[hamiltont]

 I was busy Friday night so the Wifey set out for a walk on her own. A few minutes later she was back. “There’s a snake on the road!” It was about a block from our house. (We live out in the country on a gravel road) I grabbed the closest thing I could find, a broom and went down the road and there it was, curled up in the middle. Yep, a rattle snake about 3 feet long. I whacked it a few times & brought it home & shared it with the Wifey. Not impressed! 

We used to walk the ditches & pick up beer cans & rubbish until we realized there were Rattle Snakes out here. Now it's down the middle of the road.  I've lost count of how many I've actually killed... Anyone else have have to deal with Rattle Snakes or other venomous snakes?  Cheers!!!

[tumarkin]

when you say "shared it with the Wifey. Not impressed!"  how did you prepare it??

[hamiltont]

when you say "shared it with the Wifey. Not impressed!"  how did you prepare it??

That's a good one.  I would have BBQ'd of course but in this case it was just "Show & Tell", hanging over the broom handle.  I doubt she'll ever touch that broom again.  In fact she did say. "You're going to buy a new broom, right?" Cheers!!!

[stlaleman]

Rattlesnake is best deep fried, served with an American Pale Ale and cole slaw.

[jeffy]

Too many little bones.

[punatic]

I used to live in Central Florida.  There are poisonous snakes there on 6' centers.  There are no snakes here in Hawaii.  That has taken some getting used to.   Even after nearly 15 years of hiking in the boonies here, I still get the heebie-jeebies walking through tall grass and bush.  Old experiences hang on.

I had a coworker who is American Indian.  We were talking about snakes when I lived in Florida.  I told him every time i lifted something up, moved something in the yard, went fishing from a lake or river bank I would run into a poisonous snake (water moccasins are meaner than tiger spit).  My coworker asked me what I did when I encountered a snake.  I told him I killed every one I could.  He said that that was the problem.  He said the snakes know who I am and were taking my aggression personally.  He told me that snakes were there first and I was the intruder.  He told me if I left the snakes alone when I encountered them, and let them go on their way unharmed, they would leave me alone too.  I would see fewer snakes if I let them be.

So I tried it and it worked.  It took a while, but I definetly saw a decline in snake encounters (even before I moved to Hawaii).

[corkybstewart]

We live in the country in southeast New Mexico and there are plenty of big fat rattlers around, but we've never found one at our house in the 20 years we've lived here.  We do have plenty of king snakes and bull snakes so they must keep the nasty ones away.  When we had horses there was a huge fat bull snake that lived in our hay barn.  After a few times of him scaring the crap out of us we got used to him, even my daughter didn't mind stepping over him.
I have an employee who lives a couple of miles from us who has lots of problems with rattlesnakes in his yard, and he has 2 little kids.

[denny]

I've always heard that no poisonous snakes live in western OR.  In my nearly 40 years here, I've never seen one.

[ccarlson]

I've always heard that no poisonous snakes live in western OR.  In my nearly 40 years here, I've never seen one.

I hope they were good, well informed, friends that told you that.

[euge]

Occasionally we'll see a grass-snake but the rattlers are people-shy and stay out of populated areas.

[tschmidlin]

I've always heard that no poisonous snakes live in western OR.  In my nearly 40 years here, I've never seen one.

There might be some Western Rattlers (Northern Pacific Rattlesnakes) in your area Denny, but probably not too many.  In Washington they're more common east of the Cascades, but I believe they range to the west of the Cascades in OR.  Check out this map.
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~titus/herp/oreganus.html

[alikocho]

Snakes freak me out, and it's things like this that make me glad I live somewhere with limited snakes. Over here we have two varieties, one of which is venomous but not seriously so and not that common(Adder).

[hamiltont]

Too many little bones.

Na, Just cook it until it's "Fall off the Bone" tender. 

[thirsty]

Very few deadly animals is one of the things I like about the northeast.

[bluesman]

My wife is deathly afraid of snakes. I can't even utter the word. I get a chuckle every year when I find some snakes in my garden. She won't go in the garden after that.

We have copperheads and water moccasins on the East Coast....but not in my garden  Thank God.