Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help How Do I Get Rid Of A Snake In Pond

I let just about everything except mosquitos go. But, today I was using my weed cutter which apparently doesn't share the same feelings. I was well into my second hour of cutting weeds when I saw a mess of red and yellow mixed with the expected green stuff. I found half of a green snake, tail, have no idea what happened to the head part. We have 2 green snakes here that resemble each other, one is poisonous the other stays alive looking like the poisonous one. I don't know which this one was.
Windy way of getting to the point, but to tell a man, with children, who lives in a city with a pond in his backyard that it is ok to let poisonous snakes be, is not prudent. If little Jimmy next door liked to play with firearms would you let him come to your house and play with your children, of course not. I do get the point, everything has a place in this world and for the most part I agree. But with a poisonous snake you may only get one mistake and with those odds who is more important the child or the snake?.

Exchange "anything dangerous" for "poisonous snake", and perhaps you see the irrationality of that statement.

In my small town, every year I read of at least 1 death by drowning, 1 by bicycle, 4 by automobile, .5 by fire, 1 by tractor, .5 by lightning, .5 by firearms, etc. In 33 years, I have never read of a single death by snake in my town... or my entire Parish (County) for that matter. Your situation may be different!

Nothing in this world is more important to us than our children. Yet life goes on. We still drive, ride, mow, swim, fish, shoot, and do all those activities that are less than 100% safe. If I thought it would help keep my children safe, I would kill every snake I saw. The facts and statistics do not support that at all. The snake you see never bites you. It's the snake you do not see that bites you. Therefore it makes sense to kill the snake you can not see, and leave the innocent one you can see alone.

I am not scorning or belittling people who fear snakes. I understand the irrational fear of snakes. My own wife is a victim, and is incurable. The point I would like to make is that it does far more harm than good to kill any snake. That's all.

Our instincts work just great. Snakes instinctively fear you, you instinctively fear snakes. That works wonderfully to keep you apart, except for that rare unseen snake hidden under something that you step on or uncover suddenly.

We used to have a plant in Vicksburg, MS that I spent 6 weeks at one summer, in the middle of an oil spill cleanup.

We had rubber fines that followed a small ditch all the way to a Mississippi bayou, and so we (along with a MDEQ guy and a consultant) made many trips down a footpath to the river...about 1/2 mile.

I had never seen a true cottonmouth and the old guy that ran the plant decided to show me one. On the next walk, he simply stepped to an old log and reached behind it with his brush cutter and picked up what looked like a 10 year old kid's leg...only it was black and highly pi**ed off. He told me I'd walked right past it on every trip. It lived right there...and this was about the dozenth time I'd been down that path. He asked me if I thought he carried that cutter to actually cut brush???

JEEEEZUS!!! I kept my eyes on the ground ALL the time after that...

I've been bitten more times by a #2 hook than I have any snake.

Never been snake-bit either...just thought I'd relay a story that gave me shivers!!!!

I know what you mean about the unerving and unsettling appearance of an adult cottonmouth! I saw one one time from an aerial perspective, as I was looking down from a small bridge that went over a creek.

It was instantly clear that this was a cottonmouth, even from 15 yards away. The body on that rascal was about as thick as a liter of soda. They are very intimidating and I'm glad a don't see them often!

Bobad,
It would stand to reason there would be more snakes if no one killed them. Then it would also follow there would be more human - snake encounters.
Snake bites are somewhat infrequent but 4000 to 7000 are reported each year in the US. The site below states most go unreported: http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic2143.htm

I have to agree with Rad here: There are lots of snakes. They certainly aren’t in danger of extinction.
I could never forgive myself if one of my granddaughters had to suffer from or died from a poisonous snake bite if I knew the snake was in the area & did nothing to remove it.

As I said, I built this pond & therefore by default obviously don’t believe in letting nature make all the decisions.

Rick, it may stand to reason that there would be many more snakes if no one killed them, but in fact that is not the case. Hard to believe isn't it? If you read the posts about genetics, you will notice that species under stress (killing) respond by not getting as big AND REPRODUCING MORE! It really does happen. Not with big, slow reproducing species like elephants but the population increases dramatically with small species that have lots of babies. Because of hunting, the population is younger with more reproducing individuals and the young have more food available to them. Remember, most snakes are small fast breeders and not large slow breeders like cattle.

Rick,

How about your car? Bikes? Roller skates? How about those dangerous ponds, in which 100's of kids drown annually? Will you eliminate those too? Odds of drowning far exceed being bitten by a poisonous snake. In the highly unlikely event one is bitten by a poisonous snake, actually dying from the bite is exceedingly rare. 4 deaths per year per 300 million population is a vanishingly small number.

My kids are just as dear to me as yours are to you. That's why I carefully teach them all about dangers, including snakes. I think educated kids are much safer than little kill bots running around hacking animals to death. (I should know, I was 1 of them!)

Remember what I said. The moccasin you can't see will bite you if you step on it. The one you occasionally see swimming in your pond is totally harmless. I much prefer them where I can see them!

Strange thing about the human male....if we can't eat it or drink it or copulate with it we want to kill it.

Bobad,
I think most of us agree with most of what you are saying and, again I think, it was the statement that you would rarely remove the poisonous snake etc that sparked the debate. The ”harmless” water moccasin and the one you step on are the same snake. Teaching your kids about snakes is good, but the one they can’t see or don’t know about is the one that could create a problem for them also. Many of the children who drown in swimming pools were also educated on water safety, but, most were probably to young to understand. Were it me in your situation I would move the poisonous snake along at first sight. I think a poisonous snake in my backyard would put me closer to being one of 4 in 3million than if I shooed him away or shot him.
Norm,
Where I am what you say is probably true, except that here they still have time and space to grow large. A 12 foot King Cobra is an awesome sight. But, in Los Angeles Rick is right , too many people, too much asphalt and concrete, noise and pollution. I lived in a relatively rural area in Los Angeles County and saw 2 snakes in 10 years, yet growing up in the same area I could find snakes almost any time I wanted. Like Bobad says misunderstood and to often killed irrationally. Like sharks, misunderstood and maligned. Soon both will only be captivity in the US. I read a crazy thing the other day, there are more tigers in the US than in all of the rest of the world put together.

Rad,

Not 4 in 3 million. 4 in 300 million!

More people die in the US from strangling on broccoli than from shakebite, yet we still grow that wonderful tasting veggie.

The snake you shoo away will go hide, and is easier to step on.

I will eliminate every hidy-hole possible, and keep the grass short around my pond. I believe in protecting animals, but I'm not a fool.

Does everyone notice that we have moved from "kill them all" to "there is a time and place for everything". I can't think of anything this Pond Boss forum has done that is more important than this. Not only with snakes but we are in the process of doing this with so many other issues. This wouldn't be possible unless all of us with vastly different backgrounds, experiences and viewpoints didn't come here and talk about these things.

I sure agree with that and I hope we didn't run RLewis off, poor guy just asked what must have seemed a simple question.

Robinson, I get your point. I have a friend who is Hindu. Doesn't eat meat and doesn't believe in killing anything. Nice guy. And then he had a termite problem in his house. As he said, "I didn't even think of praying for forgiverness. Just had them murdered."

Just my two cents on this, but being a person who has had a few nasty run ins with snakes and have a very healthy respect for those critters, I can truly say that in my eco system there is not a need or a place for them. If they want to survive in other places where folks don’t mind them being around, then I say go for it. But around my pond and kids and animals I just don’t want them or need them. I have other critters that eat the same things the snakes do and keep the eco system in balance the same way a snake would. If you don’t think that an eco system can be in balance without snakes then I suggest you look at New Zealand. I am one that sticks up for all life forms and my wife yells at me for escorting flys out of the house rather than swatting them, but in my yard and around my pond I will not take chances or be annoyed by snakes. They must go. ( If you want to come over and move them then go for it I say ) I am just grateful that the Bald Eagles, Hawks and Owls in my woods kill the snakes that do come in so that I don’t have to. ( I know you will say that without the snakes I may not have all of the birds, but they have tons of other things to eat like the moles and rabbits and such and the snakes they kill just as a favor to me )

I know that this may not be a popular stance but hey diversity is good as long as it doesn’t include snakes!!!! And there was my two cents worth.

Excellent, P.I., simply excellent.

I'm with you too, PI. My mother , who is old and is diabetic, woke up with a recluse biting her leg. One year later, she is still going to wound specialist with a rotting leg. So much for save the planet, how about save yourself. Man and animal were never intended to co-habitate. In such circumstances, one must be extinguished.

Burger, not so PC(politically correct)

Robinson PI, Dave, and Eric,

I have nothing against killing animals per se.

It's OK for man to kill snakes or any other critters... for a good reason.

Unfortunately, ignorance is seldom a good reason.

Bobad, It is usually the ignorant that calls someone ignorant. I did not say I could or would kill any snake but truth is I am glad I dont have to because mother nature is taking care of that for me. You do not know the circumstances that each individual here has gone through with snakes and as such you need to be more careful as to what and how you phrase things.

The truth here is all I have said is that there are eco systems that do not require snakes to keep balance. Also a fact is that all eco systems change and dominant species cause other species to go extinct, only in time to follow that path as well.

So please please please do not preach to others about the virtues of snakes while saying that those who do not agree with you are ignorant. Some of us have had some very different experiences with them and as such have our own biases against them.

Thus for your sake and those of us here who don't want you to look bad coming out of this, please think twice about who you call ignorant. You may be talking to people that have their Doctorates in varied fields and or have much more experience than you in many ways in many areas. ( Just to let you know I have run a wildlife sanctuary for many many years and have had my animal rehabilitation permit as well. I am well in tune with wildlife conservation. )

It is always a safe bet to not belittle those who have different viewpoints from yourself because when you do you expose yourself for who you really are.

That said it is nice to hear varied viewpoints and as such I do value yours but not when it crosses the line into something you clearly know nothing about.

Well guys, I know something about being told I know nothing.

It isn't much fun, either.

Let's discuss ideas freely without rancor...or you will have to change your signature like me

Whoa, you guys get way to wound up in your underwear over terminology, nuance, inflection or what ever it’s called. who said what and who can say what. In most social circles where we were in a face to face situation those “rules” probably would apply, because it is PC, not PI, Robinson if you can be why can’t Bobad, I don’t agree with his ideas re: snakes any more than you do. But so what who am I? This is a faceless forum and I am protected from all physical harm from any who disagree with me. That protection allows me to say much more about my feelings than if we were looking at each other, sad but true. But on the other hand I don’t want to be ostracized by this group so I must obey some modicum of civility. Bobad and I are both new members and as such are young, ignorant and learning and we hope you will cut us some slack. We are not the only ones who are struggling with our “feelings” look at the Greg/Meadowlark posts, neither new, young, nor ignorant. “ Can’t we all just get along?” Rodney King. Oh, and Bobad, what if you told your wife her irrational attitude towards snakes was ignorant, where would you be sleeping tonight. Wow, now there is a cut. Not, personal, just trying to end this thread.

Amen to that!!!

Eric, you need to calm down and re-read my last post. I didn't call you ignorant. If I ever do, you will have no doubt. I will say it like this: "Eric, you are ignorant about so-and-so".

The word "Ignorance" is a much misunderstood term. It is not really even a derigatory term. It simply means "unknowing". Unless you have a badly inflated ego, not knowing something is no disgrace at all.

In my life, I have seen a lot of acts committed out of ignorance. Of perhaps 100 snakes I have seen killed (many by me!), perhaps only 1 or 2 were killed for a purpose. The rest were killed for no good reason other than "It's a snake. What do you do with snakes except kill them?"

I have great faith in human intelligence and judgment, when it's exercised. Go ahead, Eric and the rest of you. Kill all the snakes you want to kill. Just be sure you think a minute, and have a rational reason to do so. As long as you think it through and don't do an irrational knee-jerk extermination, I trust you will be confident you are doing the right thing.

<---- Taking the High ground. Leaving discussion and keeping my mouth shut.