My little Chinese bride has been seeing a snake around the yard of late, a fair-sized garter snake. I've been telling her not to worry, he's a good snake to have around and that he won't bother her.

This morning, he showed up while we walked around the yard and I ran over and grabbed him so she could get a good look. While I was trying to get her to come closer, I suddenly got a whiff of something awful. Looked down and the bast*rd had pooped all over my hands. What a stink!

None of the other snakes I've picked up, mostly black rat snakes, have done that to me. Don't know if that's a good defense against predators, but it's sure a good one against this old fat man.

Take that poop and put it where you do not want any mice and the mice will be gone.

Uh....

Didn't save it.

lot of snakes use the poop as a defense mechanism.

uh, some of'em will pee on ya too. and some will attempt to bite. might even bring a drop or two of blood. my son got bit by a big rat snake when he was about 8 years old. he didn't stop handling them though.

I expect the biting, and don't give them the chance. The poop was a surprise.

Black rat snakes put up a big fuss at first, but settle down quickly. This guy was pissed, kept his mouth open the whole time. Read that their saliva is mildly poisonous, but not a danger unless you're allergic.

Snake...relax and KILL all of em

Found some snakes this morning myself. Think they were Siamese twins, seemed to be connected at the thorax or something. Largest one was about 8 foot. My wife got these photos for me.

I recken when yer got to go... yer got to go!

Oldgunsmith--what kind of snakes are those?

Bull Snakes. They hiss loudly and shake their tails to imitate a rattlesnake, but are non-venomous. Good ones to have around. Eat gophers and rats and such.

Could those be two bull snakes mating?

They look like King snakes but what do I know about snakes. They may be in a mating mode. Cheers NC

That connected at the thorax thing just might be a clue.🤔

Generally, when I'm connected at the thorax, that's the reason.

This ^^^^ Always try to grab as close to the head as possible and let the rest hang down. A 4 to 5ft black snake can put out a good bit of stench when so inclined...

Cool pics and definatly mating, 8' bull snake is a hellofa bull snake! All the constrictors, bull snakes, rat snakes, Indigos.... kill and eat other snakes including poisonous ones as part of their diet. Good snakes even when they poop on you.

My little bride saw a snake and left coconut water for it. She said he might be thirsty. No lie, Asian women are different.

Sure are apechit fond of turtles, too. I have a resident Desert Tortoise that a whole PACK of Asian women are hot for,......sorry, no WAY they're displacing that critter.

GTC

Probably picked up way to many snakes when I was a kid - they simply were fascinating. It was normal to grab and hold them right behind the head. Some would then wrap around the arm. The smaller snakes would go the "poop" route pretty quickly. If you could handle a larger one gently and it could stay calm, you might avoid the defecate. When we arrived in the SW I had a young wife and 1 yr. old daughter and catching rattlers was supposed to be off limits. I only did that two or three times, and they were not the Mohave variety. The last time I attempted to catch a snake was about 10 years later in our back yard in Tucson - the kids (4 by then) wanted to see up close the every morning invader. I simply failed - it was a Red Racer. Try that sometime.

Bull Snake, Gopher Snake same critter.
8 foot is longer than I have ever seen by a couple of feet.
Here in Idaho a four footer would be huge, have caught em over 5' south of here.
The ones here are faster to fight than the Western Rattlers which is the only rattlers here in SW Idaho.

I caught this guy under the lid of my propane tank.

I am powerful happy I don't have to worry about those kind of snakes under my propane tank.

Jake NoShoulders and I don't get along. Thankfully I don't have to deal with the bastids here.

Well, ive heard of snakes scaring the crap out of people but not this. You must be pretty scarey, Pappy.

What kind of snake is that?

A big copperhead!

In Arkansas one time my dad and I found a big copperhead under the lid on our 1000 gal propane tank. We were checking the tank and getting it ready to be filled for the winter. The snake was just laying in there coiled around the gauges and controls. He was probably 3 to 4 foot long and that size is deadly.

Snakes are good - even most of the bad ones. Well, I do live in Alaska, but I grew up Outside.... Yeah, snake poop/pee stinks - ask me how I know!

It's humans I have problems with, and not a one of them has ever physically crapped/peed on me - except for my sons.....

I always liked what we called "puff-adders". Might have been hog-nosed, for all I know. Have no idea what they really were. when vulnerable, they would roll over as if "dead". Roll them over right side up, and they would roll over belly side up. Time after time.

They were, BY DAMNED, dead!!!!

I handled this one last week.

My preferred way of handling them now.

Caught this in my neighbors flower basket sitting on her front porch.

Luckily the only poisonous snake found in Idaho is the Western Rattler, AKA Prairie Rattler. We have lots of garter snakes and a few bull snakes around here and I let them be. They eat a lot of crawly things.

Snakes don't like to be dangled. You would panic too if somebody picked you up by the neck and let your body dangle. If you grab one behind the head, always support the heavy part of the body with your other hand and they calm down quickly.

this guy turned up on my front porch one evening. He was quite pissy and would strike at you if you were within 4 feet of him. I had to look him up and eventually concluded it was a Texas brown snake. Max size 10-12 inches, and that's about how big this guy was.

The old Rocker Alice Cooper used to do a stage act where he'd walk around with a good sized (8-9 feet) albino python on his shoulders. One night on stage the snake chit on him, and the smell was so bad he had to fight to keep from throwing up.

If you're saying to just grab behind the head and let the tail hand down and do what it wants, that's a big negatory. I abandoned my normal method of grabbing a snake behind the head with one hand, while holding the tail with the other, just ONE time. Never again. A big black snake with an uncontrolled tail will immediately wrap around your arm and they can squeeze like a 1 ton hydraulic vise. I found out a big snake has a lot of stamina and the only way to get them to stop is to get some help to get them off your arm.

If I run into a poisonous snake I usually kill them. Non poisonous I leave alone. A couple of years ago a buddy of mine called me to come get a snake behind his office. It was a king snake coiled up on a bush outside the back windows and was upsetting his female employees. I walked over and picked it up and could hear the women screaming in the office. I took it home and let it go in the woods behind the house. A few days later my wife went out to light the grill and she came back in mad as a hornet. The king snake had gotten up in the bottom of the gas grill and after she lit it he was flopping all over trying to get out up through the grates instead of going out the bottom. Needless to say I got a lecture.