35* this morning..

Peaked out at 55*

Damn Gopher snake laying in the last of today's sunshine...about 4' long

Utahan's call em Blow snake ??

Hate 'em.....Left him alone this time....

Go catch a mouse.......

I killed a Copperhead last week on the front porch

Chopped up a garter snake w the mower last week.

Cannot stand those little fuu.ggers. Attitude like a copperhead. Any other non poisonous snake gets a pass but not those garter snakes.

I would too

the Gopher's are use full for eating rodents

But first glance it looks like a rattler

Bastarrds will climb trees & search out bird's nests for eggs/babies

No 2nd chances for rattlers in my yard

I’ve got a record number of water snakes in the pond. I se them pretty much every time I’m down there.

No, but I was cleaning up a pile of bark in the yard, grass had grown in it
and a flat shovel wasn't working. Started picking it up with my hands
and had a PTSD moment, flashing back to my logging days.

We cut in several snake infested places. You never put your hands or feet
In reach of a place you hadn't looked. Rattlers were everywhere.

Anyway, as I'm thinking this, I hear "Hssssssssss". And about poop!
Suddenly, the flat shovel worked good enough! Never found a snake,
Or anything that might have hissed. Must have been imagined.

I just don't like snakes

Few years ago.....for schhits & giggles

Wife & I would walk our dogs (both gone now) near the golf course

Pick up outta bound balls.....

Reached down for a ball......SOB'n rattlesnake right next to the ball........

Fuggin ball is still laying there........scared the schiddt outta me

No snakes of consequence here in Podunk. 😁

Got a water moccasin at my place a couple of weeks ago.

Been seeing a fair number of snakes around here since April. One big copperhead got a bullet, the rest “walked”.

I don't care what type it is - when it comes to snakes. I hate 'em all.

Wife got bit by a Copperhead summer before last.

We were visiting folks down at a lake house at Bull Shoals Arkansas and the damn thing nailed her. Her leg swelled up pretty nasty and she was very close to losing it at one point. Extremely painful for her. I stay far away from any of the things.

Ha. Check your government.

According to Wikipedia, garter snakes are, in fact, venomous. They produce a neurotoxin that is relatively harmless to people, barring an allergic reaction and have posterior teeth (think rear fangs) with which they chew the venom into their victims.
This is relatively new finding. It does explain the reaction a friend had when a big one tagged him on the hand and causing some pretty significant swelling in the hand and arm along with some mild breathing issues for a day or so.

The doctors kept asking him if he was sure it was a garter snake that got him. They saw the fang marks and just couldn't believe the signs of (mild) invenomation they were seeing could've been caused by a garter snake---until a nurse did some research and found that garter snakes are a bit venomous.

Apparently he's abnormally sensitive to their venom.

Snakes might not hurt me, but they will dang sure make me hurt myself. They all got to go.

Good thing you didn't have a heart attack.
😆

That’s for sure.

Snakes have never bothered me. Around here nearly all of them are non poisonous and don’t hurt anything. I’ve seen two milk snakes, one corn snake, a few blue racers in my lifetime. Everything else has been garter snakes. I’ve seen three this year so far. Supposedly there are a few pygmy rattlers in MI but I’ve never seen one.

My dog likes to kill snakes with a passion. How do you guys in poisonous snake country keep your dogs away from them?

Not a snake, but last week I saw the first scorpion I have seen on my property ever, more’n two decades.

And it was inside the house.

I did see what was was probly an 18 inch garter snake last week, being carried off by a red-shouldered hawk.

You don't. They'll kill a poisonous snake just like any other snake. Shake em to death. Only one dog, (my grandfathers was bitten). Copperhead got him on the nose. He layed still for about 24 hours and then completely recovered. We were worried his nose would swell shut and stop him from breathing, but he recovered nicely.

You don't!

I had a yellow lab that came in the house one evening then laid down by the fireplace and barely moved, really unlike him. I went over to him and he'd barely raise his head, that's when I noticed his chest was really swollen. I called the vet and he said to bring him in so I loaded him into the truck and the vet was at the clinic when we arrived. He shaved his chest and the fang marks were plain as day, it had to be a BIG rattler to have fangs that far apart. The vet kept him and pumped him full of antibiotics but never had to give him any anti-venom. He recovered in a few days and was fine when I brought him home.

You think garter snakes have attitude?

Good info. I assumed that it would be about impossible to keep dogs away but that the snake would manage to land a bite.

I got knicked by a copperhead last September. Foot swelled a bit and hurt like heck. I sure wouldn’t want a full bite from one.

I mulched a corral snake a few weeks ago with the mower. A number of neighbors have been seeing them as well. A lot of tarantulas, scorpions and red headed centipedes this year. Much more than normal. The tarantulas get relocated to the front of the property where the dogs can't get them, the others are killed regardless of where they are.

Not even close….snakes, even poisonous snakes serve a purpose and only do what they have to do to survive. Politicians are worse than snakes in every way.

saw one last week in the yard (at 7000') crossed the street to get to the yard, then crossed the other street to head north.

Dark brown gopher snake, darkest I ever saw. sent a pic of it to an expert, he said it was darkest he ever saw in Arizona.

I never heard them called Blow snake, hear them called Bull snakes all the time.

I run GSP's and have never had a dog go after a snake. Just a strange point, tail wagging and head up.

Only kill snakes or spiders when the ol' lady wants them gone.

You mean like this? (couple years back now, but gets the point across)

Holy shyte!
I hate snakes.

That surprises me. I run Setters but they have no problem wiping out snakes or baby rabbits if they can get to them. I’ve had Setters that break the mold as far as Setter stereotypes. Dogs that loved to retrieve and could blind retrieve, high point frisbees all day and loved the water ect. but I’ve always heard GSP are some killing machines. I’m not disparaging the breed I’ve thought about running a GSP and it would be my first pick if not a Setter guy. Just to surprised to hear that.

Garter snakes, gopher snakes, lizards, been out on sunny days for a couple of weeks here. Even though it was down in the 20's the other morning.

Summer's almost here, kingbirds, orioles are here, and the wife heard the first nighthawk yesterday.

Allergy time too.

Mine have only been bird dogs, never encouraged hunting anything else.

They do point everything in the field, just not the same intensity.

Is it now dead ?

Yes.........Bull......Blow.......all the same snake

I tell 'em.....just stay out of sight & do your job on the mice

that would have been laying on the ground dead at my place

I like seeing snakes in the yard, but all we have are garter snakes in the neighborhood. They hang out under the back porch slab and eat mice.

Plus, they freak out my wife and it's funny.

Had the same to a Lab, identical outcome.

Had 28-30 inch corn or water snake, on the back deck, 2 days ago, I run it off with a broom, if it comes back I'll kill it, wife's very afraid of. Snakes, I don't care for them! Dam thing coiled and struck like a rattler even shaking it tail , like one!

First decent-sized Bull snake of the year Saturday.



I love ‘em.




P

Haven't seen one up here yet.....

Growing up in ND, my mother was picking strawberries and took her eyes off the target. Picked up a 10 inch grass snake by the head instead.

I'm told the shriek was heard 3 blocks away.

We get a lot of gopher snakes in Tucson and they look and act somewhat like rattlers. Probably get killed a lot because of it.

Rattlers are thick this year. Daughter just got a bill for $450 for removal. A private fire/rescue company.

A friend of mine has a photo of a rat snake climbing the brick wall of his house. It zig zagged up the courses of the bricks like it was nothing.

When I was a teenager my brothers and cousins and I were shooting the bull with all of us leaning on the hood of my uncle’s truck being cool. It was parked under a huge oak tree by the driveway.

Then…PLOP! Right on the hood drops about a 3’ long green snake. 🐍 Everybody’s first reaction was to jump back but then I grabbed it. I kept it for a couple of weeks and then let it go.
It had climbed up the trunk that had no limbs for probably 20’.

I saw my first snake of the year the other day. Not a snake expert, but it was about 3 -4 foot long, skinny and reddish in color. Some summers I see a crap load of snakes others I might only see one or two. Mostly we see rattlers and bullsnakes.

Not sure if the big bullsnake that used to hang around is still in the area. I had no idea they were constrictors until we saw it squeezing the crap out of a cottontail one day. Found a shed skin that was about
5 1/2 foot long from it (I think).

Geez! Sorry to hear that! Glad it turned out - sorta’ okay!

I was in the woods with my dad at a young age, and was taught to watch for snakes. I've heard on TV show that a rattlesnake will alert you by rattling/ false. I've come across them several times coiled up not making a sound. I don't care much for any kind of snake. Kill every one I get the chance.

Had what I now believe was a big corn snake climb up a brick porch support once years ago. Porch support was tapered and was hollow at the very top which birds used to nest inside. Wife and kids were sitting on porch swing when I got home from work, wife told me they'd been watching a big 'lizard' stick it's head out every once in a while up at the top of porch support. I got a flashlight and climbed up to see and found out it wasn't a lizard but a big, fat snake coiled up inside the hollow bird nesting spot I assume waiting to snatch a bird meal.

All I could see was it had a patterned skin, not sure whether poisonous or not and snake was reluctant to leave of it's own free will, so I got a long handled meat fork, and commenced to stabbing and rolling it up around fork tines until I had enough control of it to sling it up and out into the yard. I had injured it pretty bad with the meat fork so I went ahead and finished it off.

A elderly farmer neighbor I hired to bush-hog a side lot on our place told me after he finished that he had seen countless black snakes over his lifetime but saw the biggest black snake he'd ever seen in his entire life while bush hogging our side lot. I got a quick glimpse of it once and found it's shed skins several times.

Very much so

My…scary

How do you cook them?

Just after doing some rattler avoidance training. Note the leash on Babe. If a dog knows you mean business when you you mean business it will defer to your strong admonition as it approaches a snake and you holler like hell and jerk the leash at the same time.

It's better to do that with a shock collar and doesn't take much to let a smart dog know it doesn't want anything to do with a snake.

Many dogs will raise hell and not get too close, seemingly instinctively.

dell laptop keyboard sticking

Host in the campground we frequent was having some mouse issues in his travel trailer. He put some of the newish clam type traps in the cabinet, checked them about 4 hrs later, and had about a 2 ft long Garter Snake with 2 traps holding him down.

He's since acquired a couple cans of that expanding foam and sealed up every possible entry way he can find.

When I was deer hunting with GoDogs57 in Georgia. He had me so spun up about deadly snakes making their way into the deer blind during the night. Every morning I dreaded that dark morning climb into the blind.

I hate snakes! No, I really, really hate snakes.

🦫

The most dangerous critter I've found around my place lately is a jefferson salamander that must have been on my chainsaw case and fell off in the garage.
My 7yr old granddaughter named him Jeff and decorated a luxurious terrarium for his new apartment next to Cupcake the guinea pig.
We're kinda spoiled around these parts not having to worry about where we walk or stick hands into.

Had some warm sunny days recently where it hit 50 or so. The garter snakes that live under our ground level deck came out to bask in the sun. I like 'em and call them "my buddies". They got rid of all the damn mice that formerly lived under the deck, and got into my garage and a couple times even got into the house. The snakes don't do anything to bother us and are occasionally seen heading into or out of the state owned woods next door. They can live under the deck as long as they wish. Last month one was sunning itself on the deck and my wife decided that it was "cute"; never thought I'd hear her make a comment like that. But it's a lot nicer than setting mousetraps constantly and tossing dead mice into the woods.

The old Allis Chalmers round balers dropped their bales on the ground. There was no chute to grab them off of. When you picked up a round bale you hooked it first then walked it backward for 3 or 4 feet just to make sure there was no snake under it. Where I am at there was about a 50/50 chance it was a rattle snake.

kwg

How much are you asking for the dog? I HATE snakes! I was swamping behind a dozer in Idaho one time in the Fall and he opened up a den of snakes. It stuck and smelled even worse after 5 gallons of diesel fuel and a road flare.

Sure are a lot of people who say they hate snakes. I'm not sure why, maybe your parents hated snakes and you learned from them? Most snakes are not a danger to humans, although I understand why people don't want venomous snakes in their yards.

Personally, I find snakes interesting. I'm careful around the venomous ones, but I still like to see them.

I thought only Black folk was scared of snakes

Used to have a pet garter snake in my room as a kid. We used to walk the railroad tracks looking for snakes under rotten cross ties.

We’d peel rotten bark off of Poplar trees and little ringneck snakes would under there. Scoop em out.

Had a bitchin’ snake terrarium in 7th grade in the science classroom.

My inlaws be like….”that there is a copper-headed moccasin”

And it be a king snake. I’d rescue it from hoe wielding inlaws.

Try explaining that king snakes hunt copperheads. Ppffft. No use.

So are hognose, both have venom geared towards amphibians.

A few years back we had a Mexican laborer build a rock wall in the front yard. It was during the winter and even Tucson can get rather chilly. My wife calls me and says Pablo is freaking out about something and I can't make out what he's saying. No my late wife was fluent in Spanish and if she couldn't make out what he was trying to say it must be bad. So O run out and he's saying what sounded like surpon, surpon, shaking in some kind of fear. I mean he was really freaking out. So I take a look and if it hadn't moved I'd never have seen in. A baby bull snake about 6" long at the most. The snake was so cold it could hardly move. That big 6" something Mexican was literally frozen with fear from that tiny snake. I picked it up and took it into my back yard and turned it loose behind my shed.

I know there are a couple of bull snakes living in my back yard and I leave them be. They make a great pet once they become used to being handled. We had one my youngest daughter brought home from school. It was the start of summer vacation and someone had to take it. My wife was not too happy but as there was a tank with a screened top I figured it couldn't get out. No one told me what great escape artists they are. I learned. I put a 5 pound ingot of lead pn the lid and damned if it still got out. A second ingot finally fixed the problem. Of course, daddy dear was also tasked to find mice to feed the thing. That brings out another snake story that was funny after it was all over with, but not at the time. I was at the pet shop getting another mouse for Doobie the snake and the girl that worked there was up on the counter and on the verge of hysteria. She warns me of the Boa constrictor that is out of its cage. I went over and as it seemed to be non-aggressive I picked it up, all 6 feet of it and put it back into the cage and closed it. I asked he if it was handled a lot and she said her boss would take it out and play with it every evening. She told me a bunch of punks came in and turned the snake loose. I think my wife would have l
left me if I'd brought that thing home.
PJ

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