Well the snakes are officially on the move here

[Escape]

Are snakes dangerous? When you think of all the people who go missing each year without a trace, well it does make you wonder.

 

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I like these snake chaps for the rattlers we have out here, I hunt mostly in the eves so they aren't as active but when I am exploring areas I wear these kind http://amzn.to/1TgE9Bn

 

[RGINN]

Haha Gunsil, definitely no cottonmouths here in Colorado! And very few other types here at around 10,000ft. However, I am originally from Oklahoma. I had heard claims of venomous mocassins being on Cache Creek in SW Oklahoma and always doubted it, until I saw some that were caught there. It's a little far west and a little far north and probably the limit of their range. As to the sex of snakes, that tail length thing is a pretty good rule of thumb. But they actually make sexing kits for snakes which is basically an anal probe and more accurate. My son uses one in his research projects. Very smart guy about snakes. He's been published in 'Herpetologica' for a project they did down in Texas on cottonmouths.

 

[Limitool]

Did the dog apologize? Lol

Yeaaaaaaaa.... You mean one of the five we have now...? I'm saying it's the black lab.... her "batteries" are running real low lately. But, every morning she greets me, butt wiggling and doings growler's at me. She goes after the "small" game now.

 

[smokeythecat]

Gunsil, I am certainly not going to go out measuring a snake's tail to do a gender check.

"Southern" Virginia is slowly moving north. Winters are a little milder, and a creep into middle Virginia or Northern VA is not improbable for cottonmouths.

 

[Limitool]

To ALL.... Please don't kill snakes just because their snakes. I don't like to "find" them any more then anybody else .... across the board. But for some reason I've never freaked out upon finding one or suddenly getting close to one. They don't want to bite you anymore than you want to be bitten. All they want to do is survive, eat and live their life in peace.... just like you and me.

 

[RGINN]

Maybe another reason not to kill snakes. My son has told me about some research maybe indicating that rattlesnakes are learning not to rattle, because more and more often they are getting killed when they rattle. Evolution, I guess. If you've never heard it, that buzz is scary thing to hear out in the wild. I always take it as the warning it's meant to be.

 

[T.C.]

Snake eat rodents, kill all the snakes the rodents population explodes.

That's what hawks and owls are for....

 

[T.C.]

kill them all,only good snake is a dead one

ALL poisonous snakes die of lead poisoning when I come across 'em!!

 

[kcm]

That's what hawks and owls are for....

Don't know about your area, but snakes are a MAJOR predator of rodents in my area!! ...Then again, all we have are garter snakes.

 

[T.C.]

well there we have some brilliant thinking!! NOT

He's entitled to his opinion....same as you

 

[SilverFinger]

Yeah, not a copperhead. Looks like a grass snake.

 

[Limitool]

Another snake fact: How do you tell whether a snake is male or female? By the length of it's tail!! I know this sounds funny but the tail is the distance from the anal opening to the back end of the snake.

(Back end being the key word) Well I kinda measured (estimated) and it's about 12"... I must be a male snake....

 

[Scrappy]

Those copperheads swim real well and blend into the leaves unbelievably well. When I used to hike in Arkansas I would wear gaiters. Very dangerous.

What's not dangerous is that snake you beheaded.

 

[kcm]

Scrappy wrote, "What's not dangerous is that snake you beheaded."

...Don't let my wife hear you say that!!

 

[Stand Watie]

First there is no such thing as a "poisonous" snake. The only possible way to get poisoned by a snake would be to eat it. There are venomous snakes, venom is injected, poison is either swallowed are breathed into the lungs. It doesn't matter to me what y'all call it, but if you say poisonous around herps (herpetologists) they get upset. Just a heads up.

That said, I majored in biology and have spent a lot of time working with snakes in the field. Mostly with the endangered EDB (Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake). I've caught and collected data on many different species of snakes. I gathered data such as weight, length, stomach content and scales for DNA and aging. Also implanted tracking devices in some of the EDBs. I have been bitten 3 times by copperheads, many times by non-venomous snakes. Two of the copperhead bites were "dry" bites (no venom injected). Copperhead bites are commonly dry bites because it takes the snake a lot of energy to make venom, they save it for procuring prey. So in many cases when they bite something bigger than they can eat it's for the purpose of scaring it away. The copperhead bite in which I was envenomated was around an inch above my left lateral malleolus (ankle bone). That's typical of the bite location with moccasins (hence the name moccasin). It made me sick for a few days and left a neat scar on my leg.

I don't kill snakes, even venomous snakes, that are in my yard. I will catch the venomous ones and relocate them to the wild. I have often brought non-venomous snakes from the field and released them around the house. It's amazing how fast the rodents will disappear with a snake around. Also snakes like the kingsnake will keep venomous snakes away.

 

[eureka77]

Long time ago I was headed to the lake to do some fishing and right before I got to the waters edge I seen a snake that was swimming on top of the water headed to the shore. Once he made it to land and he was coming up the bank he stopped and raised up just like a cobra and was swaying his head side to side as if I was playing a flute. Anyway I started to walk backwards to give him his space but when I moved he would move following me and when I stopped he would stop, curl up, and raise his head again. What was funny is every time he would curl up and raise his head like that he would twitch his tail super sonic fast in the leaves as if he was a rattle snake. lol In those dry leaves it sounded just like a rattle snake! This game of cat and mouse happened a few times and finally I was like forget this so I took off running fast as I could. I made it 20-30 yards, stopped, and turned around and he was right there raising up once more and twitching his tail in the leaves. Took off running like a Kenyan doing the 50 yard dash this time, turned around and that big ******* was there again! By this time I'm pissed so I grabbed a big ass stick and am ready to fight this guy. As we're doing a stare off and I'm waiting for him to close the distance to within striking distance of my new weapon, he turned and went on his way just like that. He stayed with in 12ft. of me the whole time this ordeal was going on.
I don't know what kind of snake he was. It was mostly all black except his underside which was a lighter black/brown color but with a design as well, maybe 4ft. long?...... What really sucked is I had to walk all the way back down the hill to retrieve my fishing pole. lol That's pretty neat that it learned to do his tail like that to copy a rattle snake.

 

[RustyGold]

Ah, the wonderful world of herpetology. I actually learned some new things about snakes.
I don't bother them and they don't bother me.

 

[T.C.]

Those copperheads swim real well and blend into the leaves unbelievably well. When I used to hike in Arkansas I would wear gaiters. Very dangerous.

What's not dangerous is that snake you beheaded.

I always bury the head. I was told long ago, that yellow jackets will feed off of the head and actually get venom on their stingers....sounds like an old wives tale to me. I still bury the heads anyway!

 

[kcm]

I don't know about venom on the stinger, but I have about 4 straight hours on VHS home video showing Yellow Jackets devouring a mouse. Was a dry year and hot summer here. Yellow Jackets were exceptionally aggressive that season. What many people don't know is that they really are carnivorous.