Afraid of snakes ???

Poor Red Ribbons..I can see where you would be absolutely traumatized by a snake in your house. There are seven poisonous species in Arkansas, and believe me I am ever on the lookout. If I had one in the house I would have to leave and throw a match in the door on the way out, I ain't going back in!
 

Ozarkgal said:
Poor Red Ribbons..I can see where you would be absolutely traumatized by a snake in your house. There are seven poisonous species in Arkansas, and believe me I am ever on the lookout. If I had one in the house I would have to leave and throw a match in the door on the way out, I ain't going back in!
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No need to feel sympathy for me. If I ever see any kind of snake in my house again, I will chop up that disgusting thing. I believe most normal people would be "traumatized" in seeing a snake in their house.
 
I remember hearing of a place they called 'the snake house', because the owners kept finding snakes in their basement, and couldn't locate where they were getting in; they ended up moving because of it. These were just garden snakes, as there were no poisonous ones in that area, but nevertheless, I wouldn't stay in a house with any kind of snake.
We have a crawlspace here, but hubby screened off the vents as mice were getting in, and of course I figured snakes would follow. Yikes. So far, no more mice or snakes, but plenty of spiders....don't like them, either...some of them are poisonous. :eek:
 

I can see where that would be somewhat upsetting Redribbons. I had a green tree snake in here, it was harmless but what upset me was that I never did find the damned thing after it went under the furniture. I guess it got out but I would have liked to have seen it leave at least. If it had been a top ten fanger I'd have called someone in to find it but they don't bother coming for harmless ones.

We joke about snakes but still pay them due respect, most rural people have snake stories, they're just a fact of life to be aware of.
It wouldn't be a great life to be overly scared of them around here that's for sure, we wouldn't get any sleep.
 
Concerning any types of snakes or other wild creature: I do not go into their territory. This is My territory, and if anything invades my home and my space, they will die. Quiet simply really. Fact of life or not, they have no business in my home.
 
My friends bought a 1950's house at the begining of the year. When stripping old carpet, we found a dead and dried snake near front door.
 
RedRibbons said:
No need to feel sympathy for me. If I ever see any kind of snake in my house again, I will chop up that disgusting thing. I believe most normal people would be "traumatized" in seeing a snake in their house.
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My daughter who lives in Charlotte and a dear friend in S. FL have both experienced non-poisonous ones in the home. Neither one would take their eyes from it for fear it would go where they couldn't see. Scared to death, but grabbed their cells & hung in there 'til help came. NOT ME, I would've been outta there in a flash, but I wouldn't have been able to go back 'til I knew it was dead, and even then w/nightmares forever! Their brave way makes far more sense if you can pull it off.
 
I believe most normal people would be "traumatized" in seeing a snake in their house.
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'Normal' people may be traumatized slightly but turning into serpicidal maniacs seems a tad OTT. Here's a point to ponder.

The vast majority of snake bites are incurred by people trying to kill them. Next comes accidental contact. They don't hunt people, people hunt them. Any 'normal' person would expect them to defend themselves.
The trick to avoiding appearing on the casualty list is to not engage them at all. Just stand aside and let them pass, or call in someone who knows how to handle them to remove them. Going 'chainsaw' on them is the worst possible option.
 
Last time I was I was up close and personal with a pit viper, I tried to photograph a rattler. I was in a camera club and monthly contest were the order of the day. I wanted to photograph a snake striking with the wall of the canyon in the background. I got a picture of one striking but there was no canyon. I caught his head, eyes, and fangs, with one drop of venom on one fang, sharp and clear but the photo faded into oblivion on the snakes neck and body, no canyon, no background. A slight blur on one eye. You could tell he was striking. It is however a two man job. I was just lucky I didn't get bit.
 
drifter said:
Ozarkgal, what are the seven species of poisonous snakes in ArKansas, pray tell?
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Copperheads, Cottonmouth aka Water Moccasin, which really count as one, Western Diamondback Rattler, Timber Rattler, Western Pygmy Rattler, and Texas Coral Snake, so really six in all.

There is also a multitude of non-venomous species, some which closely mimic the venomous ones in coloring and pattern. Almost impossible to tell the difference unless you get very close up and personal and have the where with all to determine if they have triangle shaped or rounded heads, round pupils or slits, viper holes above the nose holes in the head, etc...and in the case of Coral snakes, can remember the old adage: Red touches yellow, kills a fellow!

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The color pattern on a coral snake is a red touching yellow pattern with black between the red touching yellow band. On snakes that mimic Corals there is a black band separating the red and yellow bands.

Coral Snake Milk Snake
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From this example you can see what I mean by getting close up and personal to tell the difference.
 
Diwundrin said:
'Normal' people may be traumatized slightly but turning into serpicidal maniacs seems a tad OTT. Here's a point to ponder.

The vast majority of snake bites are incurred by people trying to kill them. Next comes accidental contact. They don't hunt people, people hunt them. Any 'normal' person would expect them to defend themselves.
The trick to avoiding appearing on the casualty list is to not engage them at all. Just stand aside and let them pass, or call in someone who knows how to handle them to remove them. Going 'chainsaw' on them is the worst possible option.
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Di, mostly agree with your assessment of why people get bitten. Most snakes that we have will go out of their way to avoid contact if possible. They see you way before you see them, and they are usually in retreat mode if you do see them. The only exception to that in this neck of the woods is the Cottonmouth/Water Moccasin. They are a very nasty, aggressive snake, and will actually come after you. They're so mean they'll bite themselves if they can't get you! Living on the creek as we do we have this species very close, and they are actively hunted in the spring as they make their way down the banks, or across the creek, not with a chainsaw, but a 22 LR at 25 feet.... sorry.

I am definitely OTT when it comes to snakes. Having the sheer number of different venomous species in this area makes me cautious to the extreme of where I am putting my hands and feet, and constantly watching the Gangstas for too much sustained interest in a certain spot on the ground. Winter is a relief to me where snakes are concerned.

Just typing this is giving me the creeps.
 
Ouch those Cottonmouth snakes sound nasty, our brown & the tiger can be aggressive but mainly when you are in their territory and you corner them, i certainly wouldn't enjoy living in your home in the spring/summer, i will visit in the fall lol.
I am absolutely terrified of snakes and can't work out why i have this fear , i have come across them on the farm but they haven't attacked me, if you could have seen me killing a baby brown years ago you would have laughed your head off, he had a broken back due to the cat and he was only 30cms long the length of a ruler for heavens sake and i ended up shaking my head off after chopping him into a million pieces {real sook}
 
I was wondering how big a problem venomous snakes are in the USA and I found these accounts of fatalities over time, and a brief account of how they came about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_snake_bites_in_the_United_States#2010s

A fair proportion of the fatalities occurred during religious rituals involving venomous snakes.
Di is right. Leave them alone and for the most part they will do the same for you.
I'm calling over reaction and exaggeration.
 
Katybug said:
My daughter who lives in Charlotte and a dear friend in S. FL have both experienced non-poisonous ones in the home. Neither one would take their eyes from it for fear it would go where they couldn't see. Scared to death, but grabbed their cells & hung in there 'til help came. NOT ME, I would've been outta there in a flash, but I wouldn't have been able to go back 'til I knew it was dead, and even then w/nightmares forever! Their brave way makes far more sense if you can pull it off.
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Katy, I read that happened to a lot of people in Charlotte, this past summer, because it rained almost every day in June. And, the things were coming in houses to seek shelter. They were brave to keep watching it. I can't do that, they creep me out too much.

Do any of you know the answer to this? Is it possible that one could come into your house, animal control couldn't find it, but then two years later the same one is still in your house?
 
Not a snake story but I did have a blue tongue lizard (think fat, foot long skink) disappear in a pickup for several weeks.
Apparently it finished its hibernation under the seat in the springs and popped out to sun itself on the drivers seat when Spring came along. It caused quite a stir when it hissed loudly at the owner of the pickup.

Note - blue tongues are all bluff. They are totally harmless but some people are scared of them.
 
Gracious, Ms Ozark. I didn't realize any pygmy's were in your area. But there's much i don't know.
 
Not sure it they're still there, but I think Max has a couple of freeloader carpet snakes(pythons) that have been living in his roof for years.
Many country homes had them as 'guests' if not in the house roof, or under the floorboards, then at least in the sheds and dairies. I'd rather hear a carpet snake scraping across the ceiling than rats cavorting and bouncing about on it. The smell of a shed snake skin thrown up into the roof space was enough to keep rodents out in most cases. Cheaper than rat bait and no bodies to dispose of.

Too many people have a view of snakes as something demonic, they aren't, they're just animals evolved for a particular niche, some are dangerous, some aren't. We don't have to like them but we don't have to go postal every time we see or think about one either.
No one would blink at a cat that lived in the roof to keep rodents down would they? Are cats 'creepy'?

(Well, yes they are really, but you get what I mean.)

An uncle was delighted to see a Blue Tongue one day when he was squatting on his haunches fixing some farm machinery and dropped a screw between his legs, reached down to pick it up and was about to grab about 4 inches of striped tail inches under his valuable bits. He couldn't tell if it was a Blue Tongue or a Tiger snake in the shadows but that silly big flat triangle head finally appeared in the open and he said he was so pleased he grabbed it and gave it a cuddle. Bet the Bluey was wondering about that for a while.

We had a BT in our yard in Sydney for years. We never saw it until just before we left there, but we had seen the midden of snail shells he'd built up and heard his 'clunking' mating calls now and then so we knew he was there. There must have been plenty of others around too as we could hear the 'clunks' getting closer together. Talk about reptile erotica.

We only saw him after a memorable 5 weeks of almost continuous rain in Sydney and he finally gave up and came up to the back porch to dry out. It was huge, well over a foot long, and fat as, so I can't imagine how we never saw him before. But then it was a pretty well vegetated yard by normal standards.
 
Too many people have a view of snakes as something demonic, they aren't, they're just animals evolved for a particular niche, some are dangerous, some aren't. We don't have to like them but we don't have to go postal every time we see or think about one either.
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It is in the human DNA to be afraid of snakes. And, I have to ask myself why any human would not be disgusted, and afraid of them. But, that is just me. Again, I ask, why would any normal human not be afraid of them? Creepy, slimy creatures. Ask yourself, if you woke up and found one of these creatures on your bed, what would you do? Would you lovingly pick it up, and gently lay it outside, or would you be terrified?
 
Red Ribbons, there are actually two kinds of people in the world - those that are panicked at the sight of a snake and those that are fascinated. I'm one of the latter, although I keep my distance and don't take any liberties.

As a child I dispelled the demons of the dark by imagining that my pet python was coiled up on my eiderdown and that he would protect me against all malevolence. It worked. I got over being afraid of the dark thanks to my imaginary pet.
 
RedRibbons said:
Too many people have a view of snakes as something demonic, they aren't, they're just animals evolved for a particular niche, some are dangerous, some aren't. We don't have to like them but we don't have to go postal every time we see or think about one either.
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It is in the human DNA to be afraid of snakes. And, I have to ask myself why any human would not be disgusted, and afraid of them. But, that is just me. Again, I ask, why would any normal human not be afraid of them? Creepy, slimy creatures. Ask yourself, if you woke up and found one of these creatures on your bed, what would you do? Would you lovingly pick it up, and gently lay it outside, or would you be terrified?
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Of course the natural reaction would be to flinch but keeping still until you work out what it is is the better option, we're not really talking about that scenario anyway, it's the people who are revolted by as little as a photo of one that intrigues me.

You have very obviously never touched a snake. They are not cold. They are definitely NOT slimy, unless you've picked it up in a swamp.
They are exactly the same as lizards, warm, doughy and smooth or rough according to their hides. It's just their mouths that make the difference. Some lizards are venomous too you know, and many are infectious if they break the skin.

You are making judgements of people's behaviour about an animal you seem to know very little about. I know I wouldn't keep one as a pet, and I pay them an awful lot of respect, but other than the atavistic initial reaction to finding one unexpectedly I don't treat them differently than I would treat a vicious feral cat. I'd do my best to keep out of it's striking range and put some distance between us but I won't be panicking, going postal or needing trauma counselling over it.

I remember finding a baby snake at Ettalong when I was around 7 at the grans' for a visit. I made it comfy in a shoe box and played with it until Dad joined us. Mum and Nana hadn't even looked closely at it, they thought it was a skink. He said I'll just put this in the laundry for the night where it'll be safe. Of course the box was empty next morning and snake was buried up the yard I found out years later. It was a baby Brown snake and they are venomous even before they hatch. It was about 6inches long so had just hatched, we never did see any of it's siblings though.

Seems I missed out on that snake panic gene and only got nervous about them as I learned more about them. I think about that snake now and then when I feel hard done by and remember it as an entry on the lucky side of my ledger. I gave that thing a fair workout playing with it but it didn't even seem upset and obviously didn't bite me. Lucky, lucky lucky.
 
You are making judgements of people's behaviour about an animal you seem to know very little about. I know I wouldn't keep one as a pet, and I pay them an awful lot of respect, but other than the atavistic initial reaction to finding one unexpectedly I don't treat them differently than I would treat a vicious feral cat. I'd do my best to keep out of it's striking range and put some distance between us but I won't be panicking, going postal or needing trauma counselling over it.
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I am making no judgements about other people's behavior, except my own. The key words in your statement were, "finding one unexpectedly." That was what I was talking about. I hope you would also not be "panicking, going postal or needing trauma counselling" to get over it. I have not done, nor needed anything of those things either. I hope you never have one in your house, nor that you wake up in your bed with one coiled around you. I hope that for no one. But, by the same token I would wish people to understand my feelings upon finding one in my home.
 

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