SNAKES

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

I know this isn't "Animal Planet Net" but I'm excited to share my first rattle snake experience! On Saturday my girlfriend and i decided to hit the Euchre Bar trail on the North Fork of the American River. Not sure on the milage of the trail but you go up and down over 1700' in mosquito infested forest...it was rough. But it was all worth it, right when we got back to the top of the trail i see a rattle snake sitting there sunbathing. I grabbed a stick (just in case) and got within 5 feet of the guy and managed to snap some photos before he was on his way. He paused for a moment and coiled as he left just to make sure that I wasn't up to any funny business and even rattled at me (which i caught on video!) On Sunday I headed to mineral bar and ran into a black water snake. He was lingering in an area that i was trying to prospect so i gently nudged him along and he turned away and started off, I guess i wasn't happy enough with his departing speed so i gave his tail end one more nudge which was a VERY BAD IDEA He turned around with the quickness and charged toward me stopping about a 3 feet from my legs and holding his ground. LOL i had to leave the area because of this snake. Guess it was my fault for provoking him so I bounced so nobody had to be bit or killed. I spent the rest of the day prospecting and looking over my shoulder for that angry serpent. Very exciting weekend.

 

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[bfloyd4445]

I was metal detecting my back pasture the other day and almost stepped on this guy. Pretty sure it was a cotton mouth. Nasty guys. Looks like a common water snake but is not the same. Venomous and bad tempered. Let him go on his way, but probably should have "dispatched " him as he probably ended up at a neighbors.

Bottom pic is either a "chicken" snake or "rat" snake I believe. Scared the dickens out of a fellow hunter I was with a while back.

View attachment 1172335

The bottom pix is a gopher snake. I've watched them hunt and they do live up to their name. I've got a three to four footer under my tractor shed I see occasionally and he keeps the gophers under control in my front lawn. Its so neat to watch them hunt: They very slowly go to a gopher hole then examine it from a couple of inches away before either going inside of moving on to the next hole. The cottonmouth I would rather see staying in the swamp but gopher snakes are fun to have around. Cotton mouths have the place just like rattlers

 

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[bobw53]

I've got a couple of stupid snake questions..... Does anybody else bring their dog out to the desert with them to prospect? Its warm enough
out now that I'm concerned the pup I take with me might find one and get bit...

I talked to the nice lady down at the veterinarian office the other day... For the record, my vet is awesome, and the people that work for her. Dr. Craig, Solano Animal Clinic.

She said in all the years she has been there, they've only lost one to a snake bite... It was a dog that kept going after the rattler, it was bit through the eye, the nose,
the chest etc... Bit at least 9 times, and the dogs owner didn't bring it in until the next day.

They recommended "snake" training, which apparently you can do here...

This little dog.. She's a little defiant, possibly a little too big for her britches... When I have my head in a hole, and look up and don't see her, and call for her... She
knows I don't want her to come to me... She knows I'm just checking on her... And 99.99999% of the time she doesn't wander far from me... She just looks
at me "I'm right here you big dummy", problem is she blends in really well, and she's really quiet, and it takes a while to spot her. And when I call her, she
freezes, so I can't even pick up the movement, and she has no tail, so that thing isn't even wagging for me to see... (as a side thought.... Dogs with no tail,
you have to see their butt hole more, but they don't wipe everything off your coffee table, and they don't hit you in the nuts), when we first got her, took
a while to name her.. We eventually HAD to give her a name, she started coming to Stumpy.


Out there last week, standing by
my truck, at the open tailgate, couldn't find her... Calling her, calling her, calling her, looking looking looking... She was laying under the open tailgate, not more
than 18 inches from my feet.

The vet suggested an orange hunting vest for her, just so I can see her... And then adding some noise makers, maybe some bells, so I can hear where she is, and the
rattlers will get some advanced warning she is coming...

The little dummy cruising down the Gulch.. She just blends right into the background...

And to bring this back to the gold... A 90 degree turn to the left of where I snapped that pic.

And 20 feet to the left of that.

Second snake question... I've seen this guy twice, he lives under my house.. Southern New Mexico... 4 to 5 feet long... Pretty skinny for the length, not much
bigger around than a silver dollar.. Light tan, no markings. I can't figure out what it is... But if it doesn't have a diamond shaped head... As far as I'm concerned,
it can stay.. The Better half of me, (smarter half, better looking half) wants to call the snake sanctuary down the street... (and yes, I do have a snake sanctuary down
at the corner)... I think we should leave it alone.. Something is going to eat the field(desert) mice under the foundation, and this one doesn't have a diamond shaped head.

 

[bfloyd4445]

Found this little critter in my shop the other day. It had knocked a lot of stuff off of shelves and I was stumped as to how all the items were strewn around my shop. In the process of putting things back, I noticed something on top of my bandsaw. As I went to pick it up, it moved.......I didn't have my glasses on. Everyone asks me what kind of snake it was and all I can say is BIG! I'm 6'2", so, gauge it from there.....I figure, at least, 7'.

View attachment 1168344

is that a python? Some of the gulf states are getting loaded with these illegal immigrants smuggled in then sold to unsuspecting people who don't realize how big they get. Then when they grow they dump them off in the river lake or woods

 

[Duckwalk]

The first pic is most defiantly a Cotten mouth/ water moccasin

 

[bfloyd4445]

I've got a couple of stupid snake questions..... Does anybody else bring their dog out to the desert with them to prospect? Its warm enough
out now that I'm concerned the pup I take with me might find one and get bit...

d.

Yes please but a noisemaker on Stumpy. Most animals will get gone with noise, snakes will usually hide unless they are sunning and then sometimes they go into a kind of stupor and are oblivious to the world.

The snake should be left alone he is likely finding vermin to munch on and I'm sure you would rather have the snake around than the vermin. Not sure what kind it is you should ask at the snake sanctuary they will know the local snake species.

 

[lockster99]

I was raised around alot of bayous, creeks, swamps and just standing water ditches. Snakes were everywhere. We had numerous dogs bit by snakes. Most of the time around the neck and head. It would swell up and take on fluid. Most of the time it wouldn't even slow them down.

Course come to think of it, we did have a few never come home. So....

 

[bfloyd4445]

I was raised around alot of bayous, creeks, swamps and just standing water ditches. Snakes were everywhere. We had numerous dogs bit by snakes. Most of the time around the neck and head. It would swell up and take on fluid. Most of the time it wouldn't even slow them down.

Course come to think of it, we did have a few never come home. So....

I've read that snakes save their poison for catching dinner and most bites in self defense no poison is injected. That explains why most snake bite vitums recover so quickly and your dogs. I've never been bitten by a rattler and handled many when a teenager I helped a guy from the university collect them for milking then they were released. After the initial capture they would calm down. I think our body warmth them being cold blooded was kinda relaxing to them

 

[arizau]

I've got a couple of stupid snake questions..... Does anybody else bring their dog out to the desert with them to prospect? Its warm enough
out now that I'm concerned the pup I take with me might find one and get bit...

I talked to the nice lady down at the veterinarian office the other day... For the record, my vet is awesome, and the people that work for her. Dr. Craig, Solano Animal Clinic.

She said in all the years she has been there, they've only lost one to a snake bite... It was a dog that kept going after the rattler, it was bit through the eye, the nose,
the chest etc... Bit at least 9 times, and the dogs owner didn't bring it in until the next day.

They recommended "snake" training, which apparently you can do here...

This little dog.. She's a little defiant, possibly a little too big for her britches... When I have my head in a hole, and look up and don't see her, and call for her... She
knows I don't want her to come to me... She knows I'm just checking on her... And 99.99999% of the time she doesn't wander far from me... She just looks
at me "I'm right here you big dummy", problem is she blends in really well, and she's really quiet, and it takes a while to spot her. And when I call her, she
freezes, so I can't even pick up the movement, and she has no tail, so that thing isn't even wagging for me to see... (as a side thought.... Dogs with no tail,
you have to see their butt hole more, but they don't wipe everything off your coffee table, and they don't hit you in the nuts), when we first got her, took
a while to name her.. We eventually HAD to give her a name, she started coming to Stumpy.


Out there last week, standing by
my truck, at the open tailgate, couldn't find her... Calling her, calling her, calling her, looking looking looking... She was laying under the open tailgate, not more
than 18 inches from my feet.

The vet suggested an orange hunting vest for her, just so I can see her... And then adding some noise makers, maybe some bells, so I can hear where she is, and the
rattlers will get some advanced warning she is coming...

The little dummy cruising down the Gulch.. She just blends right into the background...

And to bring this back to the gold... A 90 degree turn to the left of where I snapped that pic.

And 20 feet to the left of that.

Second snake question... I've seen this guy twice, he lives under my house.. Southern New Mexico... 4 to 5 feet long... Pretty skinny for the length, not much
bigger around than a silver dollar.. Light tan, no markings. I can't figure out what it is... But if it doesn't have a diamond shaped head... As far as I'm concerned,
it can stay.. The Better half of me, (smarter half, better looking half) wants to call the snake sanctuary down the street... (and yes, I do have a snake sanctuary down
at the corner)... I think we should leave it alone.. Something is going to eat the field(desert) mice under the foundation, and this one doesn't have a diamond shaped head.

I would go with the snake training and a bell so you can hear her. A friend's dog was bit and it cost over $1500 for treatment and it had problems for the rest of it's life.

 

[bobinsd]

Bells won't help....snakes can"t hear.

 

[bfloyd4445]

Bells won't help....snakes can"t hear.

snakes do not have any external ears but they can hear very low frequency air born vibrations or sounds. Ground vibrations felt by the snakes body are sensed by the quadrate bone connecting upper and lower jaw which then connects to the middle ear and then to the snakes inner ear. So its impossible to walk up on a snake without it knowing your there unless it's asleep. The bell will make low frequency vibrations which may be sensed by the snake

 

[bobw53]

I would go with the snake training and a bell so you can hear her. A friend's dog was bit and it cost over $1500 for treatment and it had problems for the rest of it's life.

ONLY $1500 That's a drop in the bucket compared to the vet bills I've had over the past 3 or 4 years.. My BIG dog, my late BIG dog(Daisy Dog)... Cancer... We didn't know that at first, they thought
it was a ruptured spleen or something... That was a nice used truck for an overnight surgery... Giant tumor, they couldn't tell where it was coming from exactly, but it was all over her
kidney, adrenal gland, and wrapped around her aorta. It had ripped off its blood vessel and she was bleeding out internally. I was told she would be doing good to make it until tomorrow, lucky to
make the end of the week, and VERY lucky to make the end of the month...

18 months later... And $600 of Eastern Chinese herbs a month, she started peeing a lot, and drinking a LOT.. Blood work... Urine samples... A 2 hour ride to get to the best guy in
the area to do an ultrasound... Giant tumor on her liver... and a slightly enlarged adrenal gland.... 2 days after the ultra sound, she went down again... Tumor pulled off its blood vessel.
Another nice used truck and they took one lobe of her liver, and called me.... Tumor coming out of the adrenal gland, and a big bunch of golf ball size tumors on the other lobes of her liver.
Leave the little ones, don't touch the adrenal gland (apparently very risky) and sew her up. She lasted another 4 or 5 months... Then the same thing, as far as I could tell, bleeding out
internally, and we put her down...

The little dummy, her name isn't Stumpy, its actually Ginger... Her kidneys are not good... I can't have a normal dog.. I lost Daisy's sister to bad kidneys at only 3 years old... That fancy prescription
kidney food isn't free, and she gets some Chinese herbs also, which in the grand scheme of things are essentially free.

So "Only" $1500 for a dog feels almost like a bargain.

I think I figured out what is under my house a "western coach whip"... Up to and over 7 feet, very thin, and VERY fast... The 2 times I've seen him/her? been very very docile and slow...
I've got a lot of mice out there... I've got a lot of little cotton tails, and I have a lot of ground squirrels. The ground squirrels look kind of like a chipmunk, but they are tan... And they also
look a lot like a miniature prairie dog, and I think they are kind of fun to have around. My little lady doesn't want the snake, and honestly I don't either, but I don't think she realizes how
many mice are out there... Something else will just move in.. And it might be a bit more poisonous.

baby squirrels » A Cute A Day

I'd be a little happier with a King Snake
Desert kingsnake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Where I used to live, I had one just outside my fence, and how I figured that
out was a little scary.. I was taking a sunday afternoon siesta on the couch and the dogs started barking like crazy, I got up, without my glasses and all I saw was a GIANT snake in my yard..
I was thinking rattler, and it wasn't.. Found my glasses, the dogs where barking at it, and it just slowly wandered off through the hole in the fence.
I actually had a snake proof fence, the guy that lived there before me kept desert box turtles in the yard... But my land lord had cut a hole in it to drain his pool onto my lawn... It was a big
ass king snake... My landlord had foster kids and one of them came to my door one day with that snake... I damn near killed him... I don't do snakes, they freak me out... I liked having that
big guy cruising the OUTER perimeter of my yard... They apparently keep the rattlers away, and since that kid could go grab him anytime, they are very docile.

Desert box turtle I found in my driveway.

My landlord at the time had quite the herd of them.. They get run over, I brought them a few I found in the road. As long as they have a proper den for the winter, they are good to go.

I haven't seen a turtle in probably 5 years... The desert is weird with life... For years the jack rabbits weren't around at all, anywhere.... We had a while in there where there were no
roadrunners cruising around... The ground squirrels were few and far between until this year, and now they are everywhere... Same with the horny toads... Strange...

Quail on the other hand... They are the dumbest things out there... Apparently they reproduce really well... They are everywhere... And stupid... Pull in the driveway, stupid quail runs,
all freaked out for about 10 seconds, then stops and starts pecking at the ground again, totally forgetting there is a truck about to run it over..(rinse and repeat the entire length of the
driveway) They are everywhere, If worse comes to worse, I'll never starve as long as I can afford a few shot gun shells.

I'm not sure how hunting quail can even be considered hunting, they are so stupid you can almost walk over and
pick them up. The little ones are fun to watch though.

 

[Duckwalk]

i know it's not a snake but saw this momma wolf spider with her hundred or so babies on its back. That's a quarter beside her. If you zoom in you can see the little critters all gathered together on her. Talk about creepy!

 

[bobw53]

snakes do not have any external ears but they can hear very low frequency air born vibrations or sounds. Ground vibrations felt by the snakes body are sensed by the quadrate bone connecting upper and lower jaw which then connects to the middle ear and then to the snakes inner ear. So its impossible to walk up on a snake without it knowing your there unless it's asleep. The bell will make low frequency vibrations which may be sensed by the snake

So, tiny bells that create a high frequency tone probably wouldn't help as much as a larger bell that creates a lower frequency tone...How about little doggy tap dance boots that create a low frequency vibration through
the ground?

What type of frequency range are we talking about? Off the top of my head a human can hear 20 hertz to 20k. Would blasting the pipe organ song from the Phantom of the Opera get all the snakes to go and hide?

 

[bobw53]

View attachment 1172850i know it's not a snake but saw this momma wolf spider with her hundred or so babies on its back. That's a quarter beside her. If you zoom in you can see the little critters all gathered together on her. Talk about creepy!

Aren't those the really aggressive ones? I had a grey one here in the shop a few years ago.. Not tarantula size, but good size, grey and fuzzy... He stood up to me.. And he jumped, about 3 feet in the air...
And stood up to me.. And jumped.... rinse and repeat... And then I stepped on him...

Tarantula pic.. I didn't realize they could stick to walls and ceilings... He had been hanging out in the office for about a day.. So I was sitting here typing and he literally walked across my fingers... And then
I got this picture... as he went out the door, and yes, my desk is a mess. I usually just pick them up with a dust pan and put them outside, same with the vinegaroons(whip tail scorpions)

.

 

[Duckwalk]

No idea about aggression but I know my dog wouldn't leave it alone and she didn't seem to anxious to leave. Although o feel bad, I did kill it. I don't take killing things lightly. I have kids who play in the same yard it lives it. It's not poisonous, but a bite is a bite. Love my kids more than spiders. I grew up hunting and was told that you eat what you kill. Not going to do so in this case.

 

[Alamosmoon]

. Here was our latest visitor. We get quite a few of them around here.

 

[bfloyd4445]

ONLY $1500 That's a drop in the bucket compared to the vet bills I've had over the past 3 or 4 years.. My BIG dog, my late BIG dog(Daisy Dog)... Cancer... We didn't know that at first, they thought
it was a ruptured spleen or something... That was a nice used truck for an overnight surgery... Giant tumor, they couldn't tell where it was coming from exactly, but it was all over her
kidney, adrenal gland, and wrapped around her aorta. It had ripped off its blood vessel and she was bleeding out internally. I was told she would be doing good to make it until tomorrow, lucky to
make the end of the week, and VERY lucky to make the end of the month...

18 months later... And $600 of Eastern Chinese herbs a month, she started peeing a lot, and drinking a LOT.. Blood work... Urine samples... A 2 hour ride to get to the best guy in
the area to do an ultrasound... Giant tumor on her liver... and a slightly enlarged adrenal gland.... 2 days after the ultra sound, she went down again... Tumor pulled off its blood vessel.
Another nice used truck and they took one lobe of her liver, and called me.... Tumor coming out of the adrenal gland, and a big bunch of golf ball size tumors on the other lobes of her liver.
Leave the little ones, don't touch the adrenal gland (apparently very risky) and sew her up. She lasted another 4 or 5 months... Then the same thing, as far as I could tell, bleeding out
internally, and we put her down...

The little dummy, her name isn't Stumpy, its actually Ginger... Her kidneys are not good... I can't have a normal dog.. I lost Daisy's sister to bad kidneys at only 3 years old... That fancy prescription
kidney food isn't free, and she gets some Chinese herbs also, which in the grand scheme of things are essentially free.

So "Only" $1500 for a dog feels almost like a bargain.

I think I figured out what is under my house a "western coach whip"... Up to and over 7 feet, very thin, and VERY fast... The 2 times I've seen him/her? been very very docile and slow...
I've got a lot of mice out there... I've got a lot of little cotton tails, and I have a lot of ground squirrels. The ground squirrels look kind of like a chipmunk, but they are tan... And they also
look a lot like a miniature prairie dog, and I think they are kind of fun to have around. My little lady doesn't want the snake, and honestly I don't either, but I don't think she realizes how
many mice are out there... Something else will just move in.. And it might be a bit more poisonous.

baby squirrels » A Cute A Day

I'd be a little happier with a King Snake
Desert kingsnake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Where I used to live, I had one just outside my fence, and how I figured that
out was a little scary.. I was taking a sunday afternoon siesta on the couch and the dogs started barking like crazy, I got up, without my glasses and all I saw was a GIANT snake in my yard..
I was thinking rattler, and it wasn't.. Found my glasses, the dogs where barking at it, and it just slowly wandered off through the hole in the fence.
I actually had a snake proof fence, the guy that lived there before me kept desert box turtles in the yard... But my land lord had cut a hole in it to drain his pool onto my lawn... It was a big
ass king snake... My landlord had foster kids and one of them came to my door one day with that snake... I damn near killed him... I don't do snakes, they freak me out... I liked having that
big guy cruising the OUTER perimeter of my yard... They apparently keep the rattlers away, and since that kid could go grab him anytime, they are very docile.

Desert box turtle I found in my driveway.

My landlord at the time had quite the herd of them.. They get run over, I brought them a few I found in the road. As long as they have a proper den for the winter, they are good to go.

I haven't seen a turtle in probably 5 years... The desert is weird with life... For years the jack rabbits weren't around at all, anywhere.... We had a while in there where there were no
roadrunners cruising around... The ground squirrels were few and far between until this year, and now they are everywhere... Same with the horny toads... Strange...

Quail on the other hand... They are the dumbest things out there... Apparently they reproduce really well... They are everywhere... And stupid... Pull in the driveway, stupid quail runs,
all freaked out for about 10 seconds, then stops and starts pecking at the ground again, totally forgetting there is a truck about to run it over..(rinse and repeat the entire length of the
driveway) They are everywhere, If worse comes to worse, I'll never starve as long as I can afford a few shot gun shells.

I'm not sure how hunting quail can even be considered hunting, they are so stupid you can almost walk over and
pick them up. The little ones are fun to watch though.

you saw the turtles because of developement and you don't see them anymore because they have all been killed off. The same thing happened to me years ago so my comment is from personnal experiance.

 

[bfloyd4445]

. Here was our latest visitor. We get quite a few of them around here.

a scarlet king snake how neat

 

[bobw53]

you saw the turtles because of developement and you don't see them anymore because they have all been killed off. The same thing happened to me years ago so my comment is from personnal experiance.

That's a bummer...

 

[bfloyd4445]

That's a bummer...

Yep. I loved the zoo not far away and there were lots of these turtles at the zoo. I asked the zoo keeper about them and he said people brought them in so he put them in the turtle pen. The zoo is still there but no turtles anymore. The area is developed now. I don't think those land turtles were ever even identified. I am 68 and this was back when i was maybe 10. We had a couple of them wander into the yard back then as the area was developed and we kept one for several years then he/she died. Currently the Western Pond turtle is on the verge of extinction but because he lives in water he has survived were as the land turtle mentioned above didn't.

Very very sad