Look what the high water has flushed out

[cass]

Ever see the show on History Channel called "Swamp People?" The guy who hunts snakes at night...Willy I think. It was on last night. He looks kinda like Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He regularly rolls up on submerged snakes and just grabs them. Says he can't always tell the water snakes from the cottonmouths until he catches them.

You tell me. Middle of the night and he's hot boxing a marlboro red...smoke burning his eyes...holding a snake that's furiously tagging his forearms while steadying the boat and narrating the action. That's pumpkin berries right there.

When I was a whole lot younger, I used to hunt snakes both at night and day, in the swamp below Eagle Mountain Lake in N. Texas. Without exception, the Water snakes (Natrix) would make a hasty, submerged retreat, whereas a Cottonmouth (Agkistron) would arrogantly retreat while remaining on top of the waters surface. I don't see how anyone with just a little experience could get the two species confused. Also, both have their own, strong, different odor.

 

[Frank46]

Went to move an old rug that had been put out for the city to come and pick up. Found about eight white eggs about 3/4" in diameter and the same in length. Yep your right snake eggs. First time I've ever seen them. You would think what with all the water here in Louisiana they would be closer to the bayou. Evidently what with the current drought we are having the snakes are moving further away from their nests for water and seeking better nesting places. I've even found them swimming in my pool. The little 410 guage shotgun usually takes care of them. Frank

 

[oldman45]

In reality, I find ticks and chiggers to be more of a nusance than snakes.

For sure they are more plentiful but they are a lot more difficult to shoot. I can see how shooting them would make one become an expert marksman though.

Just make sure they are not attached to your skin before shooting them.

Remember that ticks and chiggers may be a problem, they do not send a person to the hospital or cemetary. Snakes will.

 

[Jswiney9]

*sigh* i hate reading snake threads, so much wrong and bad information.

 

[bk43]

We have a lot of cottonmouths and plain water snakes around here. In fact, killed a moccasin on the pool deck a couple weeks ago. I have touble identifying these things in the internet threads but can't imagine confusing them in real life. The cottonmouth will chill you to your toes and there is no doubt what you're looking at. They look like a cottonmouth...period. Don't matter if they're young or old or long or short or whatever. They look like what they is.

Kill 'um.

Bob

 

[BE Mike]

To be nice, I'll only say that anyone who says a cottonmouth won't chase people, has never been chased by one. I've had outdoor jobs in Florida and Texas. I've seen pigmy rattlers, eastern and western diamondback rattlers, copperheads and coral snakes...all in their natural habitat. The cottonmouth is the only one aggressive enough to have chased me. That being said, I understand (from the Ross Allen Reptile Institute) that in captivity, cottonmouth snakes become docile.

 

[Faulkner]

Remember that ticks and chiggers may be a problem, they do not send a person to the hospital or cemetary. Snakes will.

Not to stray from the snake theme, but ticks will indeed put a person in the hospital AND cemetary. Just within the past month a young man in his early 20's from our community got tick bit and was dead within two weeks with Lyme Disease. In another case, a teenage girl that goes to school with my son got 'tick fever' in April and went totally blind . . . she is just now starting to recovering her eyesight. Last summer a man I go to church with was in intensive care for a week with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a tick bite.

Ticks are a serious matter in the Ozarks. It's just not wise to get out in the woods or pastures without some kind of insect dope sprayed, smeared, or slathered on.

 

[Frailer]

I can only recall killing one snake on purpose (as opposed to with a lawn mower), and that was for examination in a parasitology class. It was a water moccasin a bit smaller than that one. If you think those are scary outdoors, imagine how scary they are *indoors*.

 

[Frailer]

With six million snake bites each year in the world and over 125,000 deaths from snake bites, there is no way a snake needs to live after being sighted...

Kill snakes.

In all of North America the number of fatalities from snakebite each year averages about 15. That's less than half the number of people killed by dogs in the U.S. last year.

Does this mean we should kill every dog we see?

 

[A10]

This thread makes me happy to live west of the Cascades, about the most poisonous thing we have are mosquitos, and the occasional transient spider. Mom was raised in Van Buren, and her dad was a share cropper with about 40 acres of his own. He always tried to keep the moccasins out of his livestock ponds, didn't want his stock to get bit. I have no idea of the actual threat, but he thought they were a problem and taught my mom to shoot by practicing at the snakes. This was in the 30's, not alot of information about the snakes back then. I've seen my share of rattlers east of the mountains. I've just left them alone when they weren't threatening me. BTW, heckuva snake picture!

 

[27145]

If you see a venomous snake, why would you let it live. How would you feel if you left it alone and found out a kid was bitten by one?

 

[Jswiney9]

If you see a venomous snake, why would you let it live. How would you feel if you left it alone and found out a kid was bitten by one?

because the chances of that kid being bitten by the same snake in this picture floating down a river are slim to none? I would also feel like the kids parents should have taught them a little about snakes.

 

[Frailer]

If you see a venomous snake, why would you let it live. How would you feel if you left it alone and found out a kid was bitten by one?

The odds are much greater that a kid will be killed by one of the thousands of honeybees you see each summer and yet allow to live.

I have no love for venomous snakes, but when you look at the situation rationally rather than emotionally they do more good than harm.

EDIT: for the record, I'm not saying that it's *wrong* to kill a venomous snake, particularly one that happens to find its way into someone's back yard, but by the same token it's not *right* to do so, either.

 

[Frank46]

Been bitten by bees, wasps, and one brown recluse spider. Still have the scar on my leg. for every snake you see there are many that you do not. I've seen pics and once a live cotton mouth over 6' long. They can and do grow to large sizes, usually have seen them in some of the dead end streams cut by the oil companies that do not get much human traffic and therefore almost unmolested. Frank

 

[stiab]

In all of North America the number of fatalities from snakebite each year averages about 15.

That stat is worthless. You assume that it is OK to get bitten by a snake as long as you don't die. What about the thousands of snake bites each year that cause pain, permanent tissue damage, and financial burdens? In a recent issue of Wildlife in NC, an article says that if bitten by a poisonous snake in this state, and treaded at a hospital, you can expect to live, and also expect a bill for about $40,000.

 

[Frailer]

That stat is worthless. You assume that it is OK to get bitten by a snake as long as you don't die. What about the thousands of snake bites each year that cause pain, permanent tissue damage, and financial burdens? In a recent issue of Wildlife in NC, an article says that if bitten by a poisonous snake in this state, and treaded at a hospital, you can expect to live, and also expect a bill for about $40,000.

I assume no such thing.

Want to compare the costs of dog bite treatments versus snake bite treatments? The difference is greater than the fatality stats by a couple of orders of magnitude.

As I said, I'm not telling anyone what they should do. If you want to kill every legless reptile you come across, go right ahead. But by the same token no one should tell me that it's better to kill a snake than to let it live--because it isn't.

 

[stiab]

Want to compare the costs of dog bite treatments versus snake bite treatments?

No, I don't. If I wanted to know about such things I would be reading a dog bite thread. There have been plenty of them on this forum and others. This is a snake thread, not a dog thread.

 

[Faulkner]

Well, as the original poster of this thread, I have run across yet another snake in only two weeks . . . I only hope there's not a third encounter in the near future.

This one has big, black, beedy eyes and an almost chartreuse green coloring the lenth of it's slim body. I went for my early morning run and discovered this slithery beast sunning in my driveway on my way back. Almost stepped on him. Fortunately, I had my camera handy in the car nearby, but he was so small I had to get really close for the macro lens to pick up on him. You can just tell by looking at those devilish eyes that he has wrath and havoc on it's mind for whomever crosses it's path.

 

[stiab]

discovered this slithery beast sunning in my driveway

Yep, looks like the dreaded 'Driveway Mamba'. I'd give that one a wide birth for sure.

 

[Slowhanddd]

Well if a snake makes to my yard and the SWMBO sees it,it's dead.They're all rattleheadedcoppermocasins to her.Big or small she hates them all.