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.

I am afraid of wasps.

She was filming herself doing tumbling for cheerleader practice, and wasn't aware of the copperhead.

https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/cheerleader-snake-bite-houston/

Come on now Jim, don't be that way. We ain't all bad.

Snakes haven't been our friends since Adam and Eve, so you should feel free to kill them whenever/wherever you encounter them unless killing them is prohibited by law. You shouldn't break the law and if you do, you shouldn't share that information with anyone.

I'm not a fan of viper poisonous snakes, but don't find the non-poisonous varieties objectionable.

Haha!

You are scary AF!

I guess my favorite shooting sport was hunting quail behind dogs. (Back when N. TX had quail)
Seeing a snake while quail hunting absolutely ruins your hunt. You're no longer watching the dogs or looking for birds, you're looking at every rock or brush stubble looking for another damned snake.
I hate them too!

I am fine with snakes... as long as I see them first... I will go so far as to chase them chase down and catch racers and black snakes when they start darting across wind rows while mowing hay. ... HOWEVER, let one surprise me, and, one of us is going to die. To-date, it has always been the reptile...

I didn’t used to be u til one stung me on the eyelid.

Hard to run from them, roofing around a church steeple. 😐

Fuggin hurts just thinking about it.

I had an employee who owned 4 to 5 ft. python. He sold his home. As he was going about moving, his python went into hiding somewhere in his house. He searched in vain trying to find it. He surmised that it had crawled into an opening under his hot jetted bath tub. He never told the new owners about the missing python. I have always wondered about the new owners and their experiences.

I'm not scared of snakes but I do kill all poisonous one's I see. My wife kills every snake she she's in our lake no exceptions. We still have a lot of snakes around here, but nothing like it was before we had cattle.

This thread brings back fond memories of my kid's penchant for collecting garter snakes from the canal and the farm, their inevitable escapes from their terraria, and my ex's amusing reactions to their unexpected presence...

Good times....

As kids we used to run around the farm with bull snakes wrapped around our arm just for giggles.

Then, as an adult and father, I got up close and personal with a couple rattlers. At first glance, bull snakes and rattlers appear very similar. Now days I jump back and study the specimen closely before approaching a bull snake. Random water snakes and such do not bother me at all.

Usually, I kill any rattler on sight. But I guess I am getting old. I saw two rattlers (30-36 in) on the road yesterday up near the lake. I did not even stop the truck.

Am not a screamer but could easily medal in a vertical jump competition if surprised by a snake. Any identification only occurs during the autopsy...I dont play favorites, treat em all alike.

Was trying to diagnose a clogged water hose recently and learned s snake will enter the open end.

Am not a screamer but could easily medal in a vertical jump competition if surprised by a snake. Any identification only occurs during the autopsy...I dont play favorites, treat em all alike.

Was trying to diagnose a clogged water hose recently and learned s snake will enter the open end.

Rooming with my bro once in the olden days. He had a rosy boa. Took a gal home, she asked what was in the "aquarium", I told her a snake. Thought I wasn't going to get any that night, but told her it never gets out. Things went better for me then.

Next morning, got up, snake nowhere to be seen. I didn't tell her. Found it weeks later up under the plumbing for the bathroom sink.

Saw a 3' gopher snake (bull snake for some of you) on the road while walking the dogs today.


Didn't jump.

Neither did my wife.

Apparently she is more braver than some of the girly men on this site.

You're A bigchickenpussybaby, too!

Wife said a cow or corn snake, pretty much physically harmless. I call them rattleheadedcoppermoccasons.

Irrational fear not supported from reality is I think is why it's called a phobia. But a friend & ex head of Ky. wildlife education has told me that no one is born with a fear of snakes & something has likely happened to me that I may not remember.

I don't encounter them often & the surprise up close & personal is the panic BS. Otherwise, I deal with it best I can.

Got some mowing done, as jumpy as a heard of grasshoppers on a hot skillet. I'll get over it.

Snakes don’t scare me much. I am not scared of wasps, but hate them.


picture share

My son in law is a war veteran, decorated police officer. He is scared cshitless of snakes. I have chased him several times with live rattlesnakes I’ve caught. He squeals like a little girl. If there is a snake in his yard, my daughter has to go kill it.

Here is a good size pine snake I caught a couple of years ago.



lightshot

Rockinbbar ,

I guess she had no clue what happenned - didn't appear that she ever saw the snake . Sat down and put her both feet in the same spot .

She did have blonde hair ,, ----hope she's ok .

I had to deploy the Combat Masterpiece and some 150gr SWCs yesterday at the ranch. Walked to the back of the cabin to get the fire ready to light for our Sunday evening weenie roast and there was a rattler. SOB was laying right by the fire pit sleeping off a mouse in his belly. One shot through three coils blew him off the pit and another through his head finished the job.

If I see them up in the hills they usually get a pass. Down around the gates, cabin, or corral and they’re in trouble.

Gonna find one of them philippine cobras and send the little bastard to ya...LOL

See now thats just low and mean, like sending pictures of clowns to Steelehead... 🤪🤪🤪

I see you have your snake boots on for them terrible TX rattlers.

My daughter used to have a python, about a 6 footer. Very tame and docile...
...until the cat would walk into the room. The snake thought he heard the dinner bell, and would try to slither after the cat. We named him Alf, after the cat eating alien of TV fame. If I had my way, Alf would have enjoyed his dinner.

Les, I thought about you a couple days ago.

I think I got spider bit...


Was mowing on my riding mower, and had to go between some bushes and there were cobwebs in there I didn't see, and they just covered me. Had to stop and take a rag and get all the cobwebs off.

Just kept on mowing. Had my shorts and tennis shoes on. After awhile I got an itchy burning feeling in my crotch area. It just kept getting worse. So, I stop and shuck those shorts and pull down my underwear and there was a couple of spider legs inside. Guess I'd smashed it.

Then I was sore the next day, and investigated, and found a good sized welt at the base of my dick! Swelled up pretty good too. Took quite a bit of Benadryl and a couple of days to get somewhat back to normal.


Only I could manage to get bitten on the dick by a spider.

Now I’m curious. What ethnic brew would make a man fear spiders?

Just do what I do. Catch them with your snake tongs. The pattern on the skin is pretty when you see it up close.

Only real spiders have to deal with here are them damned camel spiders, Buggers are quick. Guys try and mess with me using scorpions, find out real quick, i will catch snakes and throw them in there office. 95% of the snakes here are poisonous.

Now I will admit, I am a bit more careful when I am at the wifes family farm in the PI, as cobras are just not as easy going as these sand vipers here. They also have BIG fookin Huntsman Spiders theere, and bird eating spiders. I tend to tread lightly when in the jungle around the farm.

Glad it wasn't a big, bird eating spider that was in my shorts!

Might not have anything left!

We have a strip pit in our front yard and usually there are 2-4 green or brown water snakes hanging around. I usually leave them be if they stay on the far side of the pit. If they show up on the house side they die of being sawed in half by a 12ga nitro mag and usually get one or 2 a summer with the mower

Cool! When I had to live in Kansas, I used to catch Copperheads near the house and relocate them. My wife is terrified of snakes. She can barely look at a picture of one.

Ill ensure i do a Jane, and add a not that you wanted it.

?

Remember Jane, the one who sent me the Banana bread with friggin fake spiders. My Ma, and VANimrod were involved in that.

Were they baked in the bread or just on top?

Some of them ones with the big long legs maybe?

never been afraid of them started catching them when I was about 6-7, remember my mom and aunt chasing me when I was 8 with a hoe telling me to drop the water moccasin i caught.

You gotta have worse faults to worry about. Just got to!

I'm scared of them myself. I was walking in a swamp with one of my buddies trying to pick out a spot to put a deer stand a couple of years ago. I stepped a little to close for my comfort to a little bitty copperhead about a foot long. The snake was to my right and my buddy to my left. Buddy is a great big fella probably 6'4 way over 200. I ran smack into him and bounced off like John Riggins used to bounce off linebackers....kept right on going for a few feet. Just a gut reaction that happened before I could think about it. I was wearing a fine pair of Chippewa snake boots at the time and could have stomped the poor little snake to death but that didn't matter.

A good laugh was had by all!

Worst ass whuppin I got from Mom was stuffing one in my pants pocket and her finding it whiel washing clothes. i still cringe

Most snakes I don't mind, been that way since I was a kid.


OTOH, I fuggin' hate moccasins, copperheads, cobras, kraits, and bamboo vipers. Notice the red tail and arrowhead shape of the head, it's what differentiates them from the common green snake. That and the fact the viper version can kill you deader than a roadkill skunk. They don't live here in Floriduh. Yet.

Yard is mowed, I didn't nearly hyperventilate, or sweat profusely. Like I did yesterday. Didn't even drink a beer before mowing or during. Live, & don't pee pants for another day.

Prairie Dog shoot scheduled for net month might be a go. I've wrestled prairie rattlers before on these shoots, serious, not squealing & running, man up & take care of the situation. I have a lot of fun shooting PD's, but the rattlers are usually on my mind & put a damper on things a bit. I try not to let them stop me.

Well, I understand your wifes position. How is she able to leave the house?


Hey Digital Dan, not gonna copy your last pic as I've seen enough. But is that the one they called the 2 step Charlie? I've got buddies that told me about them. And... the FU lizards.

wow, that sure beats a frog!

My friend Gary was at an air base in Thailand during the Vietnam War. There was a village nearby and he would go down there to a local restaurant and have a meal and a beer.
Walking down the road one day, he saw a garter snake and picked it up. He walked into the Thailand restaurant. Everbody jumped up and ran out the door.
The owner, who knew Gary, told him, "Gary go outside right now and drop the snake and kill it. Or else, you will die young in Thailand."

Turned out it was a bamboo viper.

The triangle shaped head is always the thing to look for. There's a few venomous snakes native to here, but about all you hear of are Copperheads. Anytime I see a snake the first thing I focus on is the shape of its head.

But I can't recall the last time I saw a snake of any kind around here.

Chase me with a poisonous snake - and you're first, snake second!
Any non-poisonous snake gets a pass, though!

I had to sweep the yard and keep the grass putting-green short!

LOOKS LIKE A NICE COPPERHEAD.

I ve always liked and been fascinated by snakes and all reptiles and amphibians since Ive been a child. I just worry about rattle snakes bird hunting and concerned dog might get bit.

Ill often stop if I see a bull snake sunning on the road and pull it off the road. Could care lees if a rattle snake.

Only thing I hate are ground hornets

I don’t like ground hornets either

This should give you the Hee bee gee bee's!

Yeah, look at the head.




Now tell me, is this a bad snake?

king cobra.

Winner!

Not at all uncommon... Good friend of mine is the same way - can't even watch any show on TV that features snakes...

We all have phobias. Back in junior high days I caught a black widow in a small jar and took it to school. When I unveiled it in science class I got my first public ass chewing. Thing that really hurt was I had the hots for teacher. Not sure I ever got over that.

i live way out in the country, on a farm with every sort of critter. not uncommon to see snakes, spiders (particularly brown recluse), and flying hornets, wasps, etc. Because we raise rice, it's not unusual to have cottonmouths crawl through the yard. also can find copperheads in the woods around fields. i kill every pit viper i see, but let all other snakes move on past. just started spring squirrel hunting a few days ago and have seen 2 cottonmouths so far. snakes are just part of every day life, so you get used to them. my wife can't tell the difference between most snakes, she just hollers and i come running. wouldn't have it any other way. ymmv.

No fear of snakes here, but then I’ve never been bitten. So I still think it’s kind of cool to run into a rattlesnake in the woods. They need to die though if they’re in a place where they can bite people or livestock.

Stepped over a log in East Texas and there was a copperhead coiled right there on the other side, got lucky again I guess, beautiful snake. Had a friend out birdwatching step on a water moccasin but it was a cold day like in the 50s and the snake was quite sluggish.

The Africans legendary fear of snakes is well-founded, everybody over there knows or knows of someone who was killed by a snake. Me too. There was a 12-year-old girl at our school bitten in the ankle by a black cobra, I think the poor girl died from fright as much as anything else.

But I have to say seems like as many Africans are killed by a rabid dog bites as they are by venomous snakes.

Not too bad with snakes but I'm allergic to bee stings so quite afraid of them. Then they have to go and mess with me on this murder hornet stuff.

Same here.

When I was about 3 1/2, maybe 4, I would play with my dad’s snake tong like Simonkenton has. I was under the screen porch on one end of our little Sears bungalow playing when I found a snake. Doing the logical thing I went to the garage and got the tong. I was under there trying to get ahold of him when my dad came out and asked what I was up to. When I told him he made me get out of there and he took the tong and went in. I thought my mom was going to faint when she came down the porch steps holding my baby sister as dad hauled a 2’ copperhead out from under the porch!

I still remember the asswhipping that came from that ordeal.

Never had a fear for snakes, as kids we would catch all species out in the desert and sell them to local pet store, made pretty good summer money along with any and all lizards they apparently used for feed? Ive been bit by a variety of venomous insects but since having a second place here in Florida, Ive encountered what I now have developed a slight fear of...….these gawtdamned hornets/yellow jackets/wasps, whatever the hell southerners call the nasty stinging sonofabitches that live in the ground here.
Ive gotten swarmed about five times in several years now, usually while kneeling down to cut trees close to the ground. Never see where they come from until coming back after an incident, but suddenly have hornets all over me, and I swear they follow me to the house as I swat and run like a little girl. Of all the insects Ive been stung by, I would rate the bite from these as by far the most painful and prolonged, hurts for hours, then itches for days.....nasty fuggers!

They be yellow jackets.

I hate cobras of all kinds.

They've done studies on that the world over. Whereever you go, people who have never seen a snake or spider get stressed when they see one. Babies in northern Europe stress out at a picture of a snake.

I say you'd be less scared of that snake if you actually wanted to mow the grass. You can get used to anything if there's something you want real bad associated with it.

Had a 4' black racer come out from under the atv gas tank and wrap around my leg[wearing shorts of course] as it was trying to escape.
I had just left the yard and was in a brief wooded section where I had to lean forward to be under the branches and there was basically no escape for about 50 yards.
That somewhat cured my rabid fear of snakes.

Lol, Would have been interesting to see your face.......

I got a pussy too for snakes. 🤷🏽‍♀️😎

Lady Gaga says its okay....you were born this way.

This past Saturday afternoon I had just finished mowing the lawn with my push mower and discovered a large, black rat snake coiled up on the front porch right next to the door. This was right after I'd seen a small one slither across the sidewalk to the front door. We live just outside of suburban St. Louis County but near woods so this isn't totally unexpected. I finally was able to coax the big one away and took care of it with a shovel. It was pushing 5' long. Felt kinda bad about that because they are "good" snakes but wife and daughter freaked out and didn't want any part of that thing being alive that close to the house so I did what I had to do.

You can gather em up and fling em into the neighbors yard instead of killing them.

If Lady GaGa says it, it has got to be true

lady Gaga was hatched from an egg

Everyone knows that...I do

You people would be sooooo lost without me

Wife called me an injun name for non-natives for a couple hours.......

Only three snakes that ever startled (much less scared) me were rattlers. I don't kill any snake needlessly - my definition is far more stringent than many here. If not an immediate threat to people, livestock, or close around home buildings they live. Of course, I don't have to worry about that up here.

Wife and I were walking on E. MT. grassy prairie when one went off at our feet. It's really hard to push one's wife aside with one's feet a foot in the air. No leverage...but I tried. Got ME out of harms way, anyway. My intention was good...... Really.... . Besides- she grew up with them, and just stood there until she located the snake, then stepped back.

A couple years later, a few miles away, one at least 6' long went off right under the tractor I was discing FIL field with. I looked back in time to see it go under the disc, tho If I could have stopped in time I would have. It was loud enough that initial thought was that it was in the cab with me. Probably still finger and toe claw marks on the ceiling! It was LOUD!


In HS, I was making 10-bale stacks on a sled behind a baler in central ND, where rattlers are not common. Sank the hook in with right hand, grabbed strings with left hand, started my pivot when I noticed a foot of tail end of a rattler hanging out the bale. The pivot continued, but the 60 lb bale wound up about 30 feet to the side. Boss stopped the tractor and wanted to know WTF I was doing.

Never did find the front half- maybe a cow ate it later, in another bale, tho we examined that one, and one either way. Or maybe that front end is a mummy now, still inside that baler, if it still exists.

Good to be in Alaska.....a Snake Free Zone