Critters in farm field

[WVPapaw]

We have lived in a house on 30 plus acres for 3 years. When we first moved here, I noted there were lots of holes in the field where a tenant in a 2nd house had a garden. I have seen field mice and two rats in the field where it is grown over with weeds. I haven't seen any snakes but know they are there. Every time I see a hole, I wonder if it is a snake hole or mice/rat den. Since I have started metal detecting, you would be surprised how many times my detector has located targets at a hole. I jokingly told my wife that they must be pack rats. I haven't dug any of the holes that give readings because I don't want to dig into a snake or rat den. I mow about 12 acres around the house to reduce the chance of mice, rats or snakes coming up where we live, and so far it has worked. Should I dig the next hole when I get a hit on my detector?

 

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[knightsquad]

Heck yeh!
Dig it! I would just so I know!

Pete

We have lived in a house on 30 plus acres for 3 years. When we first moved here, I noted there were lots of holes in the field where a tenant in a 2nd house had a garden. I have seen field mice and two rats in the field where it is grown over with weeds. I haven't seen any snakes but know they are there. Every time I see a hole, I wonder if it is a snake hole or mice/rat den. Since I have started metal detecting, you would be surprised how many times my detector has located targets at a hole. I jokingly told my wife that they must be pack rats. I haven't dug any of the holes that give readings because I don't want to dig into a snake or rat den. I mow about 12 acres around the house to reduce the chance of mice, rats or snakes coming up where we live, and so far it has worked. Should I dig the next hole when I get a hit on my detector?

 

[vpnavy]

Crap WVPapaw - dig every single hole that beeeeeeeeps! Bring along a long shovel to keep your distance. Can't wait to see all the neat stuff you will find - get digging!

 

[WVPapaw]

Crap WVPapaw - dig every single hole that beeeeeeeeps! Bring along a long shovel to keep your distance. Can't wait to see all the neat stuff you will find - get digging!

I think I will have the shotgun handy too when I do start digging. I have a nice big area that I mowed in the field to metal detect so it is ready for me to start hunting. I was going to plant some raspberries there but decided against it because I didn't want rodents feeding on them. With my luck, snakes and rats are protecting the site and will chase me away from the treasure that awaits. LOL Hahahaha!

 

[gunsil]

Snakes don't really live down in small holes in the ground. You are more likely seeing chipmunk holes, they are prolific small hole diggers with several entrances/exits to their underground homes. Perhaps field mice or moles also, but rats usually live near human dumps, barns, corn cribs, etc. All these critters are afraid of people so just go out and hunt and dig. Even a woodchuck will run off when seeing people, but their holes are fairly large and easily identifiable.

 

[WVPapaw]

Snakes don't really live down in small holes in the ground. You are more likely seeing chipmunk holes, they are prolific small hole diggers with several entrances/exits to their underground homes. Perhaps field mice or moles also, but rats usually live near human dumps, barns, corn cribs, etc. All these critters are afraid of people so just go out and hunt and dig. Even a woodchuck will run off when seeing people, but their holes are fairly large and easily identifiable.

Woodchucks are pretty scarce around here now. We have lots of field mice though, and they are bigger than the kind you see around a house. We have seen chipmunks. The Jack Russell likes to hunt all of them. Believe it or not, she catches them too as well as birds. Well grandson and I went detecting, but we couldn't find any holes. Most of the areas I detected earlier are grown up so that makes them hard to detect. I mowed a couple new areas, but couldn't find any holes there. It will have to wait until we can get someone to cut some hay and bale it.

 

[WVPapaw]

Snakes don't really live down in small holes in the ground. You are more likely seeing chipmunk holes, they are prolific small hole diggers with several entrances/exits to their underground homes. Perhaps field mice or moles also, but rats usually live near human dumps, barns, corn cribs, etc. All these critters are afraid of people so just go out and hunt and dig. Even a woodchuck will run off when seeing people, but their holes are fairly large and easily identifiable.

I will say this much about rats, the ones in SE Asia are not afraid of any man. They are big as rabbits too. More than one GI got bit by those nasty, dirty things. The biggest rat I ever saw however, was in a grocery store parking lot in Pennsylvania. It was scavenging for food in broad daylight with cars and people everywhere. it was bigger than a rabbit. Having said this, I will agree that they usually try to avoid humans. We went to the local dump with 22s when I was a teenager looking for rats for target practice , and they were pretty elusive.

 

[WVPapaw]

Crap WVPapaw - dig every single hole that beeeeeeeeps! Bring along a long shovel to keep your distance. Can't wait to see all the neat stuff you will find - get digging!

My neighbor told me yesterday that he spotted a copperhead coming from The direction of this field and killed it on the road. He said it was between 36 and 42 inches long. He killed it by running over it and stopping with the tire pinning it to the road. Then he beat it to death with a stick. Good riddance. I heard a truck down there the other day when I was mowing the field for metal detecting. I probably scared it out of the weeds. It was headed to an old wood pile where an old house was dozed over.

 

[gunsil]

Too bad they killed the snake, they keep down the rodent population and don't attack people. I wouldn't want to step on a copperhead for sure, but they also run away when confronted by humans. Milk snakes also have identical markings as copperheads and I have seen many killed senselessly by folks who don't know how to tell the difference. (Copperheads have pink bellies and milk snakes have a checkerboard pattern on theirs.) Not to mention that copperheads have sort of triangular heads while those of milk snakes are more oval. Sadly the days where a bunch of 12-16 year old kids could just walk down the road with loaded .22s are gone in many areas, and in many areas one can't even shoot rats in the dumps. I had a lot of fun doing that years back, and if the rats weren't around there were always plenty of cans and bottles for target practice.

 

[WVPapaw]

Too bad they killed the snake, they keep down the rodent population and don't attack people. I wouldn't want to step on a copperhead for sure, but they also run away when confronted by humans. Milk snakes also have identical markings as copperheads and I have seen many killed senselessly by folks who don't know how to tell the difference. (Copperheads have pink bellies and milk snakes have a checkerboard pattern on theirs.) Not to mention that copperheads have sort of triangular heads while those of milk snakes are more oval. Sadly the days where a bunch of 12-16 year old kids could just walk down the road with loaded .22s are gone in many areas, and in many areas one can't even shoot rats in the dumps. I had a lot of fun doing that years back, and if the rats weren't around there were always plenty of cans and bottles for target practice.

I miss those days too. We had fun shooting rats and plinking cans.