Snake repellant

[DogsWin]

....and copperheads are tougher to spot. If you're ever thru Winnfield, Martin Timber Co. is just south of town on the E. side of 167. Walk in the wood framed office by the yard.... there's an old photo on the wall of a lumberjack with a dead (probably 8 ft.) rattlesnake draped over his shoulder. Logging, etc. in the south comes with some risks.

I can attest that there are some huge rattlesnakes in N. Louisiana. My father (a logger when he was young) and I were looking over some inherited property near Eros, LA about 20 years ago when we came across two of the largest rattlesnakes either of us had ever seen. He killed them both with a hoe after dragging them out of a stump hole.

My dad is 6'-5" and lifted the larger dead snake above his head (arms fully extended) and the end of the snake still had about a foot in length remaining on the ground. The head of the snake was as big as his fist. We were convinced that no man could have survived a bite from either of these enormous snakes.

[CARTEK]

First liar ain't got a chance...

In 1981, a friend and I ran across a velvet tail rattler (aka timber rattler) just north of Rodessa on a new drilling site. Both of us are deathly afraid of snakes; thus, this poor thing had 12 357 rounds fired its way with no less than five hitting the mark.

After procuring some frog grabs and a big cooler, we collected our prey. It weighed almost 30 pounds, was 89 inches long, and possessed 16 rattles. He had 5 rats in his bowels in various stages of digestion. He had many healed wounds on his skin, and the hair on my neck still rises when I think about it!

[DogtorEvil]

mothballs

.

[hookdown]

I find that peeing in my pants and running works well the put distance between me and any snake. However I prerer the shotgun method when ever possible.

Brave Sir Gonzodawg ran away
Bravely ran away, away
When a snake reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Yes, brave Sir GonzoDawg turned about
And gallantly he chickened out
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat
Bravest of the brave, Sir GonzoDawg!



Yeah, I know the feeling very well!!!!

[CARTEK]

When one encounters a snake there are two movements that often occur...a bowel movement and a physical movement. For example, "Shit...run...it's a snake!"

[TYLERTECHSAS]

I find that peeing in my pants and running works well the put distance between me and any snake. However I prerer the shotgun method when ever possible.

Brave Sir Gonzodawg ran away
Bravely ran away, away
When a snake reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Yes, brave Sir GonzoDawg turned about
And gallantly he chickened out
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat
Bravest of the brave, Sir GonzoDawg!



Yeah, I know the feeling very well!!!!

When one encounters a snake there are two movements that often occur...a bowel movement and a physical movement. For example, "Shit...run...it's a snake!"

You guys remember Richard Pryor's bit on snakes? It was a riot!

[hoppinmad]

When one encounters a snake there are two movements that often occur...a bowel movement and a physical movement. For example, "Shit...run...it's a snake!"

Heh, heh, heh .....good one.

[hookdown]

Three stories for you (2 mine and 1 from another site) -

From another site:
I have pics of my brother holding a dead water moccasin caught in Somerset County, NJ. Classic cottonmouth. It was over 30 years ago and he was just a kid. He thought he knew there were only banded water snakes in our area, picked it up and carried it the 3 mile walk home. He was lucky it was chilly and the snake had a very full belly.

We've always assumed the snake arrived in a shipment of plants delivered to the recently built golf course where it was caught. Point is, just because they're not supposed to be there doesn't mean they aren't. Since that day, to me, they're all moccasins until proven otherwise...just in case.

edit for clarity: the snake was alive when he caught it, dead in the pics after Dad realized what it was and shot it.

My story #1:
It was in the early-mid 70's and I was a older teen. We were camping at Greers Ferry Lake in AR (Mill Creek for those of you familiar with the area) and my dad and were about to go out for an evening fishing trip. We got the boat in the water and I headed up to the bathrooms before we set out. It was late dusk and just light enough to make out objects but without any definition. I walked the sidewalk to the bathrooms stepping over a stick on the sidewalk on the way. Coming back, I happened to look down and noticed the stick again. I do not recall if I saw it move or if it had changed position. Anyway, I called my dad and he brought the flashlight up. It was a copperhead about 12-18 inches long. Dad quickly dispatched it and we went on our way. The really scary thing about the incident for me was that I was barefoot at the time. I thought about stepping on or kicking the stick on the way up, but decided against it...

My story #2:
In 1994 I went on a TDY to Garland. We decided to keep our house up here since we had only moved in about a year before. Rather than renting it out, we have some folks come in and housesit it. We came back in August of 1997 to get the boys enrolled in school. I had only been back one time in the meantime to get some of our baby stuff since my wife was having a baby. I was not finished in Garland until December so I had saved up my flights home (I earned them over the course of the previous two years) and was able to fly back several times in the September to December timeframe. During one of those trips I went down to our unfinished basement to look for something. We use the basement as a storage area so it is mostly unused furniture and boxes. Going over to "my" area of the basement (where I keep a desk), I notice there is a about a two foot long shed snake skin on it. That is weird, but figured that the housesitter found it and left it for me to see. It was not a huge skin, but it did stand out. At some point not too long after that, I talked to the housesitter and asked him about the skin. To my surprise (and consternation!!), he disclaimed all knowledge of it. So it seems that at some point in the two years or so that we were in Garland a snake was in our basement. I did some very tentitive searching, but found nothing. Everytime I went down there for a long time after that I was very nervous about moving boxes or looking for stuff, since I was not sure what I was going to find. We never did find it and hopefully it found it's way out. I did have a pest control guy come in and he found nothing as well. Said that you could not tell the type of snake from a shed skin.

I still fear that some day I will move a box and there will be a mummified snake carcass and I will have a heart attack and keel over right there....

[mentechsters]

Three stories for you (2 mine and 1 from another site) -

From another site:
I have pics of my brother holding a dead water moccasin caught in Somerset County, NJ. Classic cottonmouth. It was over 30 years ago and he was just a kid. He thought he knew there were only banded water snakes in our area, picked it up and carried it the 3 mile walk home. He was lucky it was chilly and the snake had a very full belly.

We've always assumed the snake arrived in a shipment of plants delivered to the recently built golf course where it was caught. Point is, just because they're not supposed to be there doesn't mean they aren't. Since that day, to me, they're all moccasins until proven otherwise...just in case.

edit for clarity: the snake was alive when he caught it, dead in the pics after Dad realized what it was and shot it.

My story #1:
It was in the early-mid 70's and I was a older teen. We were camping at Greers Ferry Lake in AR (Mill Creek for those of you familiar with the area) and my dad and were about to go out for an evening fishing trip. We got the boat in the water and I headed up to the bathrooms before we set out. It was late dusk and just light enough to make out objects but without any definition. I walked the sidewalk to the bathrooms stepping over a stick on the sidewalk on the way. Coming back, I happened to look down and noticed the stick again. I do not recall if I saw it move or if it had changed position. Anyway, I called my dad and he brought the flashlight up. It was a copperhead about 12-18 inches long. Dad quickly dispatched it and we went on our way. The really scary thing about the incident for me was that I was barefoot at the time. I thought about stepping on or kicking the stick on the way up, but decided against it...

My story #2:
In 1994 I went on a TDY to Garland. We decided to keep our house up here since we had only moved in about a year before. Rather than renting it out, we have some folks come in and housesit it. We came back in August of 1997 to get the boys enrolled in school. I had only been back one time in the meantime to get some of our baby stuff since my wife was having a baby. I was not finished in Garland until December so I had saved up my flights home (I earned them over the course of the previous two years) and was able to fly back several times in the September to December timeframe. During one of those trips I went down to our unfinished basement to look for something. We use the basement as a storage area so it is mostly unused furniture and boxes. Going over to "my" area of the basement (where I keep a desk), I notice there is a about a two foot long shed snake skin on it. That is weird, but figured that the housesitter found it and left it for me to see. It was not a huge skin, but it did stand out. At some point not too long after that, I talked to the housesitter and asked him about the skin. To my surprise (and consternation!!), he disclaimed all knowledge of it. So it seems that at some point in the two years or so that we were in Garland a snake was in our basement. I did some very tentitive searching, but found nothing. Everytime I went down there for a long time after that I was very nervous about moving boxes or looking for stuff, since I was not sure what I was going to find. We never did find it and hopefully it found it's way out. I did have a pest control guy come in and he found nothing as well. Said that you could not tell the type of snake from a shed skin.

I still fear that some day I will move a box and there will be a mummified snake carcass and I will have a heart attack and keel over right there....

I can remember my grandparents telling stories about finding copperheads in their house a few times. Anybody on here been bitten by a snake before?

[DONW]

Back when I was a young lad starting when I was about 10 years old and my oldest brother was 18, we would start catfishing in Bodcaw Creek around about this time of the year. We would start out from our house and seine every hole of water between between there and the creek, about 5 miles, until we got about 75-100 bream for bait. I've seen many a Cottonmouth seined out of those holes. We'd kill the cottonmouths with a stick, and sometimes seine the hole again. We never wore anything more than an old pair of shoes to protect our feet.

My 2 older brothers, my older cousin and I once waded Bodcaw bream fishing, from the bridge on the Plain Dealing Highway all the way to Teague Lake, a distance of about a half mile. This was in the summer when the creek was low, but, I do remember getting into some holes that was up to my neck. Occasionally, you would feel something tugging on your fish, and it would be a fish snake, not a cottonmouth. No, I wouldn't think of doing this today even if I could, but, when you're young, you're not scared of anything and we lived to fish, and we caught fish just about any way you can imagine.

I only came close to being bitten once in my life. When I worked for GP in Crossett, another engineer and I went out to one of the effluent ponds to check on a project. I was walking across some big rocks when he hollered "snake". The cottonmouth was laying under the rock that I stepped across and struck at my foot as I stepped over him. Luckily the rock did not allow him to get enough elevation to hit me above my shoe.

[Dawgmatic]

When I was growing up there was a creek behind our house we played on all the time. My little brother and I built a crawfish "farm" in a shallow part of the creek and built a little walkway over the creek to the other side. My mother had taken my brother fishing and I decided to go check on our farm. When I stepped on the little walkway, about 30 fat water moccasins came writhing out from under it. They were eating our crawfish. Remember the scene from Lonesome Dove when all those snakes were in that river biting that Irish boy? That's exactly what it looked like with all those snakes in that murky water just rolling around and stink - oh my God - I've never smelled anything like that before or since. I was 12 years old and I was just paralyzed. I couldn't decide whether to try to make it across or back up or run or scream or what. In the end I realized if I went to the other side I'd have to come back over it to get home! That was my last trip down on the creek. I'll never forget that and I was really lucky I didn't get bitten. I hate a snake.

[hookdown]

Indiana: There's a big snake in the plane, Jock!
Jock: Oh, that's just my pet snake Reggie.
Indiana: I hate snakes, Jock! I hate 'em!
Jock: Come on! Show a little backbone, will ya!

[PawDawg]

I know a man who was frog hunting in Lake Providence years ago. He had his bare feet out of the boat when a cotton mouth bit him on the big toe. He said his toe almost rotted off. Said it took the better part of a year to get completely well.

Supposedly the infection caused by cotton mouth bites is worse than the actual venom.

I stepped on one while I was turkey hunting once. I was in a rush to get to a spot and knew immediately what I'd stepped on wasn't a stick. It was an weird feeling. It was still cool enough that the snake was dormant and didn't strike.

[detltu]

Yep, and the smell of their venom doesn't thrill me either.





You must have some docile moccasins around there. I was driving in one day and noticed a kid was wading/fishing in the shallows and then he started thrashing the water with his fishing rod...luckily he saw him in time and hooked him with the lure and held him away. I met him about half-way down the hill with a shovel. When it was over, he was grinning and shaking at the same time. All the ones I've run into are pretty aggressive if they think they're holding all the cards.

I don't think there is such a thing as a docile water moccasin. I don't know if the dog actually bit it but it was bleeding when I got to it and I assumed the dog did it.

[detltu]

I can remember my grandparents telling stories about finding copperheads in their house a few times. Anybody on here been bitten by a snake before?

I've never been bitten by a venomous one but I have been bitten by plenty of snakes and lizards. We used to catch garter snakes and ribbon snakes all the time when I was little. Anoles and skinks too. Skinks hurt like hell if they are big and they get a hold of you. The skink was the worst thing I was ever bitten by. Small snakes aren't too bad. Scariest snake I ever handled was a 2ft ish garter snake that me and a neighbor kept for a couple of days. It would always look at me when I carried it. Neighbor was fine with it but it freaked me out. Never bit either one of us though. We finally let it go because we couldn't get it to eat.