Attitude

[monkeys uncle]

Snakes - used to dispatch every one I encountered. Today, I let the non-venomous ones survive to keep the rodent pop'n in check. Poisonous ones...gonna die if I can find a sizable stick, hoe, shovel, etc. before it slithers away. Got no use for something that can make me (or mine) have to go to the hospital and suffer for weeks, if not months.

Grew up on a Rice farm (Tx Gulf coast)...lots of water, canals, irrigation drains, etc. My father and I killed 84 (yes, eighty four) Water Moccasins one afternoon. Went back the next afternoon with a gas powered fogger and killed 56 more. True story and you wouldn't believe how small the area was that this took place (approx. 60'L x 10'W with ~1 ft of water). Breeding site was our best guess as the only snakes that remained were tiny by comparison and too small to shot.

In case you're curious...I don't have any remorse for our actions, or the "shivers" from the experience. People (farm hands) had to work around them, day in/day out...didn't want anyone to get struck. Some did. No deaths...but would lose a good hand for several days/weeks and a few would go on to some other line of work.
ETA - In Tx we have EVERY variety of poisonous snake that resides in No. America, incl. Coral snakes (seen one but didn't have anything to kill it with).

Have a nice day, good luck, HH and SSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst (with forked tongue).

 

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[jeff of pa]

Snakes - used to dispatch every one I encountered. Today, I let the non-venomous ones survive to keep the rodent pop'n in check. Poisonous ones...gonna die if I can find a sizable stick, hoe, shovel, etc. before it slithers away. Got no use for something that can make me (or mine) have to go to the hospital and suffer for weeks, if not months.

Grew up on a Rice farm (Tx Gulf coast)...lots of water, canals, irrigation drains, etc. My father and I killed 84 (yes, eighty four) Water Moccasins one afternoon. Went back the next afternoon with a gas powered fogger and killed 56 more. True story and you wouldn't believe how small the area was that this took place (approx. 60'L x 10'W with ~1 ft of water). Breeding site was our best guess as the only snakes that remained were tiny by comparison and too small to shot.

In case you're curious...I don't have any remorse for our actions, or the "shivers" from the experience. People (farm hands) had to work around them, day in/day out...didn't want anyone to get struck. Some did. No deaths...but would lose a good hand for several days/weeks and a few would go on to some other line of work.
ETA - In Tx we have EVERY variety of poisonous snake that resides in No. America, incl. Coral snakes (seen one but didn't have anything to kill it with).

Have a nice day, good luck, HH and SSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst (with forked tongue).

My Dad used to Swear if you Kill a Snake and Burn it where it Lays no More will go that way.
Not sure it worked, But I never saw a snake in that area again.
Of course snakes aren't really that Common to expect seeing another in the same area regularly.
was just a Dirt Ally way, No ponds nearby no Thick Grass, Etc.

 

[Curtis]

My grandpa was out squirrel hunting and kept hearing a commotion in an old stump, he quietly eased up on it looked down in it and he saw a black snake wrapped around a copperhead. It stretched out, then started uncoiling, the copperhead twitched and the black snake was back around him in an instant. Grandpa said it took him about an hour from him getting there until the black snake had killed the copperhead and had swallowed it up to its head. He left then. I had always heard black snakes were really good mousers, but didn't know they could do a copperhead in. I never killed a black snake because of this.

 

[jeff of pa]

there is a long standing rumor here. for at least my entire life .

copperheads and black snakes mating . of course those who claim to know snakes say impossible .
I stand by beats me

 

[Megalodon]

there is a long standing rumor here. for at least my entire life .

copperheads and black snakes mating . of course those who claim to know snakes say impossible .
I stand by beats me

They don't mate with the other - but I can understand why people may think that since they commonly share dens.

 

[Megalodon]

My grandpa was out squirrel hunting and kept hearing a commotion in an old stump, he quietly eased up on it looked down in it and he saw a black snake wrapped around a copperhead. It stretched out, then started uncoiling, the copperhead twitched and the black snake was back around him in an instant. Grandpa said it took him about an hour from him getting there until the black snake had killed the copperhead and had swallowed it up to its head. He left then. I had always heard black snakes were really good mousers, but didn't know they could do a copperhead in. I never killed a black snake because of this.

Yes, they can eat copperheads and reach sizes where doing so is not a problem. Supposedly, a black rat snake can reach 8' in length, but I've never seen one over 6' or so.

Funny story: I had been married about a month in 1981 and received a call at work from my wife asking if I could come home because our cat had caught a snake. I couldn't just drop what I was doing even though I was within walking distance. When I did get home, my wife on her own, had separated the black rat snake - at least 6' long from the little 6 or 7 pound cat who was trying to drag it into the house through a hole in the porch screen.

 

[pepperj]

Picked up this 52" shed last year in my garden.