I will also ID any snake if anyone ever has a question. Post pic/location & tag me or send a pm any time. I am a wildlife biologist & if I can’t ID it, I know 3 excellent herpetologists who can.
It pays double to confirm your snake IDs if you are averse to venomous snakes near you - if you have king snakes, they will keep the venomous species at bay since they eat other snakes, so they are a snake-o-phobe’s best friend!
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹I think Racetrack Reject has the rest covered, well done.
I might take you up on that next time! Coral snake vs king snake? Forget it. The rhyme does me no good when I am scared. The only one I’m confident about is the corn snake, lol! Love those guys, though. The one I caught at the neighbor’s acted almost friendly. I used an old pillowcase to move him, in case he was stressed, but he was really easy going.
Rhymes stick in my head, so I find myself chanting “red on black, friend of Jack” even looking at brown snakes, lol. Corn snakes, green snakes, & some king snakes (there are multiple species, not all are rainbow colored) are usually really docile, I call them InstaPets.
ETA, if it helps, it’s near impossible to get bitten by a coral snake. Their mouths are teeeeeeny & if I recall correctly they are rear fanged. The only bite I’ve ever heard of was an idiot who picked one up & played catch with it (so well-deserved geez). So just don’t cram your skin in their mouth &you will be fine.
For everyone, here are a couple of helpful starter links:
A document one of our herpetologists put together on co-existing with snakes, including how to make your property less attractive to them if you want (I make mine MORE attractive) - https://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0…-Snakes-v3.pdf
The rhyme is actually not recommended by current herpetologists because there are non-venomous snakes that have red touching yellow and coral snakes that do not have red touching yellow (morphs, not whole species).
Coral snakes are little guys and usually quite shy. I’ve grabbed one by accident while weeding a flower bed and he was just more interested in slithering away. So basically, you have to try to get bitten by a coral snake to be bitten.
Most snake bites occur when people are trying to kill or move snakes, so the best choice is to wait a bit and see if it moves along or use water to move it along, regardless of what outrage Bluey has of the idea.
My bf literally had a cottonmouth swim up to him and park himself on his foot while he was fishing one day. He waited and waited for the guy to move, but the snake was quite content to sit there and wait to see if could get anything to eat. You see this a lot with the non-venomous watersnakes in videos on FB and such, but I had never seen a cottonmouth do it, so I went and verified the ID myself when my bf text me to come see the snake. We did eventually have to move the little guy, and we removed a small hook from his side. Of course when we released the snake, he headed straight for a pier full of people and we had to move him again. Someone must have been dumping fish or minnows and this guy decided that people meant food was available, very sad and dangerous for the snake.
I just wonder, how many rattlers do you live around, how many come visit very regularly around your house and barns?
How many have you stepped on because you truly can’t see every spot you put a foot on, every step, all day long, your whole life?
Have you been chased by aggressive rattlers, picked a flake of hay you laid there to feed next morning and a handful of rattlers scramble off it?
How about your family, kids, pets, livestock around house and barns?
The big huge rattler in the barn the other day, if it had bitten someone, the 4H kids that come practice, their horses or dogs or siblings?
We leave snakes alone, unless they are a serious threat, as rattlers are.
It is always easy to tell those that live it how they need to do things.
Not so easy to understand why they may not agree that is a smart idea.
No, the people recommending aren’t actually clueless, they are the people who have actually studied snakes for decades, but you now that. You just fail to be able to see any view but your own and only search for content that proves your view instead of reading all (factual) sides and educating yourself on the best options.
No one said that there is no such thing as snake relocation, no one discussed chronic nuisances snakes, but again, you know this. You are not the only person to ever live in an area with active venomous snakes but what started this conversation had nothing to do with your personal circumstances and the advice given was on that topic. While the advice is still good general advice, it is not for every situation 100% of the time, but again, you know this. You’re just being intentionally obtuse because you have to apply the limited things you choose to believe about your hot button topics (snakes, vegetarian/vegan, dairy industry, beef industry, etc) broad spectrum to every circumstance.
BTW, better check those rattlesnake IDs closely because yes, some rattlesnakes are protected, even here in Texas, where we both live.
For the record, before anyone brings it up, benadryl for snake bites is BS too.
1000s. I’ve lived and worked all over Texas, even in Edinburgh, where the rattlers greet you every morning on the front doorstep. I did my biology work all over the SE US and worked with Gopher Tortoises who live with rattlesnakes and Flattened Musk Turtles in Northern Alabama. I worked beside several herpetologists and have many more who are friends today.
When you assume things…
Again, your situation is not what was posted about in the OP. Again, the advice given is good basic advice but does not apply to every single situation 100%. Again, most people are bitten while trying to kill snakes, so it is best to avoid if possible.
Oh, I thought we were talking about living with dangerous snakes around, not how much we may not like other posters, what all we disagree with them, how ignorant we think they are.
Moving goalposts in discussions when we can’t make a reasonable point makes so much sense, does it.
No more people get bitten by rattlers because, duh, most people that live around rattlers don’t just leave them alone and hope they can avoid them and never get themselves or those they care for bitten.
Play Russian roulette all you want, but don’t expect others to do that on some fuzzy principles, much less presume to be telling others how they should live or how evil they are if they don’t agree with you.
We are a wildlife preserve, have been since 1957.
We take very good care of wildlife, along with game wardens and Department of the Interior personnel.
Some of the first movies of roadrunners killing rattlers were taken in our yard decades ago.
There are ways to take excellent care of your environment and still keep your own human environment safe for all there.
One of those is keep rattlers out of there.
They have a whole world out there to do their thing and there are enough of them doing just that, why they come by regularly.
ETA, if it helps, it’s near impossible to get bitten by a coral snake. Their mouths are teeeeeeny & if I recall correctly they are rear fanged. The only bite I’ve ever heard of was an idiot who picked one up & played catch with it (so well-deserved geez). So just don’t cram your skin in their mouth &you will be fine.
Very True. I’ve lived amongst Coral Snakes for many, many years. Used to have a Collie who loved to catch them and play with them. Also had a young horse find one and scooted it across the pasture w/ his head.
I’ve also caught several for amateur breeders.
they are very gentle, shy snakes- not aggressive at all. They’d rather be hiding under leaf mulch and stay out of your way.
Larger rattlesnakes and Water Moccasins will sometimes stand their ground and not run off. So Beware if you’re in their territory.
No, we were never talking about living around dangerous snakes. We were answering the OPs post and you steered the conversation into an area where you get to spout your skewed views.
Moving the goalposts? You are the queen of that. This post wasn’t about rattlesnakes or people who live near them, but when you posted incorrect information we started talking about how snake repellent doesn’t work but once you couldn’t make any headway there, you attacked using a water spray to move snakes by using idiotic scenarios that you or any intelligent person with any kind of reasoning skill would know would not apply to that situation like say, oh being somewhere where there isn’t a water hose or bibb.
I never told you how to live or that you are evil. Are you actually reading my posts? This whole thread had nothing to do with you until you gave false information then changed the narrative to try to make yourself look like you know more than everyone else because of where you chose to live.
The snakes had a whole world out there to do their thing until you moved into their environment and changed their world. Don’t get it twisted. And no, I’m not saying anything about your choice to live there other than, that’s why snakes are there, because that’s where they lived before you and you still have food available for them.
Again, the narrative isn’t about you. I never said more people get bitten by rattlers. I said and I quote “Again, most people are bitten while trying to kill snakes, so it is best to avoid if possible.” That’s any and all snakes, venomous and non-venomous. I should have said killed or moved, but I was editing and forgot to put it back in.
Someone mentioned a mute or ignore button. Where do I find that? I cannot stop responding to misinformation, so it’s likely best that I just hide it from myself, so I leave it be.
Ever try just scrolling by if you don’t like to read what others have to say?
Works fine for most people.
Threads have lives of their own, go where posters take them, is how public forums become so interesting.
When it comes to relocating wildlife, that has for decades now been frowned on as a rule, other than the rare exception.
Relocating stresses the individual being relocated, that is put in a new territory and those residents there, that have to handle an intruder that is not familiar with their environment.
Some species and at times that is inevitable and all hope it works, others, not so much, why it has been discouraged.
OP, don’t know how that would work for your kind of snake.
You could ask those that really know what works in your region, county agents a good source, or they will know who to ask if they don’t have an answer for you.
Relocating snakes is considered ok if you keep them within less than a mile of the area they came from. There are networks of people who will come and relocate snakes for you in most areas of the US. If you look for snake ID groups in your area, the good ones are ran by herpetologists and frequented by people who can and are licensed (not all snakes require a license) to relocate snakes for you. Moving them less than a mile from origin only slightly lowers their survivability chances and is considered the better alternative to leaving them where they are to be killed.
I had a crazy weekend a few years back when I tackled the rat snake population that was taking gross advantage of our poorly constructed first chicken coop. I poured white vinegar in every possible hidey-hole and tada, they came out of the woodwork. We relocated all of them, maybe 10 in all, about a 1/2 mile down the road (we’re in a very quiet, rural area). Then we undertook moving and reinforcing the chicken coop. The entire thing is done in hardware cloth, and it is also buried around the perimeter. Now there is no snake problem at all.
Naptha doesn’t work to repel snakes, it just smells bad.
Sorry, we were way past if using Snake away was appropriate or not, that had been settled when that poster got a little too huffy with personal digs.
I think herpetologists would get tired of being called all the time on the many rattlers people out here find regularly
There is a place to take good care of your wildlife, already said we have been a wildlife preserve for decades and there is a sensible way to not be in harm’s way with underfoot, very numerous rattlers, as they are here.
I think there is never an excuse to jump down another poster’s throat and dump your frustration on them, etc. just because they disagree with you.
There is such thing as disagreeing agreeably, no need of theatrics, really.
The relocation part was not for you but for others reading your post that doesn’t really apply to reptiles. To give correct information.
BTW, for a number of herpetologists, that is actually their job, to relocate nuisance snakes and/or collect venomous snakes.
Disagreeing and correcting misinformation are not forms of attacks. When another person will not listen to facts and twists what you say to suit their needs, this is a different thing than disagreeing, and in cases where are you speaking about venomous animals, it can be dangerous. I just want everyone to be safe and have the knowledge to know how to keep themselves safe.
To that point above and a fun fact, a detached venomous snake head and can still envenomate for hours after it was detached.
Another fun fact, “harmless” hog-nosed snakes a few other harmless species are actually venomous, but their venom is prey specific and not typically an issue for humans.
Only venomous snakes have fangs. Several species of snakes eat other snakes, including venomous ones.
OP I’d hardly call 2 snakes (who definitely weren’t copperheads from what you are describing) as a snake problem.
If you’re really worried about it, have someone come do it for you. Or do it in the dead of winter when it’s cold enough that it’s not likely snakes are moving around. Snakes are really fascinating creatures who are not out to get you.
Sorry, I didn’t mean any one poster.
I try very hard never to make any discussion personal and berate regularly those that try to do so, as you also justly did.
Then, no one did warn the poster that directed their less than fortunate words to me?
Fair is fair, right?
I checked that advice and was talking about whoever is recommending that in general, as I found it in a .edu web site on how to handle rattlers.
Should have posted the link.
Here:
I hope no one took personal offense at my words.
They were not meant for anyone here.
As I have explained before, we like our snakes and they are fine here, just not the really dangerous ones, for us rattlers, as I would think would be easy to understand.
