Another rattle snake encounter!

[Ed Ames]

As someone who has captured and released rattlesnakes from literally my doorstep, I obviously have a different perspective.

I would have zero problem with you killing a rattlesnake to eat it. That's just being a predator, a practice I agree with. But you don't eat them. I don't get it.

As far as the "venomous" card.... Rattlesnakes kill about 5.5 people per year in the US. TV sets falling off stands kill about 40 per year. Do you shoot all the unsecured TV sets you encounter too? Or if not shoot, have you at least secured your personal TV sets against falling on anyone?

As far as i can tell most of the people who kill snakes are doing so out of some sort of Mammal Pride/Furry First ideology where they would rather live around mice and rats. I guess I lived too long under the shadow of Disneyland because mice just don't seem that special to me.

 

[MtnCreek]

Are your views on predator hunting the same? Shoot only as food?

 

[Constrictor]

I've travelled 900 miles to release a rattler in her native habit. I believe there
Are some folks that do kill them out of fear but I think most are murdered for sport and fun. These people should be severely punished.

 

[MtnCreek]

severely punished.

If it were up to you, what would the punishment be?

 

[EmbarkChief]

To me a venomous snake around the hose is no different than a Black Widow spider, scorpion, Yellow Jacket, or other critters of that nature.

 

[DeepSouth]

As far as the "venomous" card.... Rattlesnakes kill about 5.5 people per year in the US. TV sets falling off stands kill about 40 per year. Do you shoot all the unsecured TV sets you encounter too? Or if not shoot, have you at least secured your personal TV sets against falling on anyone?

I HAVE to ask this question, Do you spray for spiders or kill spiders when you find them in your house? They kill less than 1 person a years in the US.
Just saying.

 

[Ed Ames]

Are your views on predator hunting the same? Shoot only as food?

Well, I have owned just enough livestock to accept "protecting my food" as valid as well. Or pelts; I would like a wolf parka as much as the next guy. But yeah basically eat it or leave it be. Especially with something like snakes where there is a direct consequence to killing them. I don't like being overrun by vermin even if they are mammals.

I HAVE to ask this question, Do you spray for spiders or kill spiders when you find them in your house? They kill less than 1 person a years in the US.
Just saying.

No, I don't. I have moved a few out of my house but I don't kill them even when they build webs right across my door and I end up walking outside before dawn and straight into a hugemongous yellow and black monster of a spider that ends up crawling around on my face while I am covered in web and thank you so much for the flashback to that.

I had a beautiful black widow (spider) living in my guest bathroom one year. No guests though.

 

[TarDevil]

"In the house" or "around the house" are two different areas. People who have no experience handling snakes certainly are better off dispatching them rather than trying to remove them from inside a house.

Outside, they can be encouraged to leave (including porches). Spiders and other insects are left alone unless they are in my house, storage buildings or boats.

 

[Constrictor]

If it were up to you, what would the punishment be?

6 months in jail and 6 months hands on in a wildlife preservation program.

 

[Ed Ames]

"In the house" or "around the house" are two different areas. People who have no experience handling snakes certainly are better off dispatching them rather than trying to remove them from inside a house.

I think even if I was more on the "death to snakes" side of the debate I would hesitate on that one.

Years ago I stretched out on my bed in my house in California and felt something move the, well, the term 'atavistic response' fits. I actually gained the power of levitation just long enough to rise up horizontally out of the bed, turn in mid air, and land on my feet about a yard from the bed.

I proceeded to capture a kingsnake (harmless vermin - and rattlesnake - eater, good guy to have around. I let it out in my garden.).

Chasing that snake and getting it into a rubbermade tub without damaging anything was challenging enough, I can only imagine doing the same thing swinging a shovel or a shotgun inside my house. Sounds like a guaranteed trip to the furniture store to replace something to me.

Snakes aren't that hard to deal with. The meanest of them can be managed with a length of PVC pipe with a loop of paracord run through it. Loop behind the head, lift, support the weight, carry outside. Not required for most snakes but it always works and less likely to wreck the furniture or stain the carpet (except for that unfortunate instinctual voiding issue).

 

[1SOW]

I've lived in West, North and South Texas. Pit vipers and Coral Snakes (Red touches yellow, kill a fellow.) are dangerous to say the least. The only real threat to them are cities expanding into their habitat and Rattlesnake Roundups--entertaining and informative. The young ones are more dangerous, they haven't 'learned' to spare their venom.
Lost a good dog to a rattler.

See one = kill one---maybe cure a good hide and save the rattles. Other 'native' snakes are welcome. I see it as no different than mosquitoes. I don't catch and release mosquites in a safe haven either.

 

[Teachu2]

The only snakes that cause me concern on my little five acres of the world are the rattlers. We have lots of gopher snakes and quite a few California Kings, but the drought here is pressuring more interaction with wildlife than normal. We lost a couple of bears locally last week, as they venture into residential areas looking for food and water.

The rattlers this year are, according to the old-timers in the area, more aggressive and less afraid of humans than usual. Combine that with my young grandchildren coming to visit, and you can guess what Grandma's policy is on rattlesnakes.....

 

[TarDevil]

Snakes aren't that hard to deal with. The meanest of them can be managed with a length of PVC pipe with a loop of paracord run through it. Loop behind the head, lift, support the weight, carry outside. Not required for most snakes but it always works and less likely to wreck the furniture or stain the carpet (except for that unfortunate instinctual voiding issue).

If you have that sort of thing on hand. I have to concede, most people are way to paranoid of snakes to keep their cool to deal with a snake that way. I've handled enough that it doesn't bother me to grab one by the tail and drag it outside, but a great many folks just can't force themselves to do that. I CAN understand the primal fear of finding one in your house and needing to get it - like - OVER.

But outside... anywhere outside there's just no reason to kill that critter.

 

[Ed Ames]

If you have that sort of thing on hand

The last time I needed something like that was for grabbing an unknown snake from under a chicken coop. I built it from found materials, used it once, and put everything back where I found it. The snake turned out to be a Texas Rat Snake which is another good guy snake, but not when it is feasting on chicken eggs instead of rats. It became somebody's pet (if you can call something that repeatedly bites the leather-gloved hand that feeds it a pet).

 

[Potatohead]

I'm not so sure (said somewhere above) they're just traveling across your yard and dont want to live there is totally accurate. Or you must be closer to nature than I am, if you're communicating to snakes about their living arrangements. How many have you asked?



But Im with most here, that I wont go to far out of my way to kill one. Im not trying to argue that point.


Hey, this thread has actually remained somewhat civil, considering the topic. Big pat on the back to all of us

 

[DeepSouth]

No, I don't. I have moved a few out of my house but I don't kill them even when they build webs right across my door and I end up walking outside before dawn and straight into a hugemongous yellow and black monster of a spider that ends up crawling around on my face while I am covered in web and thank you so much for the flashback to that.

I had a beautiful black widow (spider) living in my guest bathroom one year. No guests though.

Wow!
I have no further questions. Lol

I'll keep killing spiders and snakes anytime I please, to each his own.

 

[Ed Ames]

I'll keep killing spiders and snakes anytime I please, to each his own.

Yeah I'm just not that hungry. If I ever am...well the spiders will still probably be safe since I have never seen a spider with any meat on it, but the snakes had better be at least as careful as the squirrels.

 

[TarDevil]

I'm not so sure (said somewhere above) they're just traveling across your yard and dont want to live there is totally accurate. Or you must be closer to nature than I am, if you're communicating to snakes about their living arrangements. How many have you asked?

No snake whisperer, just educated myself since I spend a great deal of time outdoors. Each species prefers a particular habitat, and none of the snakes indigenous to the US prefer a grassy lawn. There's nothing in your or my yard for them to eat. Not enough, anyway. Besides, once they eat, they need somewhere really warm to digest their food, and that ain't gonna happen in your yard either. If you have an asphalt driveway, you may see see an after meal nap happening there.

 

[shooter1]

No, I don't. I have moved a few out of my house but I don't kill them even when they build webs right across my door and I end up walking outside before dawn and straight into a hugemongous yellow and black monster of a spider that ends up crawling around on my face while I am covered in web and thank you so much for the flashback to that.

I had a beautiful black widow (spider) living in my guest bathroom one year. No guests though.

The yellow and black spider is a common garden spider. Nonvenomous and harmless. As long as their webs are not in my way, I leave them alone.
I don't know what to say about anyone who would knowingly allow a venomous creature live in the house.
I don't knowingly tolerate things that living with me that can hurt me. Venomous snakes and spiders are promptly relocated to wherever they go in the afterlife, if they enter my yard. Just seems prudent.
str1

 

[Robert]

Each must decide what is best for their situation. Other than that this is done.