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August 27, 2013, 05:31 PM | #1 |
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Not exactly hunting but as we all get worked up over snakes.....
Sense any discussion of snakes on the forum seems to get a good rise I thought I'd post this article from one of the science web sites. And truth be it does kind of fit in with hunting.....sort of......
Expert Names Most Dangerous Snake By Ross Pomeroy Which snake is the most dangerous? It's a question that everyone seems to love to ask. It's also a question that annoys St. Mary's University physiological ecologist Marshall McCue. "This question is impossible to answer without further clarification," he recently argued in the Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases. Do people want to know which snake has the most venom? Or maybe which kills the most humans each year? Or which has the most toxic and lethal venom? Even if the question is made more specific, it's still difficult to answer, McCue says. For example, the amount of venom a snake has depends on its size, age, and health, as well as the researcher's method of extraction. Moreover, a venom's lethality varies depending upon the animal it acts on, as well as how and where the venom is administered. If you ask, "which snake kills the most people each year?" the answer would be the cobra. According to McCue, it is "responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year in south-central Asia." But the cobra's "deadliest" title is more likely explained by high human population densities and poor healthcare services than its effectiveness as a man murderer. With so many confounding variables surrounding such a seemingly simple question, when asked which snake is the most dangerous, McCue doesn't answer "the black mamba" or "the inland Taipain" or "the puff adder." No, he has a much more cheeky response. "My position is that the most dangerous snake is the one that just bit you." Read more: http://forums.floridasportsman.com/s...#ixzz2dDAfgwzs
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August 27, 2013, 06:15 PM | #2 |
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For anyone at all interested in snakes, here's one scientist who's worth reading about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Ditmars
But some people are indeed negatively emotional about snakes. We had a fella in the deer-camp crowd who was deathly afraid of any and all snakes. One really cold night, he crawled into his sleeping bag and his toes contacted a piece of garden hose. Hey, it got louder than a jet's after-burner. I think I even learned some new words! |
August 27, 2013, 06:50 PM | #3 |
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I remember some time back reading an experiment where a rubber snake was placed on the edge of a road and the perpetrators recorded how many vehicles actually swerved over to the edge of the road to run it over. I don't remember the statistics anymore, but the rubber snake got a lot of tire marks.
In our area we are blessed with a fair number of copperheads and water moccasins and sorry folks but I just think the best snakes come in two pieces. |
August 27, 2013, 07:12 PM | #4 |
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Art, I only hope there wasn't a baby rattle on the end of that hose. Mainers love to brag about having no native poisonous snakes up here. My father-in-law lives in the southwest and has spent plenty of time in rattler country. I once claimed that I'd rather deal with rattlesnakes than the Lyme Disease carrying ticks that we deal with in Maine. He disagreed, I should know by now that he's always right.
Two weeks ago I was hiking up a mountain with my leashed young dog. He sprang to the right and I saw a snake strike at him twice, it was unfamiliar to me and shaking the tip of it's tail in the leaf brush- sounded and looked like a rattler. Turns out it was a milk snake. My pup was fine, but I sure gained new respect for those who live in dangerous snake territory. I'm a live and let live person, but if I lived in an area populated by poisonous snakes I'd kill them on site on my property. |
August 27, 2013, 08:08 PM | #5 |
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Here in Michigan we only have one poisonus snake...the Massasauga rattle snake. As a kid I remember it mistakenly called the Timber Rattlesnake but now know that name is incorrect. There are Timber Rattle snakes but not in Michigan. The Massasauga is rather rare and I have personally never seen one in the wild despite that I have spent a greater proportion of my life (I am 70 now),out in the woods than most of the people who would refer to them selves as avid hunters/sportsmen. The Massasauga, a relatively small snake, rarely bites, is reclusive and rarely bites people and when they do, the person almost always survives.
There was a High School boy I knew of who would go into the river bottoms/swamps (Pere Marquette River), in the summer and collect them. He claimed that they were not that hard to find and the fact that people rarely saw them was because few people are interested in pushing through the growth of Summer foliage and enduring the clouds of mosquitoes in the river bottoms. |
August 27, 2013, 08:33 PM | #6 |
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I suppose I'm neutral on snakes. I guess because non ever bothered me.
I do have a slight thing about tarantulas. But it is only that I don't like squishing them with my motorcycle. But what can I do when 100 of them are crossing the road? On a hill. On a curve. And squishing means mushy, and slippery. dc |
August 27, 2013, 09:59 PM | #7 | |
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Quote:
Used to kill every snake I saw but not anymore...just a poisonous one if he happens to be close to the house and that's most likely to be a copperhead. |
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August 27, 2013, 10:06 PM | #8 |
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Was it Presidential candidate Ross Perot raise environmental ires as he described his approach to snakes, while walking through the woods was that "the first one that sees a snake kills it"?
Seems like many people I hike with agree with him.
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August 27, 2013, 10:14 PM | #9 |
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I like rattlesnakes. Skinned,gutted, cut into 4" sections, dipped in flour, salt and pepper, and pan fried in a little butter.
Bonus if you have some morel mushrooms treated in the same fashion to go with ....... |
August 27, 2013, 10:22 PM | #10 |
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Not exactly hunting but as we all get worked up over snakes.....
Jimbob wins!
Any day that ends with one less rattler in the world, is a very good day! |
August 27, 2013, 10:46 PM | #11 |
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I live in the woods in Florida, and have killed quite a few pigmy rattlers over the years. When I'm working out on the property, the first two rounds in my holstered 1911 are CCI snake shot shells.
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August 28, 2013, 10:16 AM | #12 | |
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Quote:
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August 28, 2013, 07:56 PM | #13 |
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I won't tolerate rattlers around the house, but when out in the boonies I won't bother them. Well, maybe tease them a little, just for fun. No copperheads or water moccasins in my desert area.
Only seen maybe three coral snakes; little bitty doofers. I caught one, one time; it tried chewing on my boot sole while I waited for my wife to bring a small glass aquarium for it. Gave it to a licensed herpetologist. |
August 28, 2013, 08:58 PM | #14 |
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We have a few rattlesnakes and a lot of Copperheads. I kill both of them on sight. I like the non-venemous snakes, but in my opinion, the risks of the venemous ones far outweigh their benefit.
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August 28, 2013, 10:46 PM | #15 |
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I kill poisonous snakes but I leave the others alone. Around here the only poison ones are rattlers.
They go well fried in butter and served with mashed potatoes and brown gravy.
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August 28, 2013, 11:54 PM | #16 |
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I like the rat and corn snakes we get here.
On the other hand, moccasins and rattlesnakes are no good. |
August 29, 2013, 07:45 AM | #17 |
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The Burnham brothers of Marble Falls, Texas, had a gunshop downtown. They're the ones who basically invented varmint calling by using cassette tapes. At the front window of the shop was a glass-walled pen with several big rattle-worms. A sign said that at night, the snakes were free to roam around the shop.
Never a problem with break-ins. |
August 29, 2013, 08:30 AM | #18 |
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Snakes have never bothered me. I used to keep several while in high school. Not many poisonous snakes around these parts. Copperheads and the occasional Cottonmouth in the wetland areas.
About all you see around here are Garter Snakes, Corn Snakes, and Black Snakes. All harmless. Unless you're scared of them.
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August 29, 2013, 10:42 AM | #19 |
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Where I grew up in eastern Louisiana, we had Cottonmouth Moccasins, rattlers. Coral snakes, and the occasional Copperhead. Now that I'm in central Texas, we are down to (I think), just Copperheads. Never seen any of the others here in 10 years or so. My wife, when she sees a Copperhead, will grab the hoe (I'm a shovel guy) and be an absolute blur as she chops them up into tiny bits.
Many years ago, I took a bunch of Yankee oil traders hunting in south Texas for dove. I sent one of them off to one edge of the field we'd be hunting and he stepped on a Blue Indigo snake, and they can run upwards of 11 feet or more. Man, you shoulda heard all the screaming and shooting. Killed the poor snake, which was unfortunate since they eat rattlers. Sure was a monster of a snake. As big around as a man's thigh. Another time I had some guys (yup, Yankee oil traders) quail hunting with me. One of them went into the brush chasing a wounded quail and he walked right up on a den of rattlers. More screaming and shooting, and he ran right straight through a huge patch of cactus on his way back to the jeep. Took quite a while to 'unpluck' him. |
August 30, 2013, 02:10 PM | #20 |
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No Poisonous snakes on the wet side of the cascades. Common prairie rattler on the dry side.
That might be why they're not a big deal in my book. |
September 3, 2013, 02:50 AM | #21 |
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not sure
Don't know what it is this year, but every one I speak with who lives in the country, or is working afield, is seeing poisonous snakes more this summer, than in any summer in their memory.
Had a rather close call in a picnic area where a toddler wandering about, not really recklessly, but certainly not in hand either, "discovered" a big copperhead! Bamaboy killed a 42" Timber rattler on our front porch. Chalk up another viper to the old Win 37 .410! I won't roll the truck over trying to run one down, but if a poisonous snake shows up around the place, I'll kill him. |
September 3, 2013, 05:39 AM | #22 |
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snakes
one should try that rattlesnake dipped in a milk and egg mixture salt and pepper to taste and cook carefully on a charcoal grill. that is all i had the first time i did it. everyone that tried it went back for seconds. one didnt like the idea of snake at all.
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September 20, 2013, 08:52 PM | #23 |
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Colorado Rattlesnake Season
PRAIRIE RATTLESNAKE
Season: June 15-Aug. 15 Daily bag limit : 3 Possession limit : 6 If you hunt/kill rattlesnakes in Colorado out of season, mum's the word. This has to be one of the most idiotic regulations I have ever heard of. As well, you need a small game license. |
September 20, 2013, 10:09 PM | #24 |
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We have an abundance of copperheads....I kill everyone of those I see and also cottonmouths....I like seeing a canebrake rattler ever so often..which isn't that often....I tried to make this one strike..but he just wanted to get to some cover....
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September 21, 2013, 11:21 PM | #25 |
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Don't really have much in the way of dangerous snakes around here. Limited population of timber rattlers, they are a protected species in Mass. Plenty of disease carrying ticks though.
Had a pet redtail boa for years. Thing was actually pretty friendly, long as it was fed on the regular.....
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