Snake encounter

[Sullyman]

Attic snakes

Only dispatch the venomous ones. Had two of these nonvenomous black snakes in the attic. They were relocated/set free. The wife can deal with mice better than snakes.

By the way I got shot shells for my .22 rather than the .38spec that I used on the copperhead. Allot cheaper per inch

 

[788Ham]

A guy I was in the Navy with, Stroup, lived in Rolla, Missouri, being so hot, they leave the front door open, just the screen door closed. In the middle of the night he gets up to use the John. When he reaches for the paper roll, he hears this hissing sound, pulls his hand back, thinks its the toilet, so reaches back again, same thing, he leans forward and turns on the light and then looks back, a big Moccasin layin' by the crapper! He said "Ham, all I could do was holler snake when I jumped off that crapper and went through the screen door!" I asked him if he ever got the snake, "Hell, I don't know what happened to him, I slept in the pickup the rest of the night."

 

[shiftyer1]

I've been here 2 years and the first year was the year for snakes, holy cow I found copperheads everytime I mowed and many many more on the driveway. Copperheads, rattlesnake, cotton mouths and several non venomis snakes, this year I saw some in the driveway and only one copperhead and one rattlesnake in the yard. Although I didn't have to mow this year due to drought but i'm hoping my luck holds in the snake department

I keep a 22 revolver with rat shot for the small ones and my security-6 for the big ones. Yes a shovel works but i'm not often toteing a shovel around. My wife could tell you all about holes in the floor due to a snake found under our kitchen sink in the cupboard!!! Never knew snakes will take dead mice out of a trap. 3 mice to be exact, checked the traps and decided to have my coffee and wake up before I cleaned them up. Who knows how long that snake had been in the house. It took me a couple years before I stopped ratteling pots and pans before I just reached in a grabbed them!!!!

 

[lizziedog1]

I live in the high desert. I have been here for just over five years. This is rattlesnake country.

When I first moved here everyone was telling me about all the rattlesnakes they were seeing. Last summer I saw my first one.

It was on a trail I was on. It was early morning, it was cool enough that the thing hardly moved as I walked around it.

That is the only one I have seen here.

 

[brnmuenchow]

my wife said burglars could loot our house, call a taxi and wait for it by the time I got the gun ready

That is funny, but yeah I would put those in a place a little easier to find.
We have Rattlers and Copperheads all over Texas, and it's alway's at the back of my mind when I am out walking around.

 

[hiker44]

We must have a rattlesnake den near here, because we see a couple a week during summer months. I made some snake sticks from mop handles with a piece of 1/4" plated steel bent and glued into a hole in the working end. I keep them in the truck, on the deck, in the barn and on the ATV. I also keep one revolver loaded with CCI snake shot ready to go in the safe, and another on my belt when I'm outside. Wifey prefers the 20 gauge by the back door and the dog has been to snake aversion training. We got it covered.

 

[Flintknapper]

Hiker44 wrote:

and the dog has been to snake aversion training.

My Daughter’s Dachshund has had Snake Aversion training too (home schooled and unintentional though).

In fact, I was walking him at his very first “class” (Copperhead bit him).

I guess he’s a Quick Study….because he most definitely has an “aversion” to snakes now.

Actually, he will jump straight up in the air and yelp a little if even a grasshopper springs up on him.

 

[memphisjim]

i was once surveying in slow moving shallow creek
the entire area was infested with water mocasins so much that it got scary walking around at one point a black snake sneaks up behind me in the creek after running like a school girl i returned with a jo blade and decapitated it the body continued moving for well over an hour it wasnt a water mocasin but the whole crew was wanting some snake blood

 

[41 Mag]

41Mag,

That was a "hoss" of a Copperhead, big thick one. He was charmed to live long enough to get to that size, also had been eating well apparently.

Good of you to relocate it. That one is a "Southern", we have the "Broadband" too, I am sure you do as well.

Agree about the Rat Snakes (aka Chicken Snake)...a very beneficial snake...but unfortunately a lot of them are killed when they show up around houses or outbuildings.

People get the Willies....over them because they get pretty darn big. They are a very docile snake however.

Yea Flint, those copperheads usually are only about a foot and a half for the most part, but they will still make ya plenty sick. That one I figured had been around for a good long time keeping out of everyones way, so I figured it ought to be relocated, rather than beheaded. Yea it was a good healthy one at that, been putting plenty of mice and rats away, probably plenty of moles as well.

As for those black ones yea they get pretty long for sure. I have a pic which you probably sw on my Webshots deal of one that when it stretched out was about 10" or so shy of filling up a 10' joint of 1 1/2" pvc. I chased it up into the stack of wood and he wouldn't budge so I headed over to get the wife to show it to her. When I cam back he was gone, so I reached in to pick up the pipe I was trying to use to get him out of the lumber, and it was WAY heavier than before. Sure enough he crawled right in there. We capped up both ends with rags and released him down on another 10 acres of ours.

We had another one one time in the shed coiled up behind some plywood standing against the wall. I kept hearing this buzzing sound when I would walk in there and finially looked behind the wood. He was all the way in the back corner of the shed. I got the wife to hold the plywood as I poked it with a rake handle. I told her "here he comes", and she replied "well he has been going around the corner of the shed for a while now", and I was still pokin him. I sure wished I could have caught that one he as a monster. He was stretched out over 8' behind the plywood and some more going around the door frame, and under the shed.

The wife, kid, and grandsons all know to leave them be, but to come get me if they find one or to just leave if I am not there. I try my best to show them which ones are harmful, so they at least keep an eye on them. We all keep a equal respect in that if they don't mess with us we won't mess with them, well to much anyway. I did make an ol milk snake so mad once it finally climbed straight up a big oak tree. That was pretty amazing to watch.