Author Topic: Cotton mouth Moccasins (Read 11091 times)

Alan4620 · « **on:** June 05, 2009, 10:04:36 AM »

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this discussion,but I need help.

Does anybody have a remedy for keeping snakes out of the yard?

I know that a firearm of some sort will work,but poor Booker

(my 120# Newfoundland)does not know how to load my .410 and He has had the misfortune to dispatch 2- 3' water moccasins in the last 6 months.
(I've killed 3)

He must be getting smarter because this time He managed to not get bitten and cost Me $600. Small price for love and protection.

I would love to spread a line of "fairy dust" to repell these critters,but don't know what will work best,and not harm my dogs.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of problem?

Unfortuneatly my dogs are much faster than I am and get there first and by then the damage is done.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #1 on:** June 05, 2009, 10:07:05 AM »

Snake-be-gone or lime dust , put a circle around your yard . Make it a couple feet wide . One thing to consider if you trap then in they won't go out .

flintlock · « **Reply #2 on:** June 05, 2009, 11:00:37 AM »

What about a mongoose???

blind ear · « **Reply #3 on:** June 05, 2009, 11:39:10 AM »

Eliminate habitat, short grass-trmmed up shrubs- no standing water- get terriers also- eat more snake- hurry and move to Idaho. lol eddie

streak · « **Reply #4 on:** June 05, 2009, 12:20:35 PM »

In my youth had a lot of close encounters with old cottonmouth! Luckily never got bit,cottonmouths didn`t fair to well in these encounter`s!
One of the most go get`em animal`s for snakes are " Porky" pigs! They really tear into a snake and consume them on the spot!

Alan4620 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 05, 2009, 01:36:49 PM »

Eliminate standing water??? How do I drain a lake??

Move to Idaho,with 7 Grandkids in Florida?

It would be easier to teach Booker how to shoot.

torpedoman · « **Reply #6 on:** June 05, 2009, 04:09:03 PM »

pet pot belly pig

Foggy · « **Reply #7 on:** June 05, 2009, 04:24:02 PM »

Torp is right a pig will eat it's wieght in snakes

Alan4620 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 06, 2009, 02:57:38 PM »

Pig is not an option.First I live in city limits and second I already feed 5 dogs, a racoon and apparently snakes.Heck I even have a bird nest in the garrage now.I don't need more "pets".

I guess I need to sit on the back deck at night with the pellet gun for awhile.

Booker is doing great,I guess he learned after getting bit last year,cause He bit this snake in half.Good Doggie!!My protector.Other 4 are just big sissies I guess.

Love my Dogs!

Alan

blind ear · « **Reply #9 on:** June 06, 2009, 06:48:36 PM »

Kayaks and grand kids with pellet guns. Your own boarder patrol. I couldn't leave grand kids or kids either.
LOL eddie

blind ear · « **Reply #10 on:** June 07, 2009, 12:33:17 PM »

LOL: lots of luck/love; lol: laughing out loud

45-70.gov · « **Reply #11 on:** June 07, 2009, 01:59:27 PM »

Quote from: Alan4620 on June 05, 2009, 01:36:49 PM

Eliminate standing water??? How do I drain a lake??
Move to Idaho,with 7 Grandkids in Florida?
It would be easier to teach Booker how to shoot.

grand kids some pellet guns

banana split bounty on every snake

every one is happy...but the snakes

Rustyinfla · « **Reply #12 on:** June 18, 2009, 04:42:02 PM »

Alan, those moccasins are just plain mean. they'll chase you if they get a chance. Not like other snakes that will run when they can. I grew up in SW Fla we had 'em thick down there. I'm in Central Fla. now and even though we don't have as many there are still a few. Growing up we used to bird hunt a lot back when there were quail to hunt. We carried an anti venom kit for the dogs. Talk to your vet and try ordering online you should be able to treat the dog at home for 75-100$.

mannyrock · « **Reply #13 on:** June 19, 2009, 04:03:13 AM »

Lime dust would be a bad option for a yard with dogs. If you or your dogs inhale the dust, it will burn your lungs, and you will be coughing for months. (I found this out when I spread about 30 bags on a large garden, by cutting the bags open and pouring them out.)

Here is a good,, but expensive, solution. Have you though about a fence, maybe three feet tall, made of hardware cloth? (Hardware cloth is what you see on the bottom of rabbit cages; it is welded wire, with squares of only 1/4 inch each. It is very very strong). I believe you can buy it in rolls that are 36 inches wide, or 48 inches wide.

Using treated lumber, build a good fence framework 36 inches to 48 inches high, along the back of your yard, and then staple the wire in place using galvanized fence staples. Make sure you dig a trench about 4 to 6 inches deep along the fence line, and puts the wire 4 to 6 inches deep into the ground. (You will probably need to build a gate in the fence, to have access to your lake.) Run the fence along the lake front, and about 15 yards up, on each side of back yard. Clear out any underbrush for six feet on both sides of the fence, and keep it cut short. Spray the fence with round-up every three months, to make sure that no vines or weeds grow up into it. Then, spread white chipped marble along the outside perimeter of the fence, at least two feet wide along the fence line. (This will make it really easy to see a snake that is lying along the fence line.)

Yes, I know that a big snake can climb over a 36 inch tall fence, but I'm betting that 95% of them won't, and you will find them curled up against the outside of the fence. Make a quick patrol every morning and evening with a shovel, and just chop the shovel down on the far side of the fence to cut a snake in half.

The one-in-ten snake that climbs the fence can be handled by the dogs.

No matter what this costs, I would do it. Having poisonous vipers in the backyard would be intolerable to me. I simply couldn't live with it.

Regards,

Mannyrock

AlabamaBoy · « **Reply #14 on:** June 29, 2009, 02:13:44 PM »

Try some Golf balls . The snakes think that they are bird eggs and try to eat them ,they can't digest them and end up dying .

Dee · « **Reply #15 on:** June 29, 2009, 04:11:35 PM »

Alan I live across the road from where I grew up. I'm 60. This hill has always been bad for copperheads, and they don't run. When I retired and moved back I fenced in a half acre around the house and bought a male Jack Russell terrier. Not the pet quality, the hunting strain. Other dogs? Warning! HE DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS! HOWEVER! I don't have anymore copperheads and when I bought the place I was covered up with copperheads. Haven't seen one in 7 years.
Got water moccasins in the tanks, but they come in the fenced area and their history. Some of my neighbors like my dog although he doesn't like them, and some hate him cause they HAD cats. Anyway, that's how I got rid of them.
Also, when a dog gets snake bit they seldom EVER die. What they do is develop an immunity after being bit several times. They swell up (usually the head) and hair falls out, but they get smarter, and suffer less bites, and when they do, they suffer less.
It is an age old battle here North Central Texas, and dogs (especially terriers) are the best control method. Their faster than most dogs, and the Jack Russells are holy terrors on ANYTHING that gets in the yard. Including other dogs, regardless of size. That can be a problem, but at my place, if Huff can't whip the other dog my 870 can.

mannyrock · « **Reply #16 on:** July 03, 2009, 01:15:50 PM »

Ummmmmmm, errrrrrrrrrr, . . . my little wire fence idea sounds a heck of lot easier!!! :-)

Regards,

Mannyrock

blind ear · « **Reply #17 on:** July 04, 2009, 04:01:51 AM »

Started teachin Booker to shoot yet? ; :oD

Dee · « **Reply #18 on:** July 05, 2009, 02:37:09 PM »

Quote from: mannyrock on July 03, 2009, 01:15:50 PM

Ummmmmmm, errrrrrrrrrr, . . . my little wire fence idea sounds a heck of lot easier!!! :-)

Regards,

Mannyrock

Sounds more like a lot of work for nuthin to me. There are all kinds of theories out there, like putting a rope around your sleepin bag to keep snakes out.

If you your gonna "wall'em out" your goin to need more than what your proposin. I have been around moccasins and copperheads (ratter's too), all my life (60 years) and there really IS NO WAY to keep them out if you live in THEIR HABITAT. Folks over the last several hundred years in the south have found that a good terrier is the best "preventative" there is. If the snake does WONDER into the yard, he (the terrier) is likely to find him and kill him before he gets into the house, barns or the kids. That's just the simple truth of the matter.

Alan4620 · « **Reply #19 on:** July 06, 2009, 04:17:29 PM »

Thanks for all the ideas and humor.

I have done some clean up between me and the pond,and put out about 12 D-con boxes in my shed. I guess I had a rat problem that was attracting the snakes.

They would empty a box a night.After a week or so I still have a box left I guess they are gone? $:-\$

Booker can't seem to get the hang of shooting,becides He says they taste too darn good.

At 90+ lbs who is going to argue with him?

Thanks again
Alan

Dee · « **Reply #20 on:** July 06, 2009, 04:22:32 PM »

Keepin an area clean and a snake hating dog is the best prevention Alan. Good fences make good neighbors, but seldom ever stop snakes.

rex6666 · « **Reply #21 on:** July 09, 2009, 11:05:34 AM »

The big problem with "cottonmouths" is that about 95% of the water
snakes are not cottonmouths.

Dee · « **Reply #22 on:** July 09, 2009, 02:00:45 PM »

That rex is the truth. Most are just water snakes. A blunt tail is the giveaway to being a cottonmouth. The sharp pointed ones are harmless unless your a frog or minnow.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #23 on:** July 10, 2009, 05:33:06 AM »

If you have ever seen a real cotton mouth of any size you will know it .

blind ear · « **Reply #24 on:** July 10, 2009, 07:03:15 AM »

My pop always said if you see one cotton mouth you better watch for another one because they often run in pairs. Growing up in the Mississippi Delta in rice fields, sloughs, the banks of Quiver River frog hunting and fish farming as an adult I found this to be true. Water snakes arn't a shy as "soul mocossas" and lack the characteristic square/muscular jaw. I have fallen down too many times while walking a water floom and found myself eye to eye with a "blunt tail". It isn't fun. eddie

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #25 on:** July 10, 2009, 07:53:51 AM »

Walling out snakes is a complete waist of time.
My old neighbor had a terrier bit by a rattle snake. I helped to fenc off the back yard. there were many ideas of how and after reading one of the est way was to take a fine mesh and put it on the out side of the fence with a curl to it at the top that loops back to keep the snakes from climbing up it. About 2 feet up the fence there was a 6" curl and the fence was burried 6 " below the ground.
Well worked great on the little rattlers but we cought a 6' one in the back yard trying to eat the most worthless yapping chouhoua how ever you spell that stupid mexican city and dog. Unfortunatly the 22LR found the snake before the snake cornered the dog.
Best we can figure is the snake just went over the fine mesh being 6' long he was able to get above the curl.
We also found that if we limited the ground squirrels and rabbits it limited the snakes headed to the yard to hunt them.

Alan4620 · « **Reply #26 on:** July 10, 2009, 01:50:47 PM »

I'm no expert by any means ,but a spade shaped head 3'+ long and 1 1/2" long fangs fat through the body and a very short and slender tail. Light colored stomach and a dark greyish back.
I ain't gonna ask too many questions.

Alan

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #27 on:** July 10, 2009, 02:49:32 PM »

It is easy to tell the pioson snakes out here, they make noise.
In NC It is harder as they don't rattle at you.
but easy way to kill them is to stick the 22 rifle down to them with one hand.
If they are poisonous they will line up on the front sight getting ready to strike.
Afer about a second just pull the trigger. bullet goes right through thier throat.
This is where I like the super fast hollow point stuff. Big hole and the snake will wriggle around for a while.
With the rattlers it leave a good pelt and lots of meat.

blind ear · « **Reply #28 on:** July 10, 2009, 04:36:44 PM »

Woodduck, how do you cook a snake? When I did there was meat about the size of a pencil on each side of the spine, small snakes. Do you boil until the bone are soft and then fry and eat bones and all? One was a rattler and the other was a blunt tail. eddie

deernhog · « **Reply #29 on:** July 12, 2009, 02:49:27 PM »

Rattle snake is good, the cottonmouth has always stunk too bad to mess with. Skin the smaller rattler, then cut in chunks about 2" long. Rolled in egg and cornmeal then fried in deep grease is good. Just pick it away from the bone. The big ones fillet the meat off and fry like a fish stick in egg and meal.