Beware the tall grass

[Texas by God]

Please be wary walking around in snake prone areas. I just lost a 500# bull calf to a Timber rattlesnake. I've been raising cattle for 55 years and this is a first. He was bitten in the left eye and the swelling in his neck shut off his airways. I've had them bit in the leg before and they survived but this bull was in the wrong place at the right time apparently. Gruesome and a waste of prime beef. Be careful, folks!

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[Sig556r]

sorry for you loss, them snakes thrive this time of year, especially in TX

[Thundarstick]

And the chiggers! They just make you wish you where going to die, but you don't!

I hate your loss, 2 years work pof gone.

[Buzz Krumhunger]

I mowed the grass and weeds around my shop and barn with the tractor just yesterday because it was getting too “snakey” looking. About a week ago I had a dream about a big rattler trying to strike at me and I guess it gave me the willies.

[dangitgriff]

****.
Are you rounding the rattlers up now?

[popper]

Few years back son and I were fishing a small pond with high grass, he hollered 'you just stepped over a copperhead'. With all the water we see more of them. You butcher it?

[Texas by God]

Few years back son and I were fishing a small pond with high grass, he hollered 'you just stepped over a copperhead'. With all the water we see more of them. You butcher it?

I didn't butcher it. Stressed Bullock beef isn't that toothsome- even without the venom. Legally, I can't round up the snakes as the Eastern Timber rattler(velvet tail) is on the protected list. But they thrive here. A year ago my old dog Buster laid on a copperhead and got bit on the ribs. Benadryl and antibiotics saved him. At least one good thing has come from the wild hog plague- no more Cottonmouth moccasins. Those snakes have NO sense of humor.
Thunderstick mention the chiggers- I am extremely fortunate to be immune to both chiggers and poison ivy. Neither one has ever bothered me thank goodness!

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[Der Gebirgsjager]

Hmmm....protected venomous snakes! Crazy world we're living in, and getting no better. My strong belief is that all poisonous snakes need to die. There are plenty of non-poisonous snakes to keep down the rodent population. It is interesting, and I know it to be true, that hogs will eat snakes. I don't believe that they're selective about the species? I grew up around diamond backs and had too many close calls with them, but where I live now we seem to be blessed with no snakes at all. The reason given by some of the locals that precede my residency is that the soil is volcanic pumice and it gets between their scales and irritates them so they stay away. I don't know the truth of it, but whatever works! They say that if you go over by the bases of the mountains where it's rocky you can find them, but I'm quite happy to stay away from there, just as I am to stay out of the tall grass!

DG

[jeepvet]

I thought popper was asking if you butchered the snake. In our neck of the woods we practice the three S's. Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Another thought crosses my mind here also -- about bull meat. A few years ago (well, actually, maybe about 20) a neighbor's bull escaped from it's pasture, bulled it's way through the fence actually (), to consort with a nearby female who was a member of a herd that had also gotten out of their pasture and onto the county road. The stray bull got into it with the bull that belonged to the herd, and in the ensuing battle was pushed backward into a deep ditch along the edge of the road, breaking it's leg. The owner of the injured bull called the local meat cutter who dispatched his mobile slaughter truck, and the entire huge bull was ground into hamburger. My wife and I were a little skeptical when the bull's owner showed up at our door offering to sell us "bull burger", but we went for 5 lbs. of it, since he assured us that it was really good. It was! So we tried to get some more, but it was all sold. So "stressed meat" isn't necessarily bad, but I sure wouldn't want to eat anything that might have snake venom in it. Oh, yeah....the Sheriff's Dept. handed out a couple of tickets for allowing animals to encroach on the County Road. The back and forth of the battle caused one accident by a driver who had to swerve to avoid the combatants and who ended up in the same ditch as the losing bull.

[Texas by God]

Had I seen the snake he may have died in an accident and I probably would have cut him up and fried him because I do like fried rattler.
DG- you and my wife would get along just fine. She would drive 20 miles out of her way just to shoot a poisonous snake.
Our local butchers will not receive an animal that looks sick and believe me this bull looked sick. And they definitely will not take a dead one no matter how fresh it is. A lot of hamburger meat on the market does come from bulls and older cows.
We used to castrate bull calves because steers would bring a better price at Market but nowadays there isn't that much difference to make it worth the trouble. I asked the local lion and tiger sanctuary if they wanted it but they did not and I can't say I blame them.

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[Hannibal]

I didn't butcher it. Stressed Bullock beef isn't that toothsome- even without the venom. Legally, I can't round up the snakes as the Eastern Timber rattler(velvet tail) is on the protected list. But they thrive here. A year ago my old dog Buster laid on a copperhead and got bit on the ribs. Benadryl and antibiotics saved him. At least one good thing has come from the wild hog plague- no more Cottonmouth moccasins. Those snakes have NO sense of humor.
Thunderstick mention the chiggers- I am extremely fortunate to be immune to both chiggers and poison ivy. Neither one has ever bothered me thank goodness!

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I never knew it was possible to be immune from chiggers. Lucky!

[6bg6ga]

Protected or not if I see one it will be a dead one when I'm done. The only good snake is a dead one.

[Texas by God]

Being immune and having no allergies on the farm was a mixed blessing. My three older brothers and my sister never had to brush hog river weed or gather brush piles or clean out grain bins or kill bumblebee hives- but I did. I’m very lucky that I’ve never been bitten by a poisonous snake- especially Cottonmouths - that actually WILL come TO you. A 5’ chicken snake got me on the hand when I thought(mistakenly) that it was asleep. I must have been a sight banging it against the coop walls till it died!

[dnepr]

I think I should stop complaining about wood ticks and blackflys

[MaryB]

Ticks are bad this year with all the rain.. I just weeded around the rhubarb and had to flick a half dozen off my arms form reaching into knee high grass. Just garter snakes here, and one bull snake that lives out back in my wild patch... I leave them be. The garter snakes keep the insect population down, the bull snake helps with rodent patrol, he even takes on the gophers that dig up my back yard.

[Texas by God]

According to rural legend, a bull snake can kill a rattler. They're cool but their attitude gets them killed by scared people.

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[richhodg66]

In 25 years of messing around in the woods in Kansas, I've come across exactly one venomous snake, a copperhead and he was cold enough he wasn't too frisky, I left him alone as he was far enough away from population to not be a problem.

I live out in the woods now, have quite a few snakes. Had two large black snakes in the shed I reload in the other day, at least one was still in there yesterday. Bad as the mice problem was this Winter, I don't mind those two being in there, I just need to be careful not to get startled by them.

Snakes don't bother me much, where I grew up in coastal S.C., big venomous snakes were a fact of life and saw them all the time. West Texas and southern Oklahoma also had a lot of them, we don't have many here.

[popper]

Chiggers and scabies are the worst. Poison ivy set Mom off if she was anywhere near it but I could walk thru ivy or sumac with no itching. Brother got Mom's side.
You near the tornadoes today?

[LUCKYDAWG13]

Sorry about your loss When i was about 7 years old i brought home a bunch of Snakes turns out they were pygmy rattlesnakes
my Dad did not know what kind of snakes they were at first had to look them up a few days after that a local dog was bit and died
this was in northern IL