Wapsi Square Forum

Got the lawn mowed for the first time this year Saturday.

There's a nice little fenced back yard where the girls play and where we plan for them to romp with the puppy we're getting (against my better judgement, but that's another post).

He found a rattlesnake.

W. T. F.

I hope he (the lawn guy?) killed it for you. Or somebody did. Or you. And then showed it to the girls, and told them never to get close to any snake, and to come get a grownup. Or teach them how to call in an airstrike. Napalm is good for snakes.

BTW, I don't like snakes.

Apparently he killed it*. As he was wielding either a power lawn mower or a weed whacker at the moment, it shouldn't have been a problem.

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* I was in the process of getting dinner ready, so he talked to Kate. Who didn't tell me till later, i might add.

NOTDilbert wrote:W. T. F.

I hope he (the lawn guy?) killed it for you. Or somebody did. Or you. And then showed it to the girls, and told them never to get close to any snake, and to come get a grownup. Or teach them how to call in an airstrike. Napalm is good for snakes.

BTW, I don't like snakes.

When i was about sixteen, i once went down to the basement to get some potatoes (we had a big washtub of them from the garden in a nice cool dark corner of the basement).

And a little brown thing reared up and let me know it did not appreciate my presence.



"Well, hello, Mr Cottonmouth," sez i, as i smartly (not to mention intelligently) retreated and trotted over to my dad's workshop on the other side of the basement.

There i did, indeed, find what i thought remembered - a six-foot length of two-by-four.

"Mr Cottonmouth, meet Mr Two-by-Four," i said, and went whammity-wham-wham-wham beginning with the head, working back a ways and then back to the head.

You never saw such a wide, flat snake...

Fairportfan wrote:There i did, indeed, find what i thought remembered - a six-foot length of two-by-four.

"Mr Cottonmouth, meet Mr Two-by-Four," i said, and went whammity-wham-wham-wham beginning with the head, working back a ways and then back to the head.

You never saw such a wide, flat snake...

Methinks that's the kind of situation where you just don't want to miss that first shot...

The two-by-four was six feet long. If i did miss i still had plenty of distance to dodge.

Fairportfan wrote:The two-by-four was six feet long. If i did miss i still had plenty of distance to dodge.

Were you then able to run a test to confirm, or deny the truth of a popular folk-tale? "Tastes like chicken?"

After all, it sounds as if you'd properly tenderized it...

Years ago, back in the nomadic period of my childhood, there was a big storm starting up one evening and so I took shelter in a tiny ruined stone hut (it might have been some sort of a shrine or something at one point, but it was in such bad shape that there was no telling any longer). I went to sleep, and when I woke up the next morning I found a rather large king cobra all settled down a few feet away. We sat and watched each other for a little while, then he went slithering off on his snakey business somewhere.

I spent several days there and saw him fairly often, as the one corner of the place was where he'd chosen to make his home. He never seemed to take much mind of me, and with him being around I knew that I didn't have to worry much about running across any other more ill-disposed snakes.

All of the times I've encountered snakes, whether venomous or not, the only ones that have ever been troublesome were copperheads. They sometimes seem to go out of their way just to be mean. A guy I knew was standing sentry duty somewhere in. . .Louisiana, I think it was, and he saw a copperhead slithering across the clearing a good twenty yards or so away. Suddenly the copperhead changed direction and came slithering straight towards him. The guy watched it, wondering what it was up to and staying still so as not to scare it. The snake got up next to him, reared up, and bit him on the leg. That was how we discovered that the buttstock of an M16 makes a moderately effective snake flattener.

Catawampus wrote:All of the times I've encountered snakes, whether venomous or not, the only ones that have ever been troublesome were copperheads. They sometimes seem to go out of their way just to be mean.

That's interesting... there seems to be a real division of opinion about copperheads. Some references say that they're generally non-aggressive, just tend to sit around concealed and will generally prefer to move away when threatened. Other people report as you do - that they can be aggressive and territorial. I wonder whether it's a regional thing... or maybe they're more aggressive during certain times of the year (mating season or when bearing young)?

Dave wrote:

Catawampus wrote:All of the times I've encountered snakes, whether venomous or not, the only ones that have ever been troublesome were copperheads. They sometimes seem to go out of their way just to be mean.

That's interesting... there seems to be a real division of opinion about copperheads. Some references say that they're generally non-aggressive, just tend to sit around concealed and will generally prefer to move away when threatened. Other people report as you do - that they can be aggressive and territorial. I wonder whether it's a regional thing... or maybe they're more aggressive during certain times of the year (mating season or when bearing young)?

I've heard references to rattlesnakes (specifically) being more aggressive when they're "in the blind".

The Natural Source/An Educator's Guide to South Dakota's Natural Resources wrote: A rattlesnake begins the shedding process by rubbing its nose on the ground until the skin is pushed up over its head and then it crawls right out of its skin. Snakes have a transparent, hard shield covering each eye, which protects their eyes as they travel along the ground. Over time this shield becomes scratched and needs to be replaced. These eye shields are part of the skin and are shed along with the skin.

In preparation for shedding, a liquid forms between the old and new layers of skin to separate them. The snakes' eyes become milky and their
sight is reduced almost to the point of blindness. During this time the snakes are defensive and irritable.

I would guess this applies to all vipers, which all North American venomous snakes except the coral snake are.

Dave wrote:That's interesting... there seems to be a real division of opinion about copperheads. Some references say that they're generally non-aggressive, just tend to sit around concealed and will generally prefer to move away when threatened. Other people report as you do - that they can be aggressive and territorial. I wonder whether it's a regional thing... or maybe they're more aggressive during certain times of the year (mating season or when bearing young)?

That's just the copperheads being ornery and contrary, as per their nature. "Let's mess with the humans and pretend to be nice for the next week. . .and then bite everybody we see the week after!"

Also, I realise that I wasn't quite accurate when I said that copperheads were the only ones I've found to be often troublesome. I'd forgotten about the cobras on the west coast of Africa. Those were some more ornery critters.

And on the subject: somebody who I met a little while ago.

Catawampus wrote:

Dave wrote:That's interesting... there seems to be a real division of opinion about copperheads. Some references say that they're generally non-aggressive, just tend to sit around concealed and will generally prefer to move away when threatened. Other people report as you do - that they can be aggressive and territorial. I wonder whether it's a regional thing... or maybe they're more aggressive during certain times of the year (mating season or when bearing young)?

That's just the copperheads being ornery and contrary, as per their nature. "Let's mess with the humans and pretend to be nice for the next week. . .and then bite everybody we see the week after!"

Also, I realise that I wasn't quite accurate when I said that copperheads were the only ones I've found to be often troublesome. I'd forgotten about the cobras on the west coast of Africa. Those were some more ornery critters.

And on the subject: somebody who I met a little while ago.

What is he? Doesn't look like a viper from that angle.

Fairportfan wrote:The two-by-four was six feet long. If i did miss i still had plenty of distance to dodge.

Perhaps, but then again, perhaps not... And just as a long-handled hammer will yield a bigger strike, but be more unwieldy, while a smaller hammer will yield less force, but be more accurate, a 6' length of 2X4 had a good chance of being rather inaccurate. It is still quite possible that the snake would have been fast enough to fight back, had you missed, no?

A wise old boatswain's mate once told me his secret: "You don't have to swing the big hammer with all your strength - but there's a definite limit to how hard you can hit with the little one."

Back when I lived with my folks on the farm, we had a border collie - very smart dogs. After having been bitten once in his life by a copperhead (made him very sick, but didn't kill him) he had a certain bark that meant nothing else except "Here's a snake, come kill it." And when he did, I did. He never seemed to pick on non-poisonous ones, but 'pointed' on several varieties of the poisonous. one night, he started that bark AFTER we had shut him in the garage for the night - had to kill it with a machete, couldn't fire off the .22 in the garage.....that was an interesting fight. Nowadays, I think I'd just shoot it anyway.

Fairportfan wrote:

Catawampus wrote:somebody who I met a little while ago.

What is he? Doesn't look like a viper from that angle.

A common garter snake, I think; just going by the colouration.

MerchManDan wrote:

Fairportfan wrote:What is he? Doesn't look like a viper from that angle.

A common garter snake, I think; just going by the colouration.

Yep. He was dozing in the middle of a bicycle path. He just lay there looking at me, probably still feeling the effects of the cold. I decided that that wasn't really the best place for him to be sunning himself, so I picked him up and moved him a ways off in some rocks. I was walking along with him coiling around my arm and gnawing on my thumb when two teenage girls and a boy came riding down the path; the boy shrieked in even more girlish manner than did either of the girls and took off at full speed down the trail, which seemed to really impress the girls he was with.

He won't be getting many dates until he goes to college in a town far far away...

Those are some impressive photos of that snake, Catawampus. Did you take them with a point-and-shoot camera, or with a decent SLR? From real close (one might even say "up close and personnal"), or from further away, with a good zoom?

lake_wrangler wrote:Those are some impressive photos of that snake, Catawampus. Did you take them with a point-and-shoot camera, or with a decent SLR? From real close (one might even say "up close and personnal"), or from further away, with a good zoom?

I've never gotten around to finding a proper camera for myself; all that I've ever owned have been rather inexpensive little ones with minimal settings. I just learn to use what abilities the camera has in as many ways as possible (even if the manufacturer never intended for that particular use), which has actually let me be fairly successful as a freelance photographer at times. If I ever decided to truly make a profession of it, of course, I'd go get a proper camera and then learn all the wonders of apertures and exposure settings and trying to find where you left your 300mm lens with the gamma ray filter.