and so do coyotes........but I hate 'em both

https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-shhh-ocking-discovery-made-by-two-workmen-when-092740245.html

My electrician neighbor finds cottonmouths regular in electric boxes and paddle wheels around fish ponds here. Wasps too. miles

yep they have purpose, they make great hat bands

Target practice.

And machete skill sharpening...

That's their purpose, isn't it?

My Granddad used to put the bigger snakes he caught out in the fields inside his shirt to later turn lose in his barns. We never saw any rats or mice...

While all snakes are, to some extent, beneficial, some are dangerous enough that one cannot ignore them. When we almost walked into a very large Fer de Lance in Peru last year, I, my wife, and our guide were all rattled. That was a malevolent looking snake and, unlike many of our North American vipers, his bite is almost always fatal.
On the other hand, we lived in an old house near Julietta, Idaho where we had a bit of a rat problem. That is, we had a bit of a rat problem until a large bull snake moved in. It wasn't long until you could not have found a rat anywhere around our place. After he slithered over her leg on day, you also could not have found my wife sunbathing in the yard anymore!
Poisonous snakes are particularily dangerous if you have small children. There is a good reason so many southerners fear snakes; they've been taught to do so from a young age and it can almost be thought of as a survival mechanism.
I am all for "live and let live" and I like wildlife of all descriptions ( have a little trouble snuggling up to spiders, mind you!)but there times when it seems prudent to take a hand in determining a given animal's destiny. So it is, when I think the coyotes are getting too numerous, I shoot a few. If there is a cougar hanging around near the house, his days are likely to be numbered. Fortunately, we do not have any poisonous snakes around here so all the snakes get a free pass. They do nothing but good.
Porcupines do not get a free pass. I would be happy to let them go on their way but they have cost too much in vet bills over the years so our place is a porky-free zone. Everything else, we try to live with.
I have always had an antipathy toward black hornets and couldn't see why they should even exist. Then, a few years ago, I noticed there were a lot of them flying around the yard about 2 inches off the ground. I went out in the yard an watched as they would fly along and snatch the mosquitoes which came up out of the grass. Now I'm a lot more tolerant of black hornets. Still don't like them nesting too close and they bug me when I'm fishing and they are buzzing around my head but at least I know they have a useful purpose. GD

Good points Greydog. We have rattlesnakes and I have kids and grand kids. When we go to the farm I'm prepared for the rattlesnakes but pretty much everything else gets a pass.
kwg

I love snakes and almost always give them a pass, even and perhaps especially the rattlesnakes. I hunted them for years and it would be hard to find a more innocuous creature.I see no sense whatsoever in killing a snake simply because it is a snake.
I was soundly berated here one day by Varmintguy for saying this. By his logic if I didn't kill every one, some day a child might run into that snake and be harmed.....

By that thought process I ought to take it upon myself and pull over every stupid driver I see and head shoot them.....they kill far more children than snakes. And as much as I'd like to do that, I don't have enough ammo.....

There was a study done a few years back in Idaho that tracked rattlesnakes and recorded how far they ranged, what they ate, and how much. On average, each rattlesnake ate 2 mice per week during their active time of the year which was only several months. I know a lady that has a captive rattlesnake and she feeds it 1 mouse per week. At that rate, it would take a pile-o-rattlesnakes to control the mouse or vole population.

On the flip side, there is probably nothing that vacuums up more mice, voles, and ground dwelling vermin than a coyote. A coyote probably eats more mice in a day or two than a snake eats in a lifetime.

Snakes get a pass here at the house unless it's venous. When I'm out and about and I see a poisonous snake I leave it be unless I'm camping and it's to close for me to be comfortable. I have only seen one copperhead in my yard since 1988, I killed it and would do so again. Black snakes and small brown and yellow striped snakes are all I ever see around the house. Sometimes I catch them and chase the wife, it never gets old. I generally yell praise JESUS and have you no faith woman while Lmao. She hates me for the rest of the day.

"Snakes" covers a lot of territory. From a copperhead or rattlesnake that you don't want around your house to the garter snake who eats mice and can't hurt you. We have a pair of garter snakes that come out from under our back porch slab every morning to sun themselves this time of year.

I like having them there and the wife has learned to tolerate them.

I like 'em and wont kill 'em.

TFF

Coyotes at our place, don't do much damage to deer. They can be a bit hard on the smaller animals though, but its nature. I love to watch the coyotes and fox working. Now and then we shoot one. Especially if they decide to camp out around the houses to often.

Last night, about 10pm Tiger went out and started his warning bark, but sounded close... so I got up and went out the door. He was standing right there. I looked down, cotton mouths like to be by our screen door a bit... nope... I kept shining the light, and asking him..... he barked a bit looking at me, when it dawned on me to turn around.... not on the ground but on the brick window ledge coiled up was what I thought, without glasses looked like a copperhead... I called Carolyn to get Tiger, and got a broom and killed him. Was a rat snake in the end.... but anyway that was about waist high and 6 inches from me as I walked out the door looking DOWN... .next time I'm going to have to look, down up, around etc... before walking out the door...

I remember my mom absolutely hated snakes. As she told it the story was the reason for it was when she was a little girl she went to the circus and at the circus, there was a side show with a snake charmer in it. The snake charmer beheaded a snake and threw it into the audience, it landed around her neck scaring her. As a result, she hated snakes until her dying day.

Myself I don't think I've seen a poisonous snake in the wild in my life other than one that has met it's demise on the highway while soaking up the heat from the highway.

You just need to remember that Varmintguy is an idiot !!

You should have seen the article yesterday on Yahoo about the lady singer in Indonesia who used a King Cobra in her "prop", it bit her in the thigh while singing on stage. She refuse anti venom carried by the doctor/handler. 45 minutes later while she was performing, she collapsed and died.

I just saw that. Indonesian Darwin award Winner!

Les was telling me he has to carry a machete everywhere on his farm in the Philippines because of all the cobras.

Yesterday I was clearing out a beaver dam (damn?)behind my house and causing a good bit of flooding. While playing in the muck I had two water moccasins and one banded water snake cruise past me. We just looked at each other and I let em go. Figure they punch a time clock just like I do. I'll give em a pass unless they are IN my back yard and venomous.

The one in my avatar measured 7'2" un-streached, and was crawling around the neighbor's back door. She didn't get a pass.

I am in your Camp on this also. The "Kill all Snakes" mentality is an old subconscious superstition because of Eve and the Apple that has been preached for so many years.

Out here we have the Mojave Green which is one of the most deadly snakes in the world because of it's venom. Yet they are one of the most Docile Reptiles I have ever handled.

Countless of times I have stood in the Brush taking a leak and looked down to see a Green slowly easing away from my foot without ever coiling or rattling at all. I have even accidently stepped on these many times without any return aggressiveness.

The only people that have been bitten around here were City folks screwing with them using a stick or similar type situations and they were given no choice but to defend themselves from the Human.

I just coax them away from the yard and on their way and unless they decide to Camp under my steps then unfortunately at this point I can't take a chance with the Kids and Animals and they become stew.

I have a bunch of ammo I can send you, what you need???

If it's in my yard and can kill ya or the dogs, it's dead.

Les... has a farm??? in the Phillipines???? I missed that somewhere along the line.


Re killing snakes.... rattlers have nice hides... and they eat very good.