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Author Topic: It's Started Already...  (Read 7888 times)

Offline Slowbrew

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #15 on: May 03, 2011, 08:01:59 am »
Here in southern Iowa we have a couple breeds of rattlers.  A friend sent me pictures of a 5' Diamond Back he shot on his acreage last year.  I asked him if he was going to eat it and he looked at me with a horror on his face the likes I've not seen often.  I guess it's an acquired taste.  :)

Generally we leave them alone and they leave us alone.

Paul

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Offline pfooti

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #16 on: May 03, 2011, 08:18:47 am »
A while back, when I was a young potato, I investigated venomous snakes and snakebites. I was just starting to get into backpacking and other backcountry activities, and wanted to be prepared. I found this USFS report on snakes, snakebites, and readiness. A few key factors were:

  • Most snakebites (from US snakes) are dangerous but not fall-over-dead deadly.
  • Poison sucking, from a venom extractor or by mouth is pretty much worthless.
  • The vast majority of snakebite victims are male with elevated blood-alcohol levels

It's that last bullet that's most telling. The report actually had the phrase "drunken male yahooism" in it as a reason why that statistic might exist. If I were going to lie with statistics, I'd say that snakes like drunk people. But for truth, it probably helps support Punatic's point: most snakes (not all) aren't all that interested in biting people, provided you leave them alone.

Offline Pinski

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #17 on: May 03, 2011, 08:26:39 am »
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
Yeah, there's not many here but they are around.  A kid got bit a couple years ago on Spencer's Butte in Eugene. Western Rattler.
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Offline weithman5

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #18 on: May 03, 2011, 08:39:48 am »
Rattlesnake is best deep fried, served with an American Pale Ale and cole slaw.

this is a favorite dish - except the rattlesnake part

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).


maybe it is just because you killed them all ;D
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Offline tumarkin

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #19 on: May 03, 2011, 08:40:13 am »
here in FL we've got bunches of snakes. including all kinds of non-native species that people have let go and have 'gone native' here. I'm sure you've all seen web pics of the exploding python that ate the alligator. more of the craziness that is FL. at least they're all edible.
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Offline speed

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #20 on: May 04, 2011, 08:58:53 pm »
if you see bull snakes leave them alone, they kill mices and you know what mices like.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2011, 11:01:15 pm »
Leave 'em all alone! Dude, You walked into the house, found a broom, walked down the road and beat a snake to death and you didn't even eat it? not cool. I'm sorry but it's one thing if it's moving in on your kids (Which really doesn't happen) or even living under your house and you come across it sitting on your drive way but to go out of your way to kill another living being and then not even have the respect to eat it afterwords just seems wrong to me. Sorry to rant, I am sure you are not a bad person but do think about these actions. If for no other reason than because that rattle snake would eat many many rodents that would be much more likely to attack you unprovoked than that rattler ever was. And with all the diseases and bacteria that rodents can harbor and spread around killing that rattler has made your neighborhood a little less safe.

Guess that is partly why I am a vegetarian.
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Offline majorvices

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #22 on: May 05, 2011, 01:02:21 am »
The mountain I live on is nicknames "rattlesnake mountain" for a very good reason. It is loaded with rattlesnakes. For the most part I have found rattlesnakes to be extremely passive. As long as you don't step directly on them you won't likely ever get bit,

That said, I do have dogs and kids so if I find one close to the house I try to remove it. My neighbor will catch and release them. If he is not around I get the hoe and take care of it in a more violent way. Nothing I ever enjoy doing, that;s for sure. They are very beneficial creatures.

That said, if you really dislike poisonous snakes keep a few black racers around. They will actually eat other poisonous snakes.

Offline hamiltont

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #23 on: May 05, 2011, 07:42:29 am »
Leave 'em all alone! Dude, You walked into the house, found a broom, walked down the road and beat a snake to death and you didn't even eat it? not cool. I'm sorry but it's one thing if it's moving in on your kids (Which really doesn't happen) or even living under your house and you come across it sitting on your drive way but to go out of your way to kill another living being and then not even have the respect to eat it afterwords just seems wrong to me. Sorry to rant, I am sure you are not a bad person but do think about these actions. If for no other reason than because that rattle snake would eat many many rodents that would be much more likely to attack you unprovoked than that rattler ever was. And with all the diseases and bacteria that rodents can harbor and spread around killing that rattler has made your neighborhood a little less safe.

Guess that is partly why I am a vegetarian.

To each their own "Dude". If I see a Rattler it's dead. We have plenty of Bull Snakes & stray cats to take care of the mice. It's one less chance to be bitten in my mind. Really not sure what being a vegetarian has to do with it though?  Cheers!!!
« Last Edit: May 05, 2011, 07:44:58 am by hamiltont »
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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #24 on: May 05, 2011, 08:05:13 am »
Leave 'em all alone! Dude, You walked into the house, found a broom, walked down the road and beat a snake to death and you didn't even eat it? not cool. I'm sorry but it's one thing if it's moving in on your kids (Which really doesn't happen) or even living under your house and you come across it sitting on your drive way but to go out of your way to kill another living being and then not even have the respect to eat it afterwords just seems wrong to me. Sorry to rant, I am sure you are not a bad person but do think about these actions. If for no other reason than because that rattle snake would eat many many rodents that would be much more likely to attack you unprovoked than that rattler ever was. And with all the diseases and bacteria that rodents can harbor and spread around killing that rattler has made your neighborhood a little less safe.

Guess that is partly why I am a vegetarian.


To each their own "Dude". If I see a Rattler it's dead. We have plenty of Bull Snakes & stray cats to take care of the mice. It's one less chance to be bitten in my mind. Really not sure what being a vegetarian has to do with it though?  Cheers!!!


I have to agree, Why kill something if it's not really bothering you. I don't even kill spiders. If I see one in the house, I put a glass over and slide some paper under the glass. It's then gets relocated outside.  I see snakes all the time and I go one way, he goes the other. Problem solved.

Every living has a purpose, except I haven't yet figured out what fireants are good for. :(

Offline euge

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #25 on: May 05, 2011, 08:14:39 am »

I have to agree, Why kill something if it's not really bothering you. I don't even kill spiders. If I see one in the house, I put a glass over and slide some paper under the glass. It's then gets relocated outside.  I see snakes all the time and I go one way, he goes the other. Problem solved.

Every living has a purpose, except I haven't yet figured out what fireants are good for. :(

Fire-ants aerate the soil. They are the dickens to get rid of so I just let em be and if they survive the ortho granules then maybe another application will do the trick...

I don't mess with the spiders unless they have the audacity to fall, crawl or get on my person somehow. That's a death sentence. Roaches that come inside looking for water? It's roach-hockey time with the dust broom. ;D

Then they get relocated to the ant-pile. ;) Circle of life baby.
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Offline a10t2

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #26 on: May 05, 2011, 08:27:16 am »
Colorado has Western rattlers, which get big and mean, but they don't live above about 6500 feet. Timber rattlers have been spotted as high as 10500 ft, but generally live below 9000, so I'm pretty much in the clear when out hiking.

It's actually against the law in CO to kill a rattlesnake that isn't directly threatening human life or property.

Fun facts about rattlers: they're one of the few reptile species that give birth to live young. And like all pit vipers, they will bite and inject venom when a warm object is placed in front of the pits, even if the snake is dead.
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Offline morticaixavier

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #27 on: May 05, 2011, 08:58:42 am »
To each their own "Dude". If I see a Rattler it's dead. We have plenty of Bull Snakes & stray cats to take care of the mice. It's one less chance to be bitten in my mind. Really not sure what being a vegetarian has to do with it though?  Cheers!!!

Being a vegetarian relates because I am one at least partly because I don't want to kill things needlessly. I don't need to eat animals so I don't kill them.

Other humans place you and your family at far more risk than those snakes and I am guessing that you don't kill humans on sight.

If you are phobic about snakes I can understand that. but there is no logical reason to kill them on sight unless you are going to eat them. that is my point.
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Offline weithman5

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #28 on: May 05, 2011, 09:06:32 am »
If Adam would have killed the first snake he saw, we would be better off.  ::)
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Offline Slowbrew

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Re: It's Started Already...
« Reply #29 on: May 05, 2011, 09:42:59 am »
I've dropped into grain bins in the morning and been surprised (at least the first time) by rattlers in western NE.  Even then they didn't strike.  I stood still while the rest of the building team raised the bin a few inches and the snakes all left.  Live and let live, I guess.  Except for rabbits in my flower beds.  Rabbits in my yard are dead rabbits if I can make it happen.

Paul
Where the heck are we going?  And what's with this hand basket?