I am really getting tired of snakes. The cottonmouths are terrible this year. The properties on both sides have grown up and now the snakes are invading us. Just had an encounter with the 4th one. This is the 2nd in less than a week. Sunday, I was tearing out the old dock. I looked it over to make sure there was no sneaky snakes on it. Been working for 1/2 hour pulling up boards and decided to move a concrete block that was in my way. Started to move the block, I was sitting on the dock, and out of the corner of my eye, caught movement. A cottonmouth struck at me and barely missed. Got away before I could kill it.
Then today, walked out the front door to take the veggie scraps to the compost heap and what was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, a 2 foot cottonmouth. Didn't scare or move, just watched me. Yelled for my husband and he shot it. One of these days, my husband, myself, or my dog are going to walk into one and get bit.
The only thing I can think to do is string a low voltage wire near the ground, around my property.
Just me blowing off steam. >:(
My aunt and uncle have a really pretty place in SE Oklahoma in the mountains. Well, my aunt had really pretty roses growing all under her kitchen window until one day when she went out to prune them and there was a timber rattler all cozied up in it's branches. That was the last of the rose bush! She replaced everything in that flower bed with azaleas and hydrangeas and she absolutely doesn't work in it anymore!
We had a year that the bullsnakes invaded not only the yard, but the house as well. We caught three little ones indoors, and then there was the morning that Mom woke me up at 1:00 AM for me to come help her catch the 5+ ft mama snake on her dressing table. All I can suggest is get guinea hens. They're noisy, but they're good at all sorts of pest control, and I've seen both chickens and guineas kill poisonous snakes. FWIW, I think the guineas are better at it. In the mean time, be on constant lookout for them and watch your step... always take something in hand to dispatch them, a gun or a shovel or hoe.
Maybe time to think about which public servant could do something for you. USDA - FEDS - have trappers. Health dept may be interested - County here has animal control.
Not that I care for paying for them but as long as we are, you might consider giving them something to do.
Homegrown, I have been thinking about Guineas for bug control anyway, so why not for snakes.
Glenn, around here you are lucky if a cop shows up if theres a crime. There is no such thing as animal control, wish there was. There are a lot of services that I was use to on the west coast that do not exist here.
I will just have to strap on the gun everytime I go out. Never had a problem with them this close to the house until this year.
Lately I have noticed more snakes than usual. I think the dry weather makes them move for water which they don't have in the higher elevations. Ratlers are real good to do this. Just yesterday I saw a 5' black snake on the mountain. First one I have seen for over a year now. As for the house I have seen a drop in their polulation except for an occasional ringneck or garden snake. I think it is due to the arrival of my daughters cats. They do a good job with mice around the barn and outbuildings. In turn the snakes are lacking a staple in their diet and move to more food area(woods). I try not to kill them as they are a good rodent exterminators but if it's around the house the wife says it's got to go.
Bummer, Sis - high top boots too -
I leave them if away from the house, John, but a lady a few miles away let one live near her house and a couple weeks later it killed her.
Get a pig. Pigs love to eat snakes and they will survive a bite.
Quote from: Redoverfarm on August 21, 2008, 04:33:56 PM
I try not to kill them as they are a good rodent exterminators but if it's around the house the wife says it's got to go.
Landlord several years ago had a pet black snake that she named Samatha. Every couple of days she was seen carring it out of the house and into her garden. As soon as she let it go it would climb up a large maple tree and into the attic again. Alot of things I don't like are needed but that one in my opinion would be history at my house.
I'm with you on that, Red. The bullsnakes don't hurt anything, but there is nothing like reaching into the dryer in the semi-dark and feeling that long, slender, snaky body and not knowing for sure whether you've got a garter snake or a copperhead in there, or going to the fridge to get sandwich stuff out and seeing that little reptilian face staring back at you from the counter top! I don't mind the harmless ones outside, but harmless or not, I don't want them sneaking up on me in my house!!!
here's the last one to come up on the patio.
http://picasaweb.google.com/gandalfthegrey1/MyPhotos/photo#5237116623283212338 (http://picasaweb.google.com/gandalfthegrey1/MyPhotos/photo#5237116623283212338)
Probably not a wise move from his point of view. Nice belt.
Well dunno about poisonous snakes...But we always had half a dozen cats at my dads growing up....And he fed them a little but they hunted like mad...
We would see mama cat carrying snakes in her mouth to feed to the kittens...
A good hunting outdoor cat will hunt the crap out of a snake...Might be different when you have something that is poisonous...Maybe they leave them alone? I doubt it..
I gotta get some more coyote food.... I mean, cats - outdoor cats -- the mice are getting a bit too friendly.
Glenn
Don't your dogs barking keep the coyotes scared off the property?
When we had problems with them we didn't have dogs. Maybe a cat will last longer now - if we get it used to the dogs. Neighbor cat won't come around here now with the dogs.
Best way to avoid snakes? Move to Alaska! I moved here 41 years ago and it took me about 5 years to finally stop looking over every log in the woods before stepping over it not to mention looking before reaching for a handhold while climbing up a steep trail or rock pile. Bears are another story, but they have a harder time hiding in small dark places.
Quote from: StinkerBell on August 21, 2008, 04:47:15 PM
Get a pig. Pigs love to eat snakes and they will survive a bite.
I had heard that about hogs too. Geese are also supposed to be good. I have not had either just things I have heard.
My grandmother told me about hogs. They let them run around. Sow and babies. One day she heard wild squealing and the old sow and babies were pulling rattlers out of a den and killing and eating them. What I have heard is if the snake bites, the poison goes into the layer of fat and does no harm. Don't have a big enough place for hogs. I will just have to keep a watch out for the snakes and shoot them. I don't harm the rat snakes, but I have no use for cottonmouths. I am sure they have a place in nature, but not my place.
I hear you on that. What state are you in, Southernsis? Around here, it seems like there are more copperheads than anything else, but I try to avoid the places where I figure cottonmouths would enjoy hanging out. I was working one summer in college as a botany TA for OU's biological station in the southern part of the state. We were out plant collecting with a group of 15-16 year old students and I was bringing up the rear of the group on a trail through the McCurtain County Wilderness area.... All twenty of the kids had crossed this little creek at the bottom of the valley and when I got to the creek, the "log" they were all stepping over was a cottonmouth as fat as my arm. Twenty kids, and not one of them had seen him because they didn't have the sense to be looking! If one of them had gotten bitten, we could've never gotten them out of there in time for any sort of help. The botany teacher's son and I caught the snake, stopped all the kids and showed them what to look for. We took him way off the trail and let him go again, but I was almost sick at my stomach after we let him go because all the "what ifs" kept going through my head.
I live in Northern Arkansas. Some of these cottonmouths are hard to see. They blendin and they do not scare, so making a lot of noise and stomping around doesn't work. I was reading about them and it says they are loners. One snake can give birth to 1-15 live babies. I hope that the ones we have killed were females and didn't have a chance to give birth. From what I read they give birth in September, early October. I sure don't need anymore around here.
Kids never seem to look where they are going, so it is lucky the kids you were taking about Homegrown, didn't get bit.
I didn't realize they were that thick in Arkansas... I would've expected to find more timber rattlers and copperheads. I have an aunt and uncle who live about 10 miles from the AR state line, in SE Oklahoma, and they have a terrible time with the rattlers, especially certain times of year. My cousin who lives in Ft. Smith has had some problems with the copperheads and has to be pretty vigilant, especially with a 3-year-old with Down's and a newborn. I still say get some guineas... they're noisy but worth it.
Yeah, that was a pretty close call for those kids... :o
Quote from: Sassy on August 25, 2008, 11:59:47 AM
Yeah, that was a pretty close call for those kids... :o
Yeah, it was. That's why I said I felt sick afterwards thinking about all the things that could have happened, but thankfully didn't.