Snakes!!!

[RSOJim]

I live in town, not suppose to shoot. When I do, one or more neighbors run out and hollers, did you get him Jim ? I always say yes. Home made 45 colt loads out of a blackhawk at 4 or 5 feet takes their heads clean off.

[hoosierlogger]

I kill any snake I see. I hate them all. Last spring there was a huge black snake sunning its self in the road in front of my house. It was the same snake that took up residence under the concrete pad of my garage. You don't really realize how loud a double barrel 12 gauge is until you are standing in the middle of the street with smoke coming out of the barrels.

[pumpguy]

I guess I'll be the lone voice here... I like snakes and refuse to kill them without good cause. I read (can't remember where) that rattlesnakes are evolving toward rattle(less)snakes because people routinely kill the ones that WARN you to back off before they bite. I grew up in rattlesnake country and somehow managed to survive.

Spiders now, that's a whole different matter (SQUISH)

You're not the only one. I try not to preach to others, but I really don't see the sense in killing snakes. I guess my perspective is different than most. In 1993, a buddy and I went about cataloging the reptiles and amphibians of SE Nebraska. We ended up with several hundred county records and discovered the 62nd reptile in Nebraska. Of the thousands of critters we discovered, never once did one of them chase and attack us. You have to remember they eat rodents that carry diseases and destroy property. Snakes do not carry any diseases that can be transmitted to humans and have no ability to gnaw on anything. Which would you rather have by your house?

As far as them evolving toward being rattleless, I doubt it. They have been rattling at predators long before we started rounding them up, etc.

[Charley]

You're not the only one. I try not to preach to others, but I really don't see the sense in killing snakes. I guess my perspective is different than most. In 1993, a buddy and I went about cataloging the reptiles and amphibians of SE Nebraska. We ended up with several hundred county records and discovered the 62nd reptile in Nebraska. Of the thousands of critters we discovered, never once did one of them chase and attack us. You have to remember they eat rodents that carry diseases and destroy property. Snakes do not carry any diseases that can be transmitted to humans and have no ability to gnaw on anything. Which would you rather have by your house?

As far as them evolving toward being rattleless, I doubt it. They have been rattling at predators long before we started rounding them up, etc.

My comments about most not knowing the difference between poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes was aimed at the screaming girls who kill every snake they see. I'm an entomologist, and most of the smaller snake species eat a very large number of insects, and are extremely beneficial. Ditto the larger snakes for rodent control. Before modern medicine, you were far more likly to die of a rodent or insect borne disease than snakebite. Buncha screaming sissys...

[txbirdman]

My perspective is based on my wife's being bitten by one and spending 17 days in the hospital. She has problems with her foot to this day. I also now have grandchildren that frequent my farm. If I see a poisonous snake I kill it. It doesn't seem that I've hurt the population too badly. I have managed to thin them out close to the house with the help of some cats.

[Mk42gunner]

It is supposed to be illegal to kill snakes in Missouri, but it isn't unusual to see pictures in the local paper when people kill a big rattler???

I live on my Grandparents place. Grandpa never said much about snakes, but he never exlained why he fed about two dozen cats here either. After Grandpa died and we moved Grandma to town the first renter got rid of all the cats and then started complaining about snakes.

The first three years I lived here I got between 15 and twenty snakes a year with my lawnmower, last year I got five and this year I got one.

Of course my daughter got a pair of kittens about two months after we moved in. We are down to four cats now; the oldest one is my cat Target,(my daughter hates that name) but like I told her: "What else are you going to call a cat with a big orange dot on its forehead?"

Robert

[Down South]

Rattle snakes don’t always rattle. I’ve killed too many of them in my time that never made a sound.
I won’t harm a non-poisonous snake but a pit viper is history if I catch him anywhere near my house. I even let some pit vipers alone out in the woods. It just depends on my mood at the time.
I had a chicken snake that lived in my barn for several years till one of my grandsons finally caught up with him. I hated to see the chicken snake get killed but the kid didn’t know, it was just a snake.
We have our share of copper heads, timber rattlers, diamond back rattlers, ground rattlers, coral snakes and water moccasins.

[StarMetal]

You're not the only one. I try not to preach to others, but I really don't see the sense in killing snakes. I guess my perspective is different than most. In 1993, a buddy and I went about cataloging the reptiles and amphibians of SE Nebraska. We ended up with several hundred county records and discovered the 62nd reptile in Nebraska. Of the thousands of critters we discovered, never once did one of them chase and attack us. You have to remember they eat rodents that carry diseases and destroy property. Snakes do not carry any diseases that can be transmitted to humans and have no ability to gnaw on anything. Which would you rather have by your house?

As far as them evolving toward being rattleless, I doubt it. They have been rattling at predators long before we started rounding them up, etc.

They do too carry diseases humans can get:

Snake Diseases/Parasitic: Tapeworms, Amebiasis, Trichomonas

Parasitic Diseases: Snakes can be hosts to a large number of parasites, ... pet snakes and snakes kept in zoological collections are carried with them into ...
www.animalhospitals-usa.com/.../snake_diseases_parasitic.html - Cached - Similar

Joe

[atr]

I leave snakes alone...except for the rattlers....and mostly I leave them alone too, but once in a while I need a new hat band and if I find a rattler who fits that description, well he is history. I grew up around rattlers, diamond backs, and we used to eat the bigger ones.

[montana_charlie]

"I kill any (pick a species) I see. I hate them all."

Hmm...
Commendable? Extreme? Interesting? Rational?

[Highland Drifter]

I'll join the minority here. I like all snakes venomous or not and have no reason to kill any of them. I'll collect them around the neighborhood and relocate them up the road in a wilderness area.
I'm with Charley... the rest of you girls are a "buncha screaming sissys"...

Brian

[Mike Venturino]

Some of you might find this interesting. In his book ON COMBAT Lt. Col. David Grossman (ret.) who was a U.S. Army psychologist (after he was a paratrooper, etc.) says that the second most common phobia in humans is snakes. !5% of the population has an irrational fear (phobia) of snakes. They can't help it. It just is.

For those who care the number one phobia in western society is interpersonal aggression (attack by another human). 98% of us have that according to his sources.

MLV

[bob208]

we have black snakes here they stay out of my way and we get along fine. one day i rolled over a pice of building tin and there was 2 copperheads first i ever saw in the wild. laid tin down got ruger .22 target pistol picked tin up 2 dead copperheads got 4 more that summer.

[Charley]

Snakes are waaaaay up their. Trust me on this, though, arachnids (specificly spiders and scorpions) rate pretty high on the phobia list as well.

For mammals, very large percentage of folks are afraid of bats.

[montana_charlie]

...birds, too...

A friend of my wife was visiting back when we owned a parakeet. They were chatting while the bird was 'exercising' outside of his cage.
He landed on the lady's shoulder and I thought she was going to cash in her chips on the spot.

She couldn't breath...she couldn't move...she couldn't even blink her eyes.

I plucked the bird off and put him in the cage, and it was a full five minutes before that lady could speak normally.

CM

[Shepherd2]

I've seen more black snakes around here this year than ever before. Lots of them 5 to 6 feet long. Hardly a day went by this summer than I didn't see at least 1. Most days I saw several. I'm OK with them once I know they are there. My only complaint is them being under the windrows when I'm baling hay. I think they are looking for field mice and I always kill a couple when I'm baling. The buzzards find them pretty quick and clean up the mess.

I'm usually at the house having lunch when the UPS truck delivers. This summer I would go to the window to watch the driver tiptoe across the lawn looking for the 2 black snakes that live under the porch. They were usually out sunning themselves. I saved a couple shed skins to show him. They were 6'+.

[pumpguy]

They do too carry diseases humans can get:

Snake Diseases/Parasitic: Tapeworms, Amebiasis, Trichomonas

Parasitic Diseases: Snakes can be hosts to a large number of parasites, ... pet snakes and snakes kept in zoological collections are carried with them into ...
www.animalhospitals-usa.com/.../snake_diseases_parasitic.html - Cached - Similar

Joe

Sorry. Unless you are cold blooded, you aren't going to suffer from any of these snake specific maladies. Most, if not all parasitic organisms are specific to their chosen host. Look at your article. I only scanned it, but I think it mentions captive snake diseases and not warnings about what you can catch from them. In any event, unless you are picking up wild snakes and snuggling with them, you aren't going to be exposed anyway. Rodent scratches and bites can give you a whole host of illnesses including rabies. Their feces and urine can give you hanta virus.

[docone31]

Down here, when we see a Black Snake, we know there will be no rattlers.
Especially the Pygmy Rattler! Agressive little things.
Black snakes eat them, their fry. It is one of their favourite meals.
Aside from there being extremely large Reticulated Pythons, Green Anacondas, Black Mambas have been sighted a couple of towns up the road, Bamboo Vipers, All is well!
Seems folk down here have been collecting exotic species.
I am not so sure that is a good idea.
Especially the Bamboo Vipers, and Mambas. The two Mambas that were seen are probably not the only ones. Same with the Vipers.

[lead Foot]

Down here, when we see a Black Snake, we know there will be no rattlers.
Especially the Pygmy Rattler! Agressive little things.
Black snakes eat them, their fry. It is one of their favourite meals.
Aside from there being extremely large Reticulated Pythons, Green Anacondas, Black Mambas have been sighted a couple of towns up the road, Bamboo Vipers, All is well!
Seems folk down here have been collecting exotic species.
I am not so sure that is a good idea.
Especially the Bamboo Vipers, and Mambas. The two Mambas that were seen are probably not the only ones. Same with the Vipers.

That's interesting here in Australia the black snakes eat other species too.
Lead foot;

[Suo Gan]

My dads neighbor was bitten by a larger rattler two summers ago and died twenty minutes later. A real sad story. But he kept junked out cars, tall weeds, bathtubs, you name it in the yard around the house. He also had a whole bunch of ground squirrels and wood rats around. My dad lives a mile away and rarely sees a snake. But he keeps it mowed down, and has a few cats to kill the rodents.