Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Snake Control

Russ


I've been bitten by alot of water snakes & black racers. Both have a bad disposition when caught. They don't do much damage but sometimes get stuck & you have to peel all those backward slanted teeth loose. Kind of like pulling velcro.

I once took my sons fishing at a public pond. Two teenagers were frog gigging & had gigged a water snake. They came over & shoved it in my face asking what kind it was but really trying to scare us. I jerked the wriggling 2' snake off the gig, held him up as if to examine to determine what he was & he was dangling from my thumb. The look on their faces was worth it! I still have the gig they left when they ran. :p

I am not much of a snake guy, they move a little to fast for me. Through the years I had become complacent about them. I killed a rattlesnake about 10 years ago and saw a non poisonous snake a couple of years later, that was California. Now, I see a snake almost everyday, some in the house.
One day, not long ago, I am looking for something and move some beer cases and here is a big black snake. It is almost dark and luckily I have a flashlight, I grab a piece of pvc about 6' long, the whippy kind. The snake is attracted by the light and a couple of gentle nudges with the pvc have no affect, he keeps coming towards the light, I can't turn off the light as I won't be able to see him, catch 22. I poke him a little harder with the 4'piece of pvc, then he did a most incredible thing, he started bobbing up and down like he was gagging, then he upchucked a hens egg, which was why he was behind the cases in the first place, one of my hens likes to lay there. After he did the get rid of the egg thing I remembered the Animal Planet segment and knew he was now in a fight or flight mode and when he reared up and did a cobra thing I knew it was not a flight mode. I am now down to about 2' separating us and the 2' piece of pvc is now more like a noodle than a weapon. My secondary concern is that I am standing next to two wide open French doors and if I flee, which is my primary survival mode reaction, I leave the house unguarded. I summon what little courage I have left and poke the snake as hard as I can about 6 or 7 times. The whippy pvc is not cooperating very well but at least one of the blows must have hit as the snake turned and slowly left, about 7' long.
Within the last 10 days a neighbor of mine was snake bitten and died. I try to wear shoes more often, flip flops don't offer much in the way of protection.

Rad, you live in such a different environment than we do here in the states. Although prairie rattlesnakes can be fiesty at times, I've never talked with anyone that has ever heard of someone dying of a snake bite. However, we don't have cobras here.

I was bit by a black rat snake one time that I was holding. It scared the day lights out of me (amoung other things). When the snake saw that it couldn't swallow me, it spit me out (let go) and that was the end of it.

I thought you was going to say the snake crawled away and nearly died.

Never been bitten by a water snake, and I don't want to. Those fish-catching teeth make me very cautious. I've been tagged many times by snakes with shorter teeth. They bleed like crazy and heal up super quick. Something is going on there with the quick healing.

bobad, anything getting a taste of my blood probably should have crawled away and died. My blood is that bad. Now your blood is a different matter. Have you ever considered having your blood tested for some special healing property? Maybe something from your blood mixed with snake saliva can be some sort of miracle cure. I can hear $$$$ coming OUR way. I'll be happy for a measily 10% for mentioning the idea. Let me know when we get our first check!

A couple of days ago, I probably should have been bitten. I was working a bank of a family-owned pond and was checking for "dangerous things" in the weeds with my boot like an idiot. Kicked a fairly large green snake lightly in the head. Some sort of generic rat snake variety I'm sure, but can't positively identify as I bailed pretty quick. Definitely non-poisonous though, as I doubt that no venomous snakes in TN are bright green. Unless somebody has introduced green mambas or boomslangs without my knowledge...

Nonetheless, this should be proof that snakes aren't likely to strike unless they have very good reason, and even then they probably won't. Well, I dunno about the cobras and other elapid species that Rad might be subjected to. But I have put myself in a position to get bitten by virtually every snake species native to TN, and it ain't happened yet (knocking very deliberately on wood)...

Norm,
You are right, before I moved here I never knew anyone that had been bitten by a poisonous snake. In addition to the guy down the road, I know a lady who had her leg amputated just above the knee, snake bite, and another man who's leg is crippled, snake bite. In another post some one made a comment about a farm dog dying, no big deal you just get a new dog. I think many of these local people feel much the same about life. They don't just pop off to the doctor, they take a wait and see approach, some times a fatal decision.