Just caught this on my front porch.

[Creeper]

choot it then eat it !

 

[RdKill]

I am an avid supporter of hunting for food. Call me a "tree hugger" all you want for speaking up against senseless killing of snakes or most any animal for that matter. But I have no issue whatsoever with killing for food. It's the whole, killing because it dares to exist that I can't understand. I almost got run over by a car last year moving a snake off a long stretch of uninhabited highway. I dragged a big black ratsnake off on to the shoulder and was bending down to pick it up, some moron saw the snake and was so hellbent on running it over, he nearly got me! Like it was some reflex he had that made him swerve to hit snake on side of road regardless of the guy standing over top of it. Luckily, he missed us both.

 

[Bypass]

I am an avid supporter of hunting for food. Call me a "tree hugger" all you want for speaking up against senseless killing of snakes or most any animal for that matter. But I have no issue whatsoever with killing for food. It's the whole, killing because it dares to exist that I can't understand. I almost got run over by a car last year moving a snake off a long stretch of uninhabited highway. I dragged a big black ratsnake off on to the shoulder and was bending down to pick it up, some moron saw the snake and was so hellbent on running it over, he nearly got me! Like it was some reflex he had that made him swerve to hit snake on side of road regardless of the guy standing over top of it. Luckily, he missed us both.

Ran into a guy on the road who had stopped his vehicle and was standing around laughing out with his kid. I stopped to see what they were doing. They were poking a injured diamond back with a stick laughing at how they had just run over it doing the public a service. I said let me see the stick. I used it to place behind the snakes head so I could pick it up and throw it off the road. They were in shock like I was crazy for picking it up. Then I walked away. Killing them is pointless. I won't do it.

 

[Just Plain Bill]

Things that attract snakes to yards... #1 Bird feeders. Dropped seeds attract rodents. Rodents attract snakes. Actually...any type of feed left outside or where rodents can get to it like dog food or horse feed etc. #2 a water source with hide spots near by like tall grassy areas with old tin or wood laying on the ground, #3 clutter such as fallen barns or junk cars...places where rodents will go to nest and snakes will go to eat and hide out. #4 established den sites. These can be hundreds of years old. Land gets developed, snakes that den still think its their home.

Compost heaps! Found many snakes enjoying the warm of the compost heap. And depending on what your compost heap includes they attract mice as well. Twice the fun for a snake.

 

[RdKill]

When I lived around the Atlanta area, I took snake removal calls for the Chattahoochee Nature Center. There was this one yard I used to frequent on a fairly regular basis. I've never seen so much landscaping in a single half acre in my life. All sorts of ground cover shrubs and plants with little stone paths through it all with little areas with benches. Other than the stone paths and little seating areas, NONE of the ground was visible. No grass lawn, just what looked like a lifetime of trips back and forth from the gardening center at Home Depot. TONS of bird feeders all over. Nice Koi pond and a small trickling little creek. This yard was a copperhead paradise and they certainly found it!

 

[Tony2X]

Snake vs. Draco video requested.

lol

 

[j.s.rom]

gacolt..makes good points..usually around 10-12 people die each year from snake bites in the US. A good many of those cases are alcohol related incidents and another high percentage of the deaths are caused actually by malpractice at the hospitals. 100 people give or take will choke to death on the little insert in the back of a Bic ink pen that so many people seem to think is a chew toy this year, last year, every year. You are 10 times more likely to die from an inkpen than a snake. And given the many other ways we have to die, even the "10 times more likely ink pen scenario" has astronomically low odds of actually being your way out of this life.

Timber rattlers actually make more of a dent in the squirrel/chipmunk populations than that of mice and rats. But all rodents have to have predators keeping them in check or they get out of hand really fast. Don't like something in nature? Something gives you the heebie jeebies? So what? Grow a pair and learn what they are good for, how to live and let live (other than food). There is no act, in my opinion, more ignorant than to kill an animal out of fear just because it exists and poses no harm if you don't actually walk up to it and step on it. OH speaking of statistics, I wonder what the stats are on man getting bit by rattlesnake he's shooting at v/s man getting hit by his own ricocheting bullets? Gotta love Darwin award winners. If only they could claim the prize before procreating!

Good point. That's how I feel too. Let it go. It is there on purpose...

 

[57tr6]

View attachment 121129


Some good information was posted here and fun had too. Despite the Chootems wide margin the snake is now about three miles the other side of this mountain. Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[Winder Mike]

 

[RdKill]

You are a good man 57.