Guess what I found in the front yard

[DeadAye]

They really do taste like chicken.

We don't see many Rattle Snakes here in SWTN (I believe they are here, but I've never seen one). However we do have an abundance of Cotton Mouths - They taste more like frog.
Folks tell me that Copper Heads taste like owl, but I've never eaten one...

 

[wbraswell]

Tom, would that be a Timber rattler?

 

[OLDGUNMAN]

Grill for 30 min, then salt , then eat.

 

[Cyrano]

When a bunch of us were camped at an old indian rock art site, someone had killed a rattlesnake, and was offering segments to whoever wanted one. My wife was a little leery of the thing, and when she put it in the firing pin and it began to squirm when heated, she freaked. I finished cooking it, and eating it. She ate something else. It did taste a little like chicken.

 

[fat tom]

Tom, would that be a Timber rattler?

Canebrake is what we call 'em down here,but it is indeed a Timber Rattlesnake.
f.t.

 

[John Eilertson]

If that was me I'd have knocked it off, eaten it, and tried to make something out of the hide. I'm guessng you at least killed it...?

 

[novalty]

and when she put it in the firing pin and it began to squirm when heated

How abouts do you go about putting something in a firing pin?

 

[rchance]

Anyone have a rattlesnake holster? I think I'd like to have one. How about descretly getting me a rattlesnake skin next time friend.

 

[Steve in Vermont]

Question regarding snakes. We don't have poisonous snakes in Vermont and I've never shot one. There's a lot of conversation about shooting them with various guns. I know for the .38 they make a "shot load" made up of birdshot. Wouldn't this work well, especially in an urban environment?

 

[smith revolver cop]

I'll bet that snake guy took him home, fried him up, and now HE has a new belt!!!

 

[Aubie]

Only good snake is a dead snake. I would have told neighbors to leave if they did not want to watch snake die cause it's going to die if in my yard.

If there is one around, there are more, sooner or later it will show up. Maybe in screaming ladys yard. She seems to like them.

 

[mstuhr]

Howdy

Howdy,
Those things can be hard on pets and family.
If it is poison I kill it.

That is a picture of a picture (sorry) of old "Buddy" I don't know what got him, a timber rattler or copperhead. He had several bites over his lifetime but this one in the gums was a bad one. He ended up with a head like a 5 cent draft beer.
I don't want poisonous snakes around. I'd hate to have a leg like that dog's head.
Thanks
Mike

 

[Out West]

It was quite the scene to say the least. My next door neighbor knocked on my front door to tell me that there was a snake in our front yard. I went outside to find 4 neighbors standing in my front yard watching it crawl up towards the wall separating my front and back yards. Neighbors standing around complicates redneck yard aeration with the 12 guage.

I was contemplating between the long handled hoe and a headshot with a .22. With one neighbor shrieking and going into hysterics about how her daughter rides her bike up and down the sidewalk in front of my house everyday, I made the announcement that if no one had any issues I was going to take care of it.

Then my neighbor who knocked on my door asked rather incredulously if I was going to kill it. I told her that was the general idea since it wasn't safe having it in the neighborhood and I really didn't want to take any chances with trying to capture and handle it.

Then the shrieking neighbor goes into a dialing frenzy on her iPhone. Her hysterics become even more high pitched after calling 911 and being told the police do not respond to snake calls, neither does the fire department and animal control doesn't work on Sundays.

Now my next door neighbor's husband launches into a diatribe about being guilt ridden for buying a house and displacing a snake, how it shouldn't be made to suffer for our irresponsible development of the desert. I asked the neighbor if he had any kids or pets. He said they had a dog when they lived in Tucson, it died, it may have been bitten by a snake.

I'm about to go back inside and load up some .22 hollow points since the snake is now tightly coiled making a clean blow to the head with the hoe a little more complicated. Besides, it's a 5' long Mojave, I really don't want to get close enough to it with the hoe. Just then the hysteric neighbor screams that she's found someone, throws her iPhone to my guilt ridden neighbor and tells him to give them dierections and runs back down the street screaming to her daughter to get inside the house. Guilt ridden neighbor gives directions then explains to us that the Phoenix Herpetological Society is coming to capture and relocate the snake for a donation which he wil gladly pay.

I waited outside with my next door neighbor for about 1/2 an hour waiting for the Herpetological Society to show up. We wanted to make sure that we knew where the snake was and that no kids or animals tried to investigate. The kid from the Herpetological Society shows up and puts the snake in a bucket. I asked where it would be relocated to really hoping it wasn't the desert preserve across the road from our development. He said they relocate them off of a hiking trail at Lake Pleasant. Remind me not to go fishing there...

So in summary, my enlightened next door neighbors think I'm a primitive redneck, I don't have a new belt, my next door neighbor has a new iPhone and I'm never going fishing at Lake Pleasant again.

Good lord. Makes you wonder how any democracy survives more that a month. People are the reason that civilization doesn't work.

Out
West

 

[2fingers]

I would have shot it, chopped it into little pieces and then burned all of the pieces and scattered the ashes to the 4 winds just to make sure it was dead.

 

[Fishslayer]

That's a real beauty. As much as I admire reptiles of all sorts, rattlers in the yard is a no go.

I'da had a new hatband...

So... does the neighbor "guy" drive a Prious or a Miata?

 

[Texas Star]

Don't bet on it... In my experience, cats bitten by an eastern diamondback of any size.... DIE! The unfortunate nature of cats to "go hide" when they get sick is their undoing.

I had a client with 5-6 indoor/outdoor cats and they slowly disappeared over a 2-3 week period. When he cleaned out a brush pile next to his house, he found and killed a "medium" rattler. IIRC, one cat avoided the fate of the others. I tried to treat one but it died w/in six hours. I do not know the toxicity of a Mojave rattlesnake but would not like to find out the hard way.

The toxicity of a Mojave rattler is very considerable. Most populations also secrete a venom that is especially high in neurotoxins, which affect the breathing, heart, etc. Death may well come sooner than from a fatal bite from most other rattler species.

The neotropical rattlers are often also very neurotoxic. The basic Tropical Rattler (Crotalus durissis) causes the victim's neck to sag, as the muscles and nerves will no longer support the weight. Natives in some countries think it strikes so hard the neck was broken.

Of the US rattlesnakes, I think the single species most likely to kill a man is the Mojave. The Diamondbacks, East and West, kill more people, but that's probably because they bite more and have wider ranges. The Red Diamondback is said to be generally less irritable than the Western Diamondback and somewhat less lethal. I'd not like to test the theory, but that's what the books say...

The latest data suggest that some species are more dangerous than was thought. C.v. helleri bites seen on Animal Planet are sometimes pretty grave. I'm sure that some victims would have died had they not had the help of specialist doctor Sean Bush, who is very experienced in dealing with snakebites. Many doctors have never treated one.

One poster seems to think there is a difference between the Mojave rattler and the Mojave green rattler. The difference is simply that the color varies some with the locale. The scientific name remains the same.

T-Star
P.S. There was a question about the Timber rattler vs. the Canebrake rattler. The latter is a differently marked specific subspecies of the timber rattler, C. horridus. The Timber rattler is the species depicted on some very early US flags. The image of the snake was often accompanied by the words, "Don't Tread On Me!"

 

[peyton]

We lost our yard cat to a snake. He was a stray and my wife "adopted" him. Darth(yep that was his name) was great and had been dumped. I came back from Iraq and figured if the cat was "ours" I took it to the vet and got shots and check up. Fast forward to this last April and my son says the cat has gone missing. Our landscaper was on the next lot and noticed the black fur under some brush, the cat was dead. He thought a snake got it because there was no damage to the body. Dang I miss that cat!! Over the course of the summer 4 snakes seen, one rattler killed, my son whacked him with the hoe.

 

[mod34]

They really do taste like chicken.

f.t.

Ah, the fabled "No-headed-rattler" so they do exist!

 

[Nimble Jack B.]

I run across more non-poisonous snakes than the alternative. I don't bother 'em. I just look at them as being out there putting a dent in the rodent and pest population.

Although a neighbor several years ago killed a Timber rattler, I've never seen one on my property, but the Copperheads are definitely around and I leave them alone too if they're not bothering me.

I saw the grand daddy of Copperheads one day (his head was as large as a deck of cards) a few years ago while atop my tractor brush cutting about 100 yards behind my house, but he scurried off into the woods when he saw me and the machinery.

The main reason people get bit by Copperheads and other snakes is that they unknowingly or accidentally step on them (snakes can't hear) or they're just dumb enough to try and pick one up. Copperheads turn extremely aggressive when they're touched by anything; and when they bite, it's gonna be a long road to recovery for the "bitee"...

 

[oldman45]

You played around too long. It could have been killed easily without all the drama.

I kill cottonmouths here often and this is an upscale community with a police department. When I shoot one, I just call the police and tell them if they had any gunfire reports, I was me killing a snake.

Once somebody has to pay hundreds in vet bills or stays in a hospital for a few days due to a snake bite, they no longer worry about killing a snake.