I just killed a copperhead in my driveway. That's two in a week!

[DemoTex]

Nick-Nick was going for it .. dumb dog. I threw the Kong toy to divert Nick and grabbed a hoe to kill the snake. The copperhead looked like it had just come from my woodpile where I keep my cooking hickory. I keep the hoe by the woodpile to rake wood off and away from the pile. No way I'm sticking a hand on that woodpile!
Yesterday I almost stepped on a snake on a trail down to the waterfall on my property. Last week a neighbor killed a 4-foot eastern diamondback rattlesnake.


Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
(Largest venomous snake in North America)

[sabbat hunter]

1. damn

glad i dotn have any poisonous snakes around me (queens ny)

[cleofus1]

2. ok

now yer gonna have to eat it...don't worry it tastes just like chicken

[hlthe2b]

3. Now is probably not a good time to re-watch Lonesome Dove...

(remember the scene where they are crossing the flooded river crossing on horseback? (I'll just say it involves copperheads aka water moccasins, if you don't remember)

Careful... tis the time of year...

[fudge stripe cookays]

8. I HATE THAT SCENE!!!!!!!!

I rented Lonesome Dove a few years ago and went fucking NUTS during that scene. I HATE SNAKES!!!!!!!!

Me and mr. fudge and our neighbor killed a little copperhead near our back door last spring. I was getting ready to go in the house and din't even see the thing. Good thing r. grabbed me!

Then, a few weeks later, I was working in the garden, and walking from our backyard to the garage via the side of the house; heard this GIANT commotion up in the tree, and looked up.

A BIG grackle had a gigantic water snake in his beak. I'd surprised him, and he was trying to hold onto it; but ended up dropping it on our (same) neighbor's property. There's a bit of a hill there with a stacked railroad tie wall, dividing our two properties, so it was up a little ways from me; It didn't look like a poisonous model, but I wasn't taking any chances!

I ran in the house, got r, and we let the neighbor know. The snake had proceeded to slither up his wall and into the crevice between his air conditioner and the house.

I'm surprised we haven't seen more snakes since we put in our pond, but 2 is enough!

FSC

[CitrusLib]

16. That scene gave me nightmares

Indiana Jones and I share the same feeling towards slithering reptiles. Even fake ones give me the willies.

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. I don't think copperheads and water mocs/cotton mouths are the same??

[hlthe2b]

21. No, they are in the same genus...

and I've heard copperheads referred to as "highland moccasins," while water moccasins are synonymous with "cotton mouths." My error...

[GreenPartyVoter]

22. Don't look at me for confimation.. All I can recognize is garter snakes &

ringnecks. :) (I did do battle with a cotton mouth in Florida once. Well, by battle I mean it reared up and bared its fangs and I waved my putter at it. Then I grabbed my baby brother and we ran away.)

[hlthe2b]

24. Smartest course of action, I'd say....

I find snakes fascinating, from a definite distance--preferably at the zoo behind glass or on a tv documentary! I surely don't want to have to worry about coming upon them (at least the venonous kind)...

[GreenPartyVoter]

32. I feel similarly about spiders. I used a shovel to catch and relocate two

big ones from my flower bed yesterday. *shuddering*

[fudge stripe cookays]

36. I'm fine with spiders, and even roaches....

They're not my FAVORITE things, of course, but it's ANTS I can't stand (believe it or not!)

As a 2 year old, I got into a nest of the big huge fat red ants we have down in the Rio Grande Valley (about as big as your fingernail), and they had to soak me in bleach; I was SCREAMING at the top of my lungs.

I just hate that feeling of bazillions of tiny THINGS crawling on me. I get cold chills, and start shaking....

HATE ANTS!!!!! HATE THEM!!!
FSC

[GreenPartyVoter]

37. My littlest guy feels the same way. He will walk a hundred yards out

of his way if it takes him around a known ant hill.

[skygazer]

4. I used to find Rattlers in my barn a lot

They ate the mice and I wouldn't have minded them much except for the dogs. Dogs can be such idiots about snakes.

I used to keep an old axe handle that I'd whack the hay bales with before I put my hands in them because the snakes would hang out there. At one point, I had five rattlers hanging on the barn wall where I'd tacked them up after killing them.

[Mizmoon]

25. If I ever saw a rattler outside of a zoo

I think I'd need to be hit with an ax handle to calm me down.

Holy Smoke!

[knowbody0]

5. and I bitch about SLUGS!

[papau]

6. NC seems to have the usual suspects! I hate wood piles! and then

there are our lake swimming water moccasin's -

at least up North we have few alligators!

[DemoTex]

7. I just ordered a 4-pound container of Snake-Away snake repellent.

All these snakes around really has me freaked out!

[Dr.Phool]

9. Does that shit work?

I thought about getting some, but I'm afraid the dogs will sniff it and get sick. We have black snakes around, that supposedly kill all the bad snakes, but the neighbor keeps killing them.

I'd like to keep the black ones around, since we have about every other venemous snake in North America around. Plus gators.

[DemoTex]

13. It is supposed to be very effective, especially against copperheads.

It is safe for pets, too. But I plan to put it in areas that the dogs can't get to. Anyway, I need some modicum of a psychological advantage over these damn snakes. Maybe Snake-Away is it!

[devilgrrl]

10. This is a dumb question...

can you eat copperhead snakes?

[short bus president]

27. I'm sure you could.

The venom is contained in glands behind the jaws. I've heard of eating rattlensake, but not copperhead. Prolly 'cuz the copperheads don't get as big --> less meat.

[noonwitch]

11. I'm glad that the only snakes I see are garter snakes and blue racers

Neither are poisonous. We do have rattlers in Michigan, but they are not deadly to anyone over 3, and not really around the Detroit area.
I think they have copperheads in northern Michigan, especially the UP.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. I am so glad I live in Maine

[CitrusLib]

15. Why? I've seen snakes in Maine.

The Eastern Rattlesnake. Major heart attack moment.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Have never seen a rattler or copper head in 34 years of living here.

Lucky, I guess. :)

[bertha katzenengel]

14. My Grandma told me to stay away from

men, "because it's . . . it's . . . it's just like a sssssnnnnnnnnake!!

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. There must be something going on with Copperheads this summer.

check out this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=228&topic_id=11652&mesg_id=11652

[DemoTex]

30. Shit house mouse! Thanks Backlash .. and sweet dreams, too.

[H5N1]

20. Is there a reason for all this snake activity?

When fly-fish wading
I used to come across plenty o' basking snakes
on rocks along the shore.
God I hate being surprised by poisonous snakes!

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. How weather? Lots of bugs? Not sure...

[Redstone]

26. Uh-oh. I bet you'll be hearing from PATS (People for the

Allowable Treatment of Snakes) soon enough, and get called a dirty speciesist for thinking that your life, or that of your dogs, is worth more than a snake, after all, they have just as many RIGHTS as all other animals, you know, just because they're not fuzzy and cute, what makes you think you have the right to just up and KILL it, couldn't you have treated the poor thing more gently, caught it humanely and transported it to a place ehere it would be happier, blah, blah, blah...

Redstone

[tyedyeto]

29. LOL

Last fall one evening I had 2 diamondbacks in my backyard. Called someone to come and get them. Well, the fire dept. showed up, caught them and took them away. While they were putting the box the rattlers were in on the truck, I asked them what they do with them. Turns out they are required to let them go no further than 1 mile away from where they were caught. In urban ares, how can they justify a 1 mile limit. There is some desert near my house, but in some areas, even 1 mile away puts the critters in someone else's backyard.

[Shell Beau]

28. My husband kills them weekly here in Mississippi.

He landscapes and they are always hidden in his bales of pine-straw. They can be deadly as I am sure you know. Good thing you got the dog away.

[GreenPartyVoter]

33. I would not want to be a landscaper in snake country.

[Shell Beau]

34. Tell me about it. They have to know their snakes.

Most are harmless. But he comes across copperheads and moccasins frequently and every now and then rattlers. But he knows what they look like. He still doesn't take chances. Unfortunately for the snakes, they usually have to die, but he tries to spare some if he can.

[GreenPartyVoter]

35. I would be afraid that knowing what they are just means I recognized

my cause of death. :P

[Wapsie B]

31. Bet he'd grill up real nice!

Put him in a nice creole marinade overnight and grill till tender. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[papau]

38. Dominics in Wash DC had a copperhead/rattler salad - it was very good

but the garlic/olive oil was the main taste as the snake was "like chicken".

[DemoTex]

39. Like my old pappy sez about sharks and snakes ...

I'm not biting on anything with relatives that might bite me back. He also sez, on eating tongue, I'm not tasting anything that might taste me back. He can deliver these gems in the old South language captured by Faulkner ("fotch" for "fetch," etc.). It is amazing. He's not a hick. He has a Ph.D. in entomology from Auburn. Sometimes listening to his stories is like reading Light in August. Of course he read to us kids until the early 60's .. hated the idea of TV.

[papau]

41. Now that is a great memory to have of your Dad! - but he missed the

taste of chicken via snake!

:-)

[fudge stripe cookays]

43. What a cool dad!

You need to get a little digital recorder and get these gems of his before he's gone. I totally dig this type of stuff. I bet your pappy is quite a character!

FSC

[DemoTex]

40. BTW: I had fried chicken tonight. Wish you were here! Tasty and cheap!

Heh, heh, heh! Know what I mean?

[papau]

42. :-) Chicken is about the only non-fish I can eat and not get yelled at!

But since I like chicken - all is well!

:-)