Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I hate being this way

A bigchickenpussybaby. I have a phobia, a totally irrational fear of snakes.

Getting the zero turn mower ready yesterday, gas, checking fluids topping off hyd. tanks & just about finished. I had scanned the shop floor & rafters when I first went in the shop, all clear.

Put the caps back on tanks & right there in front of my face, sticking it's tongue out & looking at me like, whats up? The sumbuck wasn't in the rafters, it was in my feakin mower.

After the usual girly scream & the 5-10 foot run when I can usually stop myself, the vision of the encounter reappeared, my distance had doubled. Then I realized it was still in my mower & screamed just a little more. I had a 317 Smith w/shot shells in my pocket, but that just didn't compute until after the 30' dash.

Wife came to the end of the porch & I thought she ask; what is it.
Totally irrational now, I said; WTF do you think it is.
She said; I ask where is it, you smartass.
It's in my freakin mower, I said, & wanted to cry. What the hell am I gonna do now.

I'll save the snake lovers the details of the rodeo that followed, but in the end, it didn't go well for the critter. Tools were a S&W & a frog gig with a 12 foot pole, as I wouldn't touch a snake with a 10' one.

I've tried to man up & get used to the things, but so far I haven't been successful, my virgina always come into play. My phobia isn't totally life controlling as I usually deal with it & don't live in constant fear when I think I'm in their territory. But the sudden encounters take over before I can gain any common sense of the situation & I just loose it.

Just thought I'd vent, & yes, the yard still needs mowing.

LOL!
How do you even leave the house? 😳

Same way I do with Spiders Mike.

I can't blame ya. I have a fear like that of rats and mice. No idea why but i just get the hell away fast and then wonder why later.

Fire is the great cleanser.

You are not alone.

In the 1980s I lived in Pittsburgh. I went to work that day on second shift and told my buddy how I pull started the mower and half a snake flew out. Amazingly he did the same thing that day about 10 miles away. He thought his wife told me. He was really stunned. Crazy coincidence. Never started a mower on one since.

I can be around most things and be fine, bats, mice, spiders, sister-in-law’s, etc. I don’t do snakes big or small especially when they are a surprise.

^this. Hate those fuggers worse than taxes...

Nothing at all irrational about that.

You only have to have 2% genetic negro to possess the notorious innate fear of serpents

😃

Is there anyone named “Nate” in your family tree?

Damn fuggin Skippy i hate them fuggers!

Shake My family tree and there is some sickle cell in it, and I am blond haired blue eyed, so knock that [bleep] off.

Evidently copperhead bites hurt pretty bad, pretty quickly.


This girl got bitten a few days ago. It's a wonder she wasn't struck multiple times...

LOL

Wife had been seeing one from out the window slithering around beneath her bird feeders in our backyard and was afraid to go outside to refill the feeders. Day before yesterday I was able to catch it before it saw me and pin it down to the ground with a tomato stake and snatch it up holding it right behind it's head. Was just a harmless garter snake but they can and will bite and hold on. Their teeth are very tiny but sharp. It tried hard to bite me but I managed to keep away from it's strikes. This one was a bit longer and thicker than the average garter snakes I have seen around here at about 30" or so long and thicker through the middle than a broom handle. I carried it off and threw it in a overgrown vacant lot a block away. Don't know if it survived as it quit wiggling and resisting about half way there and didn't move after I tossed it into the overgrowth. May have held it too tight behind it's head and strangled it.

I'm generally not all that scared of snakes as long as I see them first. I DO NOT like to be surprised by them, though.

A friend of mine once set fire to a couch he had for kicking back and relaxing out in his garage after seeing a snake come slithering out from under it. When someone asked why he set fire to the couch AFTER the snake was already gone his reply was, "any where there's one snake there could be more... and I'm not taking any chances".

This one crawled out of a bale I was leaned against turkey hunting this spring. Went up a tree a few feet away, warmed up then went on his way.

Glad they have never really bothered me. I do get surprised by them occasionally.

I don't kill the black snakes or some garter snakes but those banded water snakes get it. They run around pissed at the world and always wanna bite something even though they are not poisonous.

She just happened to film herself getting bit? Yeah? huh.

So what type of snake was it? Was your irrational fear at least somewhat supported by reality?

Serpents is mostly OK, spiders on the other hand can cause me to hurt myself. Working under houses helping my old man run black pipe did it to me. Spiders and them jacked up racing crickets give me the jerks but I'll grab a snake and throw it off into the bushes or a field.