Weekly snake thread
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Burt Gummer
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Here’s a juvenile rat snake I found under a trash can this week. Link to video of him snapping at the phone as I was videoing him
Burt Gummer
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Eastern rat snake. They tend to get themselves in precarious situations
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I really would like to interact more and learn more about snakes-especially the non-venomous ones. I've even watched some herp videos, and those where folks go out flipping tin to look for them. I would love to get comfortable enough to handle a rat snake or King snake, but I don't see that happening.
My mom had an obsessive (almost unrealistic) fear of snakes. This probably was from one afternoon in the 50s when she was home alone while my dad worked and a black snake slithered out of the fireplace in the old house they lived in, and she ran from the house screaming-a relative and neighbors came by and caught or killed it. Of course there was much hubbub over this for about an hour, and everyone dispersed and went their separate way. Mom went BACK in and calmed down, started watching television again and a SECOND one came slithering out...scene is repeated! 😬 I was raised in and around that mentality, so I grew up killing ANY snake I could see-with car, shotgun, garden hoe (as a buddy says you couldn't DESIGN a better tool to kill a snake with!), .45 ACP, .22 LR, etc. This ingrained fear and mindset led me to have a nearly identical fear-I recall once as a teen I reached to get our pet cat who was non-moving near a thick cover of bushes and went eye to eye with a coiled snake. I literally went numb and couldn't move for several seconds. I finally got my nerve up and scooped the cat and ran like heck! As a kid (and sometimes even today!) I would shudder at the sight of a snake, even a recently alive one that is still moving.
I have become more comfortable SOMEWHAT over the years as we in LE sometimes get calls on them and I worked nightshift for years when no animal control officers were on duty. It was a matter that I HAD to act and so I was able to overcome SOME fear of them, especially non-venomous ones. I actually got to be a decent "wrangler" of them. When I showed up I'd ask for a broom and a large trashcan-preferably one with a lid. I was able to catch and release most of them I got calls on. Some were just hidden too deep or had other entry/exit points. I've also somewhat left the "only good snake is a dead snake" mindset for now only obviously poisonous ones on my property.
My mom had an obsessive (almost unrealistic) fear of snakes. This probably was from one afternoon in the 50s when she was home alone while my dad worked and a black snake slithered out of the fireplace in the old house they lived in, and she ran from the house screaming-a relative and neighbors came by and caught or killed it. Of course there was much hubbub over this for about an hour, and everyone dispersed and went their separate way. Mom went BACK in and calmed down, started watching television again and a SECOND one came slithering out...scene is repeated! 😬 I was raised in and around that mentality, so I grew up killing ANY snake I could see-with car, shotgun, garden hoe (as a buddy says you couldn't DESIGN a better tool to kill a snake with!), .45 ACP, .22 LR, etc. This ingrained fear and mindset led me to have a nearly identical fear-I recall once as a teen I reached to get our pet cat who was non-moving near a thick cover of bushes and went eye to eye with a coiled snake. I literally went numb and couldn't move for several seconds. I finally got my nerve up and scooped the cat and ran like heck! As a kid (and sometimes even today!) I would shudder at the sight of a snake, even a recently alive one that is still moving.
I have become more comfortable SOMEWHAT over the years as we in LE sometimes get calls on them and I worked nightshift for years when no animal control officers were on duty. It was a matter that I HAD to act and so I was able to overcome SOME fear of them, especially non-venomous ones. I actually got to be a decent "wrangler" of them. When I showed up I'd ask for a broom and a large trashcan-preferably one with a lid. I was able to catch and release most of them I got calls on. Some were just hidden too deep or had other entry/exit points. I've also somewhat left the "only good snake is a dead snake" mindset for now only obviously poisonous ones on my property.
Chuckman
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@Big Dave , my mother, born and raised on a farm in Eastern North Carolina, was mortally afraid of snakes. Since she was raised on a farm I thought this was odd.
My father was an amateur herpetologist, before he married my mom he was roommates with the chief of herpetology at the North Carolina museum of science in Raleigh (Bill Palmer). My dad demystified them so growing up, to me, they just weren't a big deal.
When it's a legit fear it's hard to overcome.
My father was an amateur herpetologist, before he married my mom he was roommates with the chief of herpetology at the North Carolina museum of science in Raleigh (Bill Palmer). My dad demystified them so growing up, to me, they just weren't a big deal.
When it's a legit fear it's hard to overcome.
commiecuriocollector
Well-Known Member
Well there are a couple of aspects to the fear of snakes that come into play, one is just unfortunate and likely caused by another.
I saw the recent eclipse in Missouri, specifically the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, not due to any deliberate planning but due to it being the closest place that fit my requirements, and the final location was chosen less than an hour before Go-Time. All this is to say everything that happened afterwards is coincidental to being able to share the little adventure I went on immediately afterwards.
The refuge is a re-wilded bottomland, and by all appearances, to my myopic eyes, I would have thought I was in SC or the Great Dismal swamp. Muddy water, big ole ball cypress trees, ducks and all manner of birds everywhere, and more rustling leaves than I have ever, ever encountered in my life.
There was a couple who happened to be the only other folks around who watched the eclipse with me. They were amateur herps, ie: neither trained or having gone to school in the field. They normally come out to the Mingo a few times a year, and had recently gone on vacation to the Florida everglades for the primary purpose of... huntin snakes. After the eclipse they asked me if I wanted to go with them. Well, sure why not?
The hunting amounted to walking down an elevated strip of land that cut thru one of the boggiest sections, searching for, identifying and tallying up what they found. I was with them for around 2 hours, maybe less. They positively identified, around more than 20 individual snakes. We saw probably that many more that were too fast to get a positive ID on. It was absolutely nuts. The strip of land was no more than 20 feet wide, with water on both sides, and we weren't using binoculars, they were all either on the strip of land or in the water within a foot or so of the land.
I have seen less snakes in the past decade than I did that afternoon.
The first one they identified, required me to move my flip flops within five feet before I could finally see it in the ground clutter, a cotton mouth. That set the stage for the afternoon. Illuminating to say the least.
I never have had a fear of snakes much different than with any other critter. If the critter is aggressive or acting sketchy, that is what gets my attention. A docile black snake in the house I am far less concerned about than the pissed off possum snapping at my toes. My uncle on the other hand, otherwise a nature lover and all around biologist in everything but official title, grew up with the "only good one is a dead one" mindset. No doubt ingrained at a young age. Only in his later years, dismayed by the incongruency of his ideals versus his actions, finally started sparing the poor snakes unlucky enough to cross his path.
The female of the snake huntin pair related to me she had written a paper in college on the psychology of the fear of snakes, and had found out in the process that the human eye could more readily discriminate the scales of a snake, versus any other critter with scales, down to a minute amount, making the argument that this was an evolutionary adaptation to environmental threats. So that bases the fear in biological terms.
Then there are the sociological aspects of the fear of snakes (and this is my unoriginal unscientific opinion), most likely in modern western society originating with writings two Millinia ago, the Bible. Put those two things together and it's amazing that the poor little snakes haven't been wiped off the face of the planet.
No one should be ashamed of their fear of snakes, as it is not exactly a choice that you have, but I really encourage people to try and rationalize their actions when encountering snakes and try to minimize your impact on them the same as you would with any other aspect of the natural world. They are not inherently evil, morally corrupt or even all that particularly dangerous except for in a handful of situations, situations that are usually at least partially of our own making.
Even the poisonous ones just want to be left alone, especially in North America. The danger to us humans is when we stumble across them and put them in a situation where they feel threatened. That whole walk there wasn't a single snake that charged my bare toes, hissed at me, or chased me up and down that narrow strip of high ground as I let out a long terrified scream. It would have been a simple matter for them to if they wanted to, but they all retreated, venomous and non-venomous, any time we got too close. The reason there were so many that went unidentified was often we would get too close to them, without actually seeing them first and only became aware of their existence due to their trying to get away from us.
How many did we pass and never notice at all? Who knows. How many could have gotten the drop on us if they had wanted to? Latching on to one of my poor little bare toes? More than half I'd say. (The couple had the good sense to at least have rubber waders on)
Not once did I feel threatened by a single snake. I felt rather uneasy much of the time, but by the end of the afternoon, whatever innate fear I had of snakes, fear of their existence on this earth, had been dramatically reduced. Exposure therapy I think it could be thought of.
I don't want them in the house. I sure as heck don't want to tangle with one that is dangerous, but the same thing can be said for possums, coyotes, and raccoons.
As far as I am concerned the only animal in these here parts that I am truly terrified of is the hated deer.
Any animal that will jump out of its hiding place, in the middle of the night, to attack a 2000 pound hunk of metal moving at 70mph, is a menace.
I saw the recent eclipse in Missouri, specifically the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, not due to any deliberate planning but due to it being the closest place that fit my requirements, and the final location was chosen less than an hour before Go-Time. All this is to say everything that happened afterwards is coincidental to being able to share the little adventure I went on immediately afterwards.
The refuge is a re-wilded bottomland, and by all appearances, to my myopic eyes, I would have thought I was in SC or the Great Dismal swamp. Muddy water, big ole ball cypress trees, ducks and all manner of birds everywhere, and more rustling leaves than I have ever, ever encountered in my life.
There was a couple who happened to be the only other folks around who watched the eclipse with me. They were amateur herps, ie: neither trained or having gone to school in the field. They normally come out to the Mingo a few times a year, and had recently gone on vacation to the Florida everglades for the primary purpose of... huntin snakes. After the eclipse they asked me if I wanted to go with them. Well, sure why not?
The hunting amounted to walking down an elevated strip of land that cut thru one of the boggiest sections, searching for, identifying and tallying up what they found. I was with them for around 2 hours, maybe less. They positively identified, around more than 20 individual snakes. We saw probably that many more that were too fast to get a positive ID on. It was absolutely nuts. The strip of land was no more than 20 feet wide, with water on both sides, and we weren't using binoculars, they were all either on the strip of land or in the water within a foot or so of the land.
I have seen less snakes in the past decade than I did that afternoon.
The first one they identified, required me to move my flip flops within five feet before I could finally see it in the ground clutter, a cotton mouth. That set the stage for the afternoon. Illuminating to say the least.
I never have had a fear of snakes much different than with any other critter. If the critter is aggressive or acting sketchy, that is what gets my attention. A docile black snake in the house I am far less concerned about than the pissed off possum snapping at my toes. My uncle on the other hand, otherwise a nature lover and all around biologist in everything but official title, grew up with the "only good one is a dead one" mindset. No doubt ingrained at a young age. Only in his later years, dismayed by the incongruency of his ideals versus his actions, finally started sparing the poor snakes unlucky enough to cross his path.
The female of the snake huntin pair related to me she had written a paper in college on the psychology of the fear of snakes, and had found out in the process that the human eye could more readily discriminate the scales of a snake, versus any other critter with scales, down to a minute amount, making the argument that this was an evolutionary adaptation to environmental threats. So that bases the fear in biological terms.
Then there are the sociological aspects of the fear of snakes (and this is my unoriginal unscientific opinion), most likely in modern western society originating with writings two Millinia ago, the Bible. Put those two things together and it's amazing that the poor little snakes haven't been wiped off the face of the planet.
No one should be ashamed of their fear of snakes, as it is not exactly a choice that you have, but I really encourage people to try and rationalize their actions when encountering snakes and try to minimize your impact on them the same as you would with any other aspect of the natural world. They are not inherently evil, morally corrupt or even all that particularly dangerous except for in a handful of situations, situations that are usually at least partially of our own making.
Even the poisonous ones just want to be left alone, especially in North America. The danger to us humans is when we stumble across them and put them in a situation where they feel threatened. That whole walk there wasn't a single snake that charged my bare toes, hissed at me, or chased me up and down that narrow strip of high ground as I let out a long terrified scream. It would have been a simple matter for them to if they wanted to, but they all retreated, venomous and non-venomous, any time we got too close. The reason there were so many that went unidentified was often we would get too close to them, without actually seeing them first and only became aware of their existence due to their trying to get away from us.
How many did we pass and never notice at all? Who knows. How many could have gotten the drop on us if they had wanted to? Latching on to one of my poor little bare toes? More than half I'd say. (The couple had the good sense to at least have rubber waders on)
Not once did I feel threatened by a single snake. I felt rather uneasy much of the time, but by the end of the afternoon, whatever innate fear I had of snakes, fear of their existence on this earth, had been dramatically reduced. Exposure therapy I think it could be thought of.
I don't want them in the house. I sure as heck don't want to tangle with one that is dangerous, but the same thing can be said for possums, coyotes, and raccoons.
As far as I am concerned the only animal in these here parts that I am truly terrified of is the hated deer.
Any animal that will jump out of its hiding place, in the middle of the night, to attack a 2000 pound hunk of metal moving at 70mph, is a menace.
commiecuriocollector
Well-Known Member
I believe its TL;DR actually.
regarding fear of snakes:
1. my mother changes the TV channel if a snake is shown.
2. my wife watched our son's pet snake eat the "pinkies" (baby mice) which we fed it.
3. my son caught a copperhead at church and we kept in a terrarium until it shed and released it.
1. my mother changes the TV channel if a snake is shown.
2. my wife watched our son's pet snake eat the "pinkies" (baby mice) which we fed it.
3. my son caught a copperhead at church and we kept in a terrarium until it shed and released it.
I had one about that size get into my screened porch last summer, and he was as feisty as yours. I got a broom and persuaded him to move out into the yard.
I don't have a snake story today, but my wife found one of these on the couch this afternoon, about a foot from where she was sitting. I had to put on my Indiana Jones hat and remove him.
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Back in the dark ages when I was a college student, one of my frat brothers "accidently" released a fairly large indigo snake in the frat house. He did not know where it was for several weeks. One of our little sisters had just finished dinner one evening and went into the living room to sit on a sofa between two of the brothers. No sooner had her rear end hit the cushion than she started beating and fussing at one of the brothers thinking that he had placed his hand on her cushion as she was in the process of being seated so he could get a good grope of her rather delightful posterior. Between blows to his head and shoulders, he was able to show her both his hands that were nowhere near her bottom. She got up quickly and saw that the cushion was moving. The snake owner was nearby and was able to remove his snake from between the cloth and the foam of the couch cushion. He was delighted to have found his snake. She was horrified that she had found his snake.
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Burt Gummer
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I’d love to see an indigo in person . They get very big
Went to the chicken coop this morning and when I opened the side door I saw to heads looking at me. Two big ol' rat snakes sitting up on top of the shelf (small coop so when you open the door it is literally right there). About 5 foot long each. Relocated them to the woods but I have a suspicion they will be back. I didn't have my phone so I couldn't take a picture.
...and my wife just took a picture of this beauty a few minutes ago while walking to the mailbox. That's 3 in one day.
Mathieu18
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Juvenile copper nope rope under the back porch stairs. Always thought it looked like a snake hole. Now too wound up to sleep.
Just remembered a story a guy I went to BLET with (1987) told.
Guy had been an Army Ranger and was telling a story about a snake encounter during training at Ft. Benning and low crawling up on a coiled snake and his response/evasive action. 😭 Guy was a great story teller (and had great "physical comedy" the way he moved and jerked and made facial expressions during the story) so we were laughing pretty good anyway. Someone asked "What kind of snake was it?" Guy said "I DON'T KNOW-A "WATER-HEADED COPPER MOCCASIN" FOR ALL I KNOW!" I had never heard that phrase, and from him-at that exact time-I lost it. Everyone else lost it. From that moment on if anyone was ribbing him, they called him a "water-headed copper moccasin". On top of THAT, he came up with a silly physical routine of HOW a "water headed copper moccasin" would slither and strike...lol!!! 😂😭
And unrelated, but since this is still a gun forum, I'll add that my nickname in class was "Tackleberry". God as my witness-I don't know if some of the folks I graduated with knew my real name. 😎
Guy had been an Army Ranger and was telling a story about a snake encounter during training at Ft. Benning and low crawling up on a coiled snake and his response/evasive action. 😭 Guy was a great story teller (and had great "physical comedy" the way he moved and jerked and made facial expressions during the story) so we were laughing pretty good anyway. Someone asked "What kind of snake was it?" Guy said "I DON'T KNOW-A "WATER-HEADED COPPER MOCCASIN" FOR ALL I KNOW!" I had never heard that phrase, and from him-at that exact time-I lost it. Everyone else lost it. From that moment on if anyone was ribbing him, they called him a "water-headed copper moccasin". On top of THAT, he came up with a silly physical routine of HOW a "water headed copper moccasin" would slither and strike...lol!!! 😂😭
And unrelated, but since this is still a gun forum, I'll add that my nickname in class was "Tackleberry". God as my witness-I don't know if some of the folks I graduated with knew my real name. 😎
9outof10mms
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At a park today. Walking down a pit gravel path (brown stone) and stepped right over this bastard. A lady’s dog started going berserk and clued us in.
A few smashes to the head from some stones and this one bites the dust. Was headed straight toward a playground full of kids too.
A few smashes to the head from some stones and this one bites the dust. Was headed straight toward a playground full of kids too.
Good job.
We were hiking once in Madison County and it was the largest group I'd ever hiked in-about 7 of us, and I was in the rear. Two of my best hiking buddies were in front (with girlfriends and wives in the middle) and just as my fiancé (now wife) stepped over him I saw the coiled copperhead right in the trial, off to one side. Granted he was in the resting coil-not a "striking coil". I stopped and yelled for everyone to stop and told them and they did not believe me-they just couldn't believe that two of them had failed to see a snake. They walked back slowly and mumbling that I was lying or "if it WAS a snake, it was dead" but they quickly seen how easy these boys are to miss.
Another chicken snake around the house. This one was a bit smaller. It was relocated.
edit: I wonder whether they were after all the baby wrens that are fledging around the house?
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