Back in the early '80's construction slowed down quite a bit here in God's country. So another fella and I headed off to Florida to build retirement homes for rich Nor'easterners. About the first week I was packin' sheeting boards for the roof. For me it's hard to see over a 4 foot wide board when I'm caryin' it so I was just followin' the path that I made in the dust, just followin' my old foot prints. About halfwaythrough the morning I'm carryin' a board watchin' my path and WHOA, right in my path all curled up and ready to bite is some kinda snake. Now I know most of the critters around here but I had been down there only about a week. I jumped back and dropped the plywood. He musta been fixin' to bite or somethin' 'cause his head was stickin' out from under that sheet of plywood and he was upset. Well to make a lon story short I splatted his head right back through that piece of plywood and skinned him.
can anyone identify this snake?
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Carl N. Brown
Member
I might be reading too much into yongxingfreesty's handle,
but it could be a case of our harmless snake resembling a
poisonous snake from someone's native country.
Which raises the question, how many of our non-venomous
snakes have a foreign lethal look-alike?
but it could be a case of our harmless snake resembling a
poisonous snake from someone's native country.
Which raises the question, how many of our non-venomous
snakes have a foreign lethal look-alike?
A water mocassin bite can be deadly, no question about it.
A true story that occurred some years back on my shift when I was working 911:
One spring (1997, I think) we had had been having heavy rains/thunderstorms in the area. A man had been working helping to try to salvage some of the stock from a flooded store and was bit on the leg by a water mocassin. Trouble is, he didn't know it at the time, figuring he'd just snagged himself on something, and continued working. He worked for a couple of hours, then drove home. Shortly after arriving home, he began having complications which he reported to us. At the back of my mind was snakebite, but I couldn't say for sure as I wasn't there. So we paged the call out as a possible anaphylactic reaction, and medics and ambulance arrived promptly.
The ambulance was almost unusually quick in leaving with the patient, who had requested transport to a hospital in Birmingham, AL, about 30 miles away. While enroute the man coded, having gone into respiratory arrest, and we paged another rescue for mutual aid with the ambulance. The second set of medics (from another department) were very quick in responding and one of the medics stayed with the patient on board the ambulance all the way to the hospital.
Obviously it was some time before we heard the specifics, but we learned from the last medic who responded that the man was very lucky to be alive. I don't think he was dramatizing when he said that if he'd been thirty seconds later, the patient would have been going to the funeral home instead of the hospital.
So, yeah, I agree that water moc bites are pretty bad!
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WuzYoungOnceToo
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Since the layman's standpoint is generally an ill-informed (and incorrect) one I fail to see a reason to cling to it while rejecting the more informed position.
That said...I've only killed one snake in my life, and that was while on a hog-hunting outing earlier this year. I was on TX public land in a "shotguns only (slugs allowed)" area with my Mossberg 500 and scope-equipped rifled slug barrel. After a long and unsuccessful morning of scouting for feral porkers I was returning to the parking area when, with about 30 yards to go, I spotted a large cottonmouth at the base of an oak tree along the path back to my vehicle. I froze for a moment and watched the snake from about 10 yds away. He appeared to be writhing about, but did not move away from the tree at all. After squinting a little I could see that there was a length of barbed wire wrapped around the base of the tree, and that the snake appeared to be caught in a loop in the wire. Screwing up a little courage (or perhaps stupidity) I decided to move closer. He was indeed caught fast in the loop of wire, which was just about the same diameter of the fattest part of his body. He had impaled himself on one barb that was angled toward his tail and, apparently in trying to move backward, caught himself on another barb that was angle toward his head. It was obvious that he wasn't going anywhere, and was in for an almost certainly long and painful death. Since freeing him from his predicament wasn't a viable option, I decided to put an end to his suffering. So I returned to my vehicle and swapped out my slug barrel for the smooth bore that I'd brought along in case I wanted to do some rabbit hunting. I then loaded it up with some #6 shot and returned to the tree. When I raised the gun the snake cooperated by raising his head and presenting his fangs. This allowed my to get the end of the barrel in close and take his head cleanly off.
A much quicker, far less agonizing death than the one he was otherwise in for. If not for that than I would have simply avoided the beneficial animal and been on my way. However, I also have a "you kill it, you eat it" rule. So I removed the (5' long...a big 'un) body from the barbed wire, skinned it, gutted it and took it home where I doused it in a little cajun seasoning and broiled it. Not bad, really. About on a par with 'gator tail, although a little tough and dry due to the decision to broil it rather than use a quicker (and wetter) cooking method.
Ghost Tracker
Member
Well, I've BEEN Water Moccasin bit...and his reputation for aggressiveness seemed perfectly intact to me!
But as a youngin' (about 8 years old) I proudly showed my Great Uncle Dub the big black (rat) snake I had killed in his barn while he was out plowing (my uncle was plowing, not the snake). Dub then calmly explained the snake's previous job of eating mice/rats in the barn. He then suggested that I spend the afternoon in the Tobacco Patch until I caught 2 (two!) snakes and put them back IN the barn as replacements. It was one of the best lessons I ever learned!
But as a youngin' (about 8 years old) I proudly showed my Great Uncle Dub the big black (rat) snake I had killed in his barn while he was out plowing (my uncle was plowing, not the snake). Dub then calmly explained the snake's previous job of eating mice/rats in the barn. He then suggested that I spend the afternoon in the Tobacco Patch until I caught 2 (two!) snakes and put them back IN the barn as replacements. It was one of the best lessons I ever learned!
Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
'Scuse you, WYOT, but from this layman's standpoint, does should it matter to us Chihuahuan Desert folks if it's a blacktail, a bandtail, or a Mojave? The particular KIND of rattler seems to me to be immaterial. They all have fangs, and they all are poisonous.
Explain to me how anyone is safer knowing the particular sub-species of rattlesnake?
Okay, I'll rephrase: From a practical standpoint, there are four and only four kinds of poisonous snakes in Texas.
It does help to know that the cottonmouth water moccasin is the only poisonous moccasin, as they're all commonly aggressive and will bite: The bite of a non-poisonous snake can be septic.
A word of advice: When fishing, do not use a shotgun on a snake if it's on the floor of your boat.
Art
Explain to me how anyone is safer knowing the particular sub-species of rattlesnake?
Okay, I'll rephrase: From a practical standpoint, there are four and only four kinds of poisonous snakes in Texas.
It does help to know that the cottonmouth water moccasin is the only poisonous moccasin, as they're all commonly aggressive and will bite: The bite of a non-poisonous snake can be septic.
A word of advice: When fishing, do not use a shotgun on a snake if it's on the floor of your boat.
Art
WuzYoungOnceToo
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No need to "'scuse" me.
The behavioral characteristics of a given species are very much material in terms of assessing its potential danger to you, as well as the best way to handle an encounter with it. You're free to cling to a simple-minded, "I don't need me no fancy book larnin'" approach for yourself, but don't insist that others so limit themselves.
See above.
How is that a practical standpoint? I mean, you just got done saying that all you cared about was that they all had fangs and are all poisonous. So you should now be claiming that there's really only one kind of poinsonous snakes, for "practical" purposes. The one's with fangs.
Here's an idea. If you encounter a snake, just leave it the hell alone/
I won't even ask how you managed to end up in a boat with both a loaded shotgun and a snake.
U.S.SFC_RET
Member
1. Cut your grass low!
2. Who has the right of way?
3. Give them a wide berth.
4. Kill em if you have to.
5. Jeeter don't pick em up!
2. Who has the right of way?
3. Give them a wide berth.
4. Kill em if you have to.
5. Jeeter don't pick em up!
Double Naught Spy
Sus Venator
If you are going to ignore taxonomy and biology and reclassify things based on a different perspective practical standpoints, then you have needlessly over-complicated the issue. I don't know why you would bother with a genus level of classification at all then. From a truly practical standpoint, there are TWO types of snakes, poisonous and non-poisonous.
Then I recalled that a herpetologist was killed by a boomslang in 1978, a rear-fanged colubrid snake (African) that was thought to be non-poisonous. As it turned out, a goodly number of colubrid snakes (colubrids being the largest family of snake in the world and are composed typically of what we consider to be non-poisonous snakes here in North America) are actually quite toxic. In many of the "non-poisonous" snakes are Duvernoy's glands, a pair of glands located on either side of the head behind the eye. These are the homologues (the evolutionary counterparts) of the venom glands of vipers.
In most cases, the method of envenomation is via grooves in the rear fangs, and not syringe-like hollow tubed fangs as in viperids such as copperheads and rattlesnakes. Some, including some North American varieties are highly toxic. However, the matter of toxicity is relative if the snake is incapable of penetrating human skin with its rear fangs or if it is incapable of delivering a large enough dose to be fatal. There have been reports of envenomated reactions from North American colubrids, but because of the shallowness of delivery or lack of delivery amount of venom, reactions are usually simple swelling, heat, discoloration. This cannot be said for some Asian, South American, and African colubrids that have proven lethal to humans.
So the reality is that there are more than just 4 kinds of poisonous snakes in Texas. The moniker of "poisonous" and "non-poisonous" does not really apply to our traditional way of thinking. It is more of an issue of whether or not the snakes are able to envenomate humans dangerously or not, and part of that danger will depend on the sensitivity of the human being bitten.
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