Author Topic: snakes (Read 5685 times)

myronman3 · « **Reply #30 on:** September 20, 2005, 02:54:08 PM »

so you are saying if you caught someone killing a snake, you would kill them?

if so, you are opening a huge can of worms. maybe i am misunderstanding.

that being said, i have killed a truckload of snakes. not all that cross my path, but many a snake has met it's demise by my hand.

Captain_Obvious · « **Reply #31 on:** September 20, 2005, 02:59:06 PM »

No, no, you're taking that out of context. If it takes place in your yard or at work or at the deer stand, I couldn't care less, but like going into a preserve and just killing them for the hell of it, or going well out of your way to do it, I cannot elaborate enough on how offensive that is to me.

myronman3 · « **Reply #32 on:** September 21, 2005, 02:51:37 AM »

i can dig that.

around houses, they're in trouble. but in THEIR yard, it is a totally different situation.

KyBlue51 · « **Reply #33 on:** September 21, 2005, 05:44:26 AM »

As a youngster growing up on the banks of a N.C. trout stream I had a lot of encounters with copperheads and what we referred to as "water snakes"; plentiful but non-poisoness. The worst thing that they would do was drop out of over hanging limbs as you waded by while fishing; never failed to catch me off guard as they hit the water. I remember my father killed a big copperhead once and it had a bulge in its stomach. So naturallly he cut it open (thank goodness he had its body in the bottom of a trash can) because out came a crap load of baby copperheads. He said the mother would swallow them for safe keeping if danger was near. Well it didn't work, they all ended up being cooked well done in gasoline.

John · « **Reply #34 on:** September 22, 2005, 11:06:20 AM »

Not sure about that swallowing deal, but pit vipers give live birth instead of laying eggs, could be that old gal was just pregnant.

Land_Owner · « **Reply #35 on:** September 22, 2005, 12:58:05 PM »

Capt'n; My hat's off to you. The moccasins I have encountered in E. central Florida were all as ill tempered as flood plain bulls with limited time to the slaughter house and striking as often as mullet jump in the Indian River. They get that way from being pestered practically to death by 12 and 13 year old Boy Scouts. Bad dudes (not the Scouts) and I leave them alone (again, not the Scouts).

You are correct that the little poisinous ones (all kinds) are TROUBLE. They have a LOT of small neck bones that are Universal jointed and can reach around where their larger kin can't. I (now) leave them alone too. I caught a very frisky Coral snake once, alive and on the end of a stick, and believe me I knew enough about the hidden danger of that brand to leave it well enough alone. I let it go to continue to control the rat population. Pretty colors up close but too deadly for any "close" encounters.

I won't hesitate to catch a Brown Water snake and once when bitten by one, got the sickness of my young life. Bad rot on their teeth. Like alligator mouths (you can die from the stuff growing in there - if the bite doesn't kill you). Very badly sick. Handling snakes is not for everyone, except most young boys who when grown up are never "really" grown up. Know what I mean?

KyBlue51 · « **Reply #36 on:** September 23, 2005, 05:43:34 AM »

Yep, that could be very true, John. I have heard other folks refer to the "swallowin' thing" but it might just be a myth, not sure...

John · « **Reply #37 on:** September 23, 2005, 06:41:29 AM »

I think it's already been mentioned here somewhere, but mythical snake stories are endless, when I think about it, I was told several in my youth that turned out to be un-true. The folks that told them, told them for fact because someone had told it to them. I guess those things are like alot of things around here...folklore.

I still remember finding a hog nosed snake when I was around 14. I was teasing it and had it all puffed up and on its back playing possum when an older fella that lived across the road from us back then came along to see what I was up to. He gave me a pretty good lesson on the dangers of the hog nosed snake except he referred to it as a spreading adder. He told me it was kin to the cobra, and probably the most poison snake in the USA.

No tellin' who told him that, maybe his father, or some old man when he was a kid. The difference between him and me though was that I knew the only poisonous snakes we had that are native to the USA were the copperhead, the cottonmouth, the rattle snake, and the coral snake.

I wasn't a smart ass when I was 14, so I didn't argue with the fella. Now if it happened after I was about 16............

KyBlue51 · « **Reply #38 on:** September 23, 2005, 07:26:27 AM »

Does anyone know the number of young a copperhead can bear at one time? It was along time ago but I remember there were quite a few that spilled out of this one.

John · « **Reply #39 on:** September 23, 2005, 09:31:26 AM »

It's common for a copperhead to have somewhere between three and ten.

I found a pile of baby cottonmouths one time. I guess something happened to the mother snake, maybe a trauma of some sort because something caused her to dump em still in the birth sack. I didn't count them, but there were several of them. They hadn't been there long, they were wet and looked like they had just came out, but they were dead. I went back to the place later...large rock on the bank of a pond in which I was fishing, and they hadn't moved and were starting to dry out.

Oh, those copperheads are born in late summer and early fall, one would think in the spring.

Heavy Chevy · « **Reply #40 on:** September 23, 2005, 11:33:46 AM »

You guys are all NUTS!
There are no good snakes!
The trouble with snakes is they are too damn sneaky. They're never where they should be.
Thanks alot guys, now I'll be lookin over my shoulder and sleepin with one eye open for the next two weeks.

Butch HC

John · « **Reply #41 on:** September 27, 2005, 09:08:06 AM »

Folks around here say they can smell both copperheads and cottonmouths. I think they might be windy. I've seen many of both species, and seen piles of the cottonmouths when they come out of the den areas in early spring. I kill around a hundred each spring for grins and 22 pistol practice, and I can't smell them.

Now let me back up just a bit with that bit of information. All snakes will let some crap and fluid out of the vent when ya mess with them...ever catch a snake and get crapped on....it's real common, and that stuff does have an odor, but to me it's nothing like cucumbers.

Maybe when one gets all stirred up and craps, but just to give off a stink, nah.

bullet maker · « **Reply #42 on:** September 27, 2005, 11:24:07 AM »

I have smelled cottonmouth`s, which is musky, and a little like a weak skunk. But only after they were alerted to me. The copper heads, have no smell, or at least I couldn`t detect any.

bullet maker

TCShooter · « **Reply #43 on:** October 06, 2005, 04:53:33 PM »

Quote from: Heavy Chevy

You guys are all NUTS!
There are no good snakes!
The trouble with snakes is they are too damn sneaky. They're never where they should be.
Thanks alot guys, now I'll be lookin over my shoulder and sleepin with one eye open for the next two weeks.

I agree! And to make it even worse, I went out to the four wheeler the other day and lifted off the seat to do some maint. on it and found two small snakes in the battery box under the seat. I probably would have been minus a four wheeler and picking hay out of my teeth if those things crawled up my leg while in was riding! :shock:

Around my house the only good snake is a dead snake.....but my son like them so I have to dispose of them when he is not around!