I killed a baby cottonmouth this morning.

As I was starting out on my morning walk, I saw a little 4"-5" snake in the grass next to the driveway. I put the end of one of my walking sticks next to it to move the grass for a better look and the little bastard struck at the stick.

I thought if this kid is so agressive now, what's he gonna be like full grown? I mashed him.
Now I have to keep an eye out for mom & dad, brothers & sisters.
:-(

Disclaimer: I have a deal with poisonous snakes. If they stay off the property, I leave 'em alone.
Non-poisonous ones I don't bother.

Once you're in the house spider, mouse, ant, etc, you're fair game. Otherwise, I will totally leave you alone.

I can't even go into the snake house in the zoo.

:(

Happily, there aren't many of either in Chicago. :)

It was very cool and satiny smooth to the touch. (It was a pet snake on display at a public event at a local park.)

Some people (mostly older women) saw it and, from a distance of 20 feet from the snake, began screaming and crying hysterically. :eyes: They probably scared the snake.

:scared:

Poor snake probably got its feelings hurt too.

But if they could, I'm sure he would have been chuckling.

it was swimming straight for our terrified 4 y/o neighbor girl, who had her mouth open, and it damn near swam in there.

Hubs picked her up & out...i of course got stuck catching & disposing of said snake (flung it over the fence toward the bayou).

oy

Pool cleaner over in the Florida panhandle almost lost his thumb when he picked up what he thought was a dead baby moc.

no shovel-shaped head...could it have been a moc?

Characteristic of most North American poisonous snakes (pit vipers) except coral snakes.

Here's a harmless black racer


Here's a juvenile cottonmouth.
You can see the triangular or spade shaped head.

before.

euw.

Thank you sooooo much for the info!

Babies don't know how to control the flow of venom in a bite.

(My office is in an old house with a yard.) He or she is a black rat snake about 4.5 feet long. We've had no mouse problems at all since it took up residence in the crawl space. :)

We just had a thunderstorm and it zoomed back under the crawlspace via the hole where the HVAC line goes through the foundation wall. It's a nice snake. I keep a shallow basin of water out for it (and the birds, squirrels and chimpmunks) and it lays in there and chills out. We had baby rat snakes a few yers ago. Maybe this one is one of those babies.

I just know they're black and fast as hell.
They're also cannibalistic.

I once found one eating my pet duck's eggs when she left her nest. I leaned down to check on the eggs and came face to face with a snake eating an egg. :scared: That really startled me!

:-(

The guy who cuts my grass just came by as I was pulling in ... he mowed today and I missed him earlier.

But he told me that an old flower bed, which I admit I don't pay much attention to, is a copperhead haven with at least two of them, so there are probably babies around too. Yuck!

How do I get rid of them? ???

I don't want to be in my yard, or any family members be here and get bit this summer.

I read online that the fumes paralyze their lungs, but it may take a while.
Maybe it would act as a repellent.
Works pretty well to keep roaches and spiders out of our little well pump house.

That at least gives me something to go on. I've never had this problem before. :P

(Of course I would have done the same thing...:shrug: )

:hi:

She was turning her mulch pile and found it resting in there. She was glad she had her spading fork.

We were visiting the people who sold us our dog. Their place was surrounded by a corn field. I was ruffling my way through the corn when I heard the distinct sound of a rattler. I looked down and saw the tail rattling away. Now mind you, I have never heard of rattle snakes and was never warned about them, yet my natural instincts told me to turn and run,and I did.

I just got my first set of hearing aids when this happened. A body aid. If I haven't been wearing this I probably would have kept on going and got bit by the rattle snake because I would have never heard him.

about 20 baby cotton mouths, they tend to get in our lawn, and i see them while mowing, and run over them, plus when i go on my 3.5 mile walk every day, i see them crossing the road as well...we have to keep our lawn super short, if i let the lawn go for more than 7 days, they come a crawling...its all a new lifestyle for me, im from SE Alaska, and i never had to deal with snakes.

I do let the non-poisonous ones live, grass snakes, ring snakes, and Black/king snakes...but the poisionous ones, get no pass if they are in my yard, or if i come across them in the middle of the road...sorry, if that seems cruel...

I heard they are so small that the poison is actually pretty concentrated in them. I assume they can still do some damage even when they are small.

thats what the info i pulled online says, and what my wife, and inlaws say, so i take no chances when they are that close. I also have had to deal with water mochasins as well, now those things, in my three experiences, are drawn towards you, while you are in the water swimming and making noise, and seem to me, to be a LOT more aggresive than any other snake i have seen to date. When we go to the swimming holes, i bring my 12 gauge with me, and i have had to use it three times...

I would just stay the hell away from the swimming holes. :)

My youngest brother was bit by a rattlesnake when he was little. We were swimming in a river and either myself or one of my other brothers was holding him at the time. I just remember he was crying and we kept passing him back and forth to see if he'd stop. Finally we just quit swimming and brought him up to our parents. That night he got deathly ill and we had to take him to the hospital the next morning. He was in the hospital for weeks. It turns out he was bit by a rattlesnake while we were in the water, but none of us knew it. Lucky nobody else got it either. :)

i'm from alaska bud, i need the creeks/swimming holes to survive the summers...:) Its not that bad, i have been to the swimming holes...hmm, over a couple hundred times, and only 3 incidents...not a bad ratio...:) Damn, good story, at least no body was fatally hurt...:)

but then again, I hit my apartment complex pool all the time. No snakes in there. :)

We do have rattlers around these parts... maybe I should watch out.

3 incidents isn't too bad. Could be worse, I suppose.

Yeah, he used to go hunt snakes when he got in high school. Revenge, haha.

man, anything over 80 degree's and i'm out of it...basically. Meaning, if i am working, or doing any heavy lifting, I get wiped out rather fast...i wish i had a pool. My wife bought one of them cheapo inflated pools last summer, its okay...thing gets dirty awfully fast...

I nearly die. I barely leave the house in the summers. It's rough. Hell, it's practically shorts weather back home when it hits freezing, haha. If it dips below 70 here people start freaking out. :)

They are a breed, thought harmless, that is very aggressive and will attack. People often mistake for them for Water Moccasins, assuming that if a snake is that aggressive, it must be poisonous. The two things don't necessarily go hand in hand.

but my father/mother in law, and my wife all said it was water mochassins. I'm not all knowlegable about this, so i tend to put a bit more faith in people who have lived in this area their whole life...:)

to keep snakes away from houses (mansions, really) in snake country?

Good to let the King Snakes live. They will eat the poisonous ones, I believe.

my buddy Tom, and my inlaws all told me that king snakes eat other snakes, so the black/king snakes get a pass from me. When my mother in law starts raising chickens though, its going to be a different story...

your profile,

I get that a lot...:) People often wonder why i'm talking about the midwest all the time, and ask "If your in Missouri, why the AK avatar?" I get it a bunch...:toast:

:)

This was killed recently in west TN:scared:

Pretty rough looking customer. (the snake I mean) :)

eom

In South Carolina. :scared:

It was amazing to watch. I couldn't call them off the kill. Four pups harassed the snake, Dad grabbed the tail and Mom grabbed the neck, they snapped it in half. It took less than 3 seconds. The snake was 4-5 feet long.

Well, actually, for stomping it to death...

in sneakers...

at age 7...

still had the fangs stuck to the bottom of the sneaker....

:hide:

You done good!

:applause:

I love that story.

It's a miracle I'm still here.

You may enjoy some others in my journal, under "How the Hell did YOU Survive Childhood?"

:hi:

It's a rubber snake that I got from Pet City.....it's looks soooooo real!!! I put it in a picnic cooler with a strong string connecting the head with the lid. When people opened the lid it looked like a snake was coming up to get ya!!!!!! I had to retire it because my Grandfather scared an old lady with it and she was crying and such. But, I just broke it out again, I am gonna have fun with it!!! Just don't do it to old ladies...LOL

"Mac," sez he, "I just killed a copperhead in the woodpile. You didn't tell me there were copperheads up here!"

"Bob," sez I, "Not only did I tell you about the copperheads around the woodpile, but I also showed you the hoe that I left there for you to pull logs off the pile and kill copperheads with. Remember?"

"Well," Bob sez, "I did break the hoe killing that copperhead."

:rofl:

and territorial. I've been in a boat where they've come from shore and bumped against the hull trying to get in. I've got a harmless water snake in a creek behind my apartment and I leave him alone. If he was a cottonmouth, I'd search him out with a machete because we have kids and household pets around here.

Just had to add that, but that is our rule with most things too.

Some browns are kill on sight, and if you ever see a Western Taipan, then it does not matter where it is or what size it is you get the fuck out of there and call the experts. They are also the worlds most toxic snake. Co-incidence?

Like fierce snakes and brown snakes. I used to watch Steve Irwin sometimes. :)

but among them the western Taipan takes the cake by a LONG way.

Browns, I mentioned, were sometimes kill on sight, but now I remember the other one: Black snakes are better to just chase away. Why? They kill browns. BUT THEY ARE STILL FUCKING HUGE AND SCARY AND POISONOUS.

I hate poisonous snakes, centipedes, etc. They must die.


Sorry, ecosystem...

They are something to behold. They get the name cottonmouth because when they prepare to strike they open their jaws wide, exposing the puffy white lining of their mouths. Like has been said before they are VERY aggressive. I have had them come after my boat in the pond.

This and that from here and there.

Average Size - 30 - 48 inches. Individuals can reach 6 feet

Appearance:
Very heavy bodied, stout. Head is wider than body. Distinct crossband pattern of young fades as snake ages and the bands can be difficult to see in adult snakes.


The Cottonmouth/Water Moccasin is the only poisonous water snake in North America.

If confronted, the Cottonmouth will stand its ground and "gape" (open its mouth), revealing the cotton white mouth. While swimming, the cottonmouth's entire body floats and the head is held out of the water. As other water snakes swim, the body does not float and the head barely breaks the water's surface.

The venom of the cottonmouth is hemotoxic. This means that the venom breaks down and destroys blood cells and other tissues and reduces the ability of blood to coagulate or clot. Therefore, this results in a hemorrhage throughout any portion of the circulatory system that is penetrated by poison.

In the wilderness that is Texas (many years ago)

I took a shovel and cut his head off.


I am now looking at republicans
just kidding
but No Child left behind? right?

The coral snake, is what we killed

the snake itself
is what some of you Christians and Jews
say is what gave us sin? Right?
Knowledge?

I don't know I am just Naked
in my ignorance.

If ignorance is bless
I am blistered.


thank you for the lounge