almost 100 years before Stihls were invented, and I've never heard of a rattle snake. Go one mile up the hill, and they can be found.

Finally, a win!

Bill

There are still rattle snakes in Ohio! hh:
We even have some here in Michigan.....not many but there still out there.
The ones you really have to watch out for are the hybrid Copper headed Rattle Moccasins :lol:

Timber rattlers up in the north tend to stay close to rocky upland outcroppings, from what I understand. Females stay closer to the overwintering den especially if they're getting ready to have babies (about every 3(?) years and they only have about 1/2 dozen of them. There personality is really a non-aggressive one...but, they'll still bite you if provoked. An interesting thing is that it takes several years for a timber rattler to come to maturity and they can live at least 12 years. The males will roam further than the females. In the winter they will "co"-den with copperheads and other snakes. I wouldn't have killed this one if it had been out in the wild, but being in the garage...it had to go. This morning two of my dogs signaled where the snake had been...and I still could smell it this morning. As I moved in closer to the "clutter" something made a noise and kinda spooked me. After church I went back to the area, but didn't see, hear, nor *smell* anything. Not sure if it was a new snake's scent that I smelled this morning and it had left or if the scent from the snake from yesterday had finally dissipated. :-S

Ed

[/quote]
Not sure if it was a new snake's scent that I smelled this morning and it had left or if the scent from the snake from yesterday had finally dissipated. :-S

Ed[/quote]

I always heard old wives tales that snakes can "smell/taste" a dead snake in the air, so around here alot of folks will hang them on their fences (still freaks me out!). maybe worth a try?

Aw man, you reminded me of an old wives tale that I've heard before, too...that hanging a dead snake on a fence would bring rain! ...and man, we definitely need rain down here!

Ed

Here's one I found when I was taking out the last of one stack. This picture is probably a year old now. These things act like rattlesnakes but are only actors. Milk snakes they are and can grow quite large.




Here's another I posted in the Picture forum. One hungry snake!

I once canoed a 100-mile section of the Allegheny River and kept an eye out for copperheads, which I was told were numerous, but saw nary a one.

The day after I got home, I went to play golf and encountered a copperhead in the middle of the fairway.

Still pondering that one...

Nancy

any of you winter fans (mainly snomobiling) can relate to all the snow snakes we have here. some of 'em really get big!

Nah. Around here, the snipes keep 'em in check.

My friend who is a state forester has pictures of a Timber Rattler that was found about 3 miles up the road from my house so I usually try to keep an eye out for them when in the woods. I have never had much of a snake problem in my woodpiles ever since we got the Jack Russell Terrier as she tends to tear any snake she finds to pieces. If there is anything hiding in the woodpiles she will spend a whole day climbing the woodpiles and digging to get at it. The only time I get annoyed is when I have to re-stack because she is tearing wood off the stacks. In 7 years we have only had to take her to the vet once because she got bitten by a copper head but she was back out there and at it again the same day she got home.

+100

Want to or not, there's generally no reason. They're usually doing you a favor. Until critters start screwing with my house or garden- they can do what they want here. I wouldn't want to live where there's more poisonous snakes (never seen one in the wild here).

I could use a few big snakes to eat some of the excess rabbits around here. There just aren't many snakes in my area. Too bad, I like snakes.

I take it you live by the "never seen a handbag I didn't like" philosophy. :cheese:

For years we had cats around the house...at times, too many of them. During that time we had field mice off and on, also, with the occasional rat running between outbuildings. After the last cat met it's untimely demise we noticed a slight bump in mice activity. Then suddenly...no mice. We started seeing more and more purple tailed skinks, fence lizards, and plain old green lizards...and a few occasional non-poisonous snakes. I really hate that I had to get rid of the rat snake the other day. And I really didn't want to kill the timber rattler but I've had a rule since I was a teenager that if a poisonous snake is around a populated area (close to a house) I kill it...down in the swamp, though, I've seen some cotton mouths and copperheads that could eat a goat and I let them move unimpeded on their way. The second thing I thought about after I alerted to the rattler was how pretty it was...stocky build, classic timber rattler pattern, black tail. The second thing I thought of was that it was probably in the garage hunting lizards.

Anyhow, that's two snakes I've had to remove from the immediate vicinity of the house in the last couple of weeks....I hope the mice don't decide to do a commando raid on us. ;(

Ed

<chuckle> I hear ya Jags. Not only can they move fast, but climb....those suckers can CLIMB I've got a martin gourd rack out beside the house. One day the birds were raising cane and there was a rat snake coiled up on one of the cross-arms...it had got past a stove-pipe predator guard (top about 3' off the ground) and had climbed a 15" 2-inch galvanized pipe. I knocked it off with a pole and carried it to a new territory. I don't mind having the non-poisonous ones around the house but the poisonous ones...nah.

We also have some large king snakes around, though I haven't seen one this year.

Ed

AGREED!

That's when I KNOW it's time to go home


KC

I paid 3 grand for my last snake.