Afraid of snakes ???

I hope I don't dream about all these snakes. I don't care what they are, I like to keep my distance. I'm afraid of all of them.
 
Well, I think from my posts on the other thread my position regarding snakes is clear..the only good snake is a dead snake..Living on a creek in the south and dealing with cottonmouths and copperheads, not to mention rattlers living amongst the rocky outcroppings causes me to shoot first and ask questions later. Although there have been some obvious black rat snakes that have escaped my vengeance, only due to Mr. O's insistence. I know, I know they eat the poisonous ones, but I can't get past the fear factor of snakes in general.

That Guy..thanks for posting that amazing vid..aside from the debate on whether it is a snake or eel, I wonder what kind of bird that is...awesome!
 

That Guy said:
sea+eagle+vs+snake.gif
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Looks a lot like ones I've seen around here, but my eyesight's not good enough to swear to it.

The White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster), also known as the White-breasted Sea Eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related to Sanford's Sea Eagle of the Solomon Islands, and the two are considered a superspecies. A distinctive bird, the adult White-bellied Sea Eagle has a white head, breast, under-wing coverts and tail. The upper parts are grey and the black under-wing flight feathers contrast with the white coverts. The tail is short and wedge-shaped as in all Haliaeetus species. Like many raptors, the female is slightly larger than the male, and can measure up to 90 cm (36 in) long with a wingspan of up to 2.2 m (7 ft), and weigh 4.5 kg (10 lb).
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-bellied_Sea_Eagle
White bellied Sea Eagle

 
Phantom said:
Most deadly of all ...........Trouser Snake
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Phantom, as I've posted before I am totally fascinated by exotic snakes and read anything that pertains to them. This was definitely my new thing to learn for the day, as I had never heard of them. But in reading everything written on them via the links, I didn't see anything about them being deadly or harmful in anyway. Am I missing something? Thx for the update, I enjoyed the articles.

When I first saw your post, "Trouser Snake," I thought it perhaps referred to a venomous one taking refuge in a pair of pants. Ha!
 
A reminder to OZ that these are on the trot, bigtime, this year.


Eastern Browns - 'responsible for 60% of all snake bite fatalities in Australia.'

Heard there's been 6 bitten by them so far this season, one fatality, a woman who was bitten in her garden near Newcastle. Paramedics thought she'd had a stroke so antivenene was adminstered too late, and only after she had been admitted to hospital and a nurse noticed fang marks on her ankle.

According to a guru on the radio they're in unprecedented numbers in populated urban areas due to dry conditions forcing them to seek water.
It was mentioned that a friend of the radio host had been bitten on the ankle 3 times by a Carpet snake! I may need to get out more but I've never heard of one biting anyone, just striking and leaving a bruise, or doing it's level best to strangle you. They're non venomous but carry bacteria so she had to have tetanus shots and antibiotics. Seems they're all a bit aggro this year.

Just check that there's only frogs in the dog's water bowl folks.
 
Jillaroo said:
One reason i am not cleaning out my shed Di for fear there is one in there, i will wait until someone can be there with me

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Oh my gosh, Jill, I wouldn't go inside the shed by myself for any amount of $$. I can say I'm fascinated by them because I don't have to deal with them as you all do, and the majority of ours are non-poisonous. But it would spook the hell outta me to think there was one of any kind hanging around, and I know there are. But not being remotely outdoorsy it's not anything I ever worry about. I've never seen one in my life outside captivity if that tells you anything. I know Oz is loaded with 'em, and I'm thinking you just stay on guard and learn to mutually coexist.
 
I am very nervous about going in there , and who knows there probably isn't one in there, a couple of months back i had some rats in there and they have made such a mess, they have chewed through bottles of fertilisers and god knows what else, there is rat poo everywhere, if i could disinfect all of the things in there i would as they are such dirty things, i had some Rat bait in there and they have eaten all of it so they aren't in there anymore but the snakes would have been interested in them
 
I sympathize with all you Aussies that are dealing with snakes. I am lilly livered when it comes to snakes and my mantra is the only good snake is a dead snake. We have 7 varieties of poisonous ones here in the Ozarks, but the most prevelant are water moccasins, copperheads and rattlers. Being on the creek, spring is when we see most of the cottonmouths (aka Water Moccasins).

Having a bunch of cats has definitely put a damper on their style, with no rats to eat because of the cats the snakes aren't interested. In addition we keep everything cut very short and no piles of junk laying around, except for our woodpile. Believe me I am careful about that, but again, the cats prowl it so haven't seen anything there yet.

Jilly, my brother and I recently cleaned out our shed and believe me I was ever on the ready when ever I moved anything. I was very surprised there were no signs of rats or snakes, just the evidence of a coon that tried to make a bed in the pump housing amid the insulation. I thought about putting sticky glue traps out just in case, but then they would be smelling and I would have to deal with that.

I know Australia has some highly venomous snakes that are lethal. Please be very careful, they see you long before you see them.
 
Remember when my son and I were looking at a block of land in Armidale, NSW, Australia. It was a five acre paddock. Decided to walk the perimeters, just to see where it went. Suddenly my son pushed me behind him - there was a brown snake sitting up in the strike position! I asked him later if that was the best idea. If the snake had struck, he could possibly have carried me out, but here way no way I could have carried him out! We/he didn't buy that block of land.
 
They go with the territory, just something to keep in mind but not let their presence rule your life. Like traffic. That's more likely to kill you than snakes but we learn how to avoid it.
Just as you wouldn't go out in a blizzard without gloves on, or cross a road without looking for vehicles, you wouldn't stick your hand into things here that snakes could be in.

Many in OZ have never seen one in the wild either, the problem now is that they are protected by law which has led to them being able to spread into more urbanised areas where people aren't raised with the thought of them being around.

Not to say the bit of paper protects them from anyone with a sharp spade if they appear at the back door, but it has stopped people hunting for them and clearing them out of areas as they used to.

Same thing is happening with crocodiles. They're breeding up in numbers and spreading into urban areas more too since they were 'protected'. Big ones were culled in the past and the odd smallish one might appear in a Darwin garden but now 15 footers are strolling about in suburbia in the tropics. Lemme think, snakes or crocs? I'll settle for the snakes I think.

Learned something interesting the other day. Australia is the only place were there are far more venomous snake species than harmless ones. So how did that happen I wonder?
 
Diwundrin said:
They go with the territory, just something to keep in mind but not let their presence rule your life. Like traffic. That's more likely to kill you than snakes but we learn how to avoid it.
Just as you wouldn't go out in a blizzard without gloves on, or cross a road without looking for vehicles, you wouldn't stick your hand into things here that snakes could be in.

Many in OZ have never seen one in the wild either, the problem now is that they are protected by law which has led to them being able to spread into more urbanised areas where people aren't raised with the thought of them being around.

Not to say the bit of paper protects them from anyone with a sharp spade if they appear at the back door, but it has stopped people hunting for them and clearing them out of areas as they used to.

Same thing is happening with crocodiles. They're breeding up in numbers and spreading into urban areas more too since they were 'protected'. Big ones were culled in the past and the odd smallish one might appear in a Darwin garden but now 15 footers are strolling about in suburbia in the tropics. Lemme think, snakes or crocs? I'll settle for the snakes I think.

Learned something interesting the other day. Australia is the only place were there are far more venomous snake species than harmless ones. So how did that happen I wonder?
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I wasn't going to say it, but being a huge ANIMAL PLANET fan I knew Oz had the majority of venomous species. The good thing is you don't have to interact w/them on a regular basis. Poor India where the rice fields = major livelihood and the cobras...sad situation. Ongoing worry worldwide is cranking the auto & interacting with other wild & crazy drivers.
 
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Katybug said:
Phantom, as I've posted before I am totally fascinated by exotic snakes and read anything that pertains to them. This was definitely my new thing to learn for the day, as I had never heard of them. But in reading everything written on them via the links, I didn't see anything about them being deadly or harmful in anyway. Am I missing something? Thx for the update, I enjoyed the articles.

When I first saw your post, "Trouser Snake," I thought it perhaps referred to a venomous one taking refuge in a pair of pants. Ha!
Click to expand...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49MOcTv3Wgs
 
Shame on you, Phantom. As if trying to cope with Dame Edna isn't hard enough for our American cousins, you have to inflict them with her lout of a nephew, Barry McKenzie.

 
Well, people can make light of it, but just think about this: What if you saw a huge over five foot snake on your kitchen table? Would you be laughing? Would you just say, "Oh well, it is just a harmless snake, and I have nothing to worry about." I had that happen to me, this past summer. The thing was a huge black snake. And, it did not kill the mice around my home. It scared the hell out of me. It got up from my crawl space, because I had two holes in my floor, behind water heater I did not know about. Holes have been sealed. I also covered all of the vents to my crawl space. I called animal control and they took the thing out. Anyway, when any of you think something like this is funny, think about a huge snake crawling up on your bed when you are asleep. Not so funny now, is it?
 

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