Peter K Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 Hi, recently I saw something on TV about a hospital in California which is specialized on snake bites. For me it´s a terrible idea that maybe there are some animals in your frontyard laying in the gras who can kill you... How is living in a "snake-contry"? No walking barefoot? Always be aware that something could be in your boots before putting them on? Here in Europe we don´t have many snakes. Most of them are in front of the gasoline stations just bevore rising up the prices for gas (1 liter is about 1.21 EUROS now). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 They aren't a big deal if you pay attention. You just make lots of noise when you hike around in the bushes and they tend to stay out of your way Snakes are generally shy. It is much easier to kill them than it is for them to kill you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 Most rattlesnakes (out in California at least) are pretty timid. You don't see them very often hiking or fishing. I might see one every other year, and they're not that fast (moving). The Australian vensmous snakes, scare the hell out of me.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 Australia has quite an awesome collection of venomous creatures altogether if I'm not mistaken... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 Got a friend who lives in Cuero Tx. He has a shotgun match every year. Two years ago I went and slipped into his house to look at his African trophies. On the foyer table was a 2 gallon fish bowl about half full of rattle snake rattles. I asked where he got all those. The reply was that those are the ones that they killed on the patio.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 My sister's place in SoCal has them all over. They might have gotten one or two of her cats. (Well, either them or the coytoes.) My father stepped on one in her garage and miraculously avoided getting bitten. I'm not sure what's going to happen with all the rattlers after the fires destroyed much of their habitat (and that of their food source). Maybe they'll move into garages. A couple years ago I shot the Linea de Fuego match just up the road. On one stage, they had a sign about eight feet from the start position, it read: Do Not Disturb the Rattlesnake, or words to that effect. If you looked closely, you could see a copper-colored rattler curled up at the base of a bush. I swear it was as thick as my wrists... it was not a little two-foot snake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 We've got snakes by the truckload out near here. The local rattlesnakes are very timid creatures. I've walked past a hundred of them in a day and never so much been buzzed. Don't interpret that as meaning the snakes won't bite. Boots that cover the ankle are an absolute necessity when you're in snake country here. There's a lot of places that are rugged enough, that getting bit will pretty much mandate a helicopter ride out. The level of aggressiveness of the snake is very regional. I think that southerners will give you a rather different story, especially in regards to water moccassins which have been known to flat-out chase people. IIRC, I think the only snakebites that are deep-shit-right-now life-threatening are from the mojave rattlesnake and possibly if you get nailed by a huge diamondback. You shouldn't let any of this bother you. Deaths due to snakebite in the US are EXCEEDINGLY rare. I forget the exact number, but it's in the neighborhood of 20 or less. Hospital visits and driving are vastly more dangerous endeavors than visits to snake country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted May 25, 2004 Share Posted May 25, 2004 On the TV show mentioned ("Snakebite E.R." or something on TLC), there was a 50-something-year-old man bitten by a California rattler. He was in good spirits and seemed OK, but they kept giving him vial after vial of anti-venom. When I surfed back from the commercial break, his bed was empty. He had died from the snake bite. One of the victims brought in was a woman who killed the snake that bit an earlier victim. She had bagged it up to bring it to the doctors for identification (so they could give the right antivenom) and a fang poked through the bag into her finger. DOH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasag93 Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 We have many poisonous snakes here in Texas. Rattlers, copperheads, cotton mouths, and coral snakes. I have seen them all. Never been bitten. You just have to watch what you are doing. I have caught several rattlers. I like snakes. My mother almost killed me when she found out the snake I had in my rooom wasn't a bull snake, but a rattler. I stepped in the middle of a diamond back in Feb. in West Texas while quail hunting. I soiled my undies. Luckily he was very cold. TXAG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn jones Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 half of america is snake country. i live in the city and a friend of mine lives about two mile away had a dog bite by a coppperhead. lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 Grew up here around copperheads, have hunted plenty of places with rattlers. Closest I have come to being bitten was walking into a dark shop in the summer, my constant companion blue heeler Andy (God rest him) dived in front of me and snapped the snake...which he lived to do. Got some guts on me and a scare, but 14 year olds need a good scare now and then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3quartertime Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 I've always had a stupid fear of wild snakes, but I love captive ones. Crazy I know... It amazes me when the alligator hunter guy grabs a very deadly snake by the tail and talks into the camera like it is nothing!!! I've always thought that a snake that bites someone in the wild only did so because that was their only option. My goal is to not make that an option, ever!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpspeed Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 Most of the rattlers I've seen has been in AZ while bird hunting. For some reason with a 12ga in hand I'm not very scared of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 We almost tripped over a nice three-foot rattler coming out of match registration at Paper & Iron a few years ago... had to hunt up a .22 so somebody could have snake fajitas that night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skywalker Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 My medicine for snakes: Dose: 1 .38" Spl Administration: once or twice when needed from 10/15 ft. Tool: Taurus 617 CP 2" I swear it works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 Me, I'd rather have a yard full of rattlesnakes than a single mouse or rat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn jones Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 Me, I'd rather have a yard full of rattlesnakes than a single mouse or rat. this may help your problem with unwanted people in your garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted May 26, 2004 Share Posted May 26, 2004 I'm not ready to think about snakes yet - I'm still getting past the poison ivy rash and ticks I brought home from the range this weekend!!! (DAMN YOU LYNN JONES!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Me, I'd rather have a yard full of rattlesnakes than a single mouse or rat. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Heiter Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 I've had some exciting moments wandering around the delta after the local farmers flooded their fields and the mice, rabbits, and snakes that feed on them in these thousand acre fields are suddenly confined to a levee about twenty feet wide. I even managed to get myself bitten once when I was a kid and didn't bother to look before I sat down, but all of the snakes in state are no problem when compared to Mississippi's dominant preditor, the mosquito. It was bad enough when we just had to deal with insects the size of chickens but now they're carrying the West Nile virus. At least snakes you can kind of watch out for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Merlin, that thing looks like it could eat Hogzilla! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calhunter Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 The only ones that really concern me in So. California are the Mojave Greens they can be a little agressive, the rest will slither away (if I let them) as long as they are not cornered. A good buzz from one when you are up to your waist in scrub brush will disprove the theroy that white men can't jump! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BismarckC Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 I concur with the aggressiveness of water moccasins (cotton mouths). I once had one chase me while I was canoeing. I swear it stayed with us for at least a mile. Texasag93 -- what is it with rattlesnakes in February? Don't they hibernate? My cousin was bitten while quail hunting in the hill country outside of San Antonio. The worst was when the wife found a small cooperhead under my son's swing set. I had finally talked my wife into letting my son go outside and play in the back yard (see reference to Patches post about mosquitos and west nile). I thought my son was never going to get to play outside again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Merlin, that thing looks like it could eat Hogzilla! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Actually hogs are nearly as good as a mongoose as to killing and eating snakes. - Near direct quote from the Discovery Channel.... The same guy caught this one as the one circulated around the net last November. What posseses a guy to crawl around rocks looking for 60+ lbs snakes...And you do know this was caught in Tx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhunter Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Hogs = NO snakes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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