Kill a snake today. Maybe 2

I saw a snake in my girlfriend's backyard. Someone over there wanted it dead. It could be seen with about 8 inches of its head sticking straight up out of a hole.

They brought me a pellet gun and told me to take care of it. I said, "I'm going to feel bad if I do this. He's not messing with us. He's just doing his snake thing."

Well, I put one through its snake brain.
Then I was on my way over to throw the snake away, when I saw another one by the grape vines.

I shot at that one too, but am unsure If I hit it, and it died in its hole or what.

I feel so bad! They were just gulfer snakes or something.
I should have said no, but they wanted them gone because they have been seeing so many of them in the last couple of days.

I don't even kill insects, unless its a spider (sometimes, or a mosquito or fly)

I just wanted to get that off my chest. Poor little snakey!

(Located in the High-Desert of California.)

Eat the snake, it'll make you feel better knowing that it didn't go to waste. Besides, snake is tasty; I know, I've eaten snake several times. You could also tan the skin & make something from it, bury the guts in the garden, along with the bones left over from the dinner table. The web of life remains intact. Regards, GF.

Personally, I think if your girlfriend's family or friends wanted the snake dead, it's up to them to kill it. It just don't seem right to make someone else do something that goes against his grain just so that he can continue to get his nookie!

I hope your gf and her family enjoy mice and other rodents because that's what the snakes were controlling for free...

Two buddies of mine got into a shoving match over snake killing. Would have been a fist fight if me and another hadn't stepped in.

One is kinda hippie like and a reptile lover. The other is Mexican. And now American, as he likes to point out. "Yeah. I es got my green card. You es got jor green card? Maybe I deport you!"

One day, the Mexican was saying he "killed all da nakes he see." The hippie didn't like that. The Mexican insisted that "da nakes" had tried to kill him when he was a boy. They bite him on the arm. "Right here and I almost die!" So now, I es kill all da nakes I see." "No man. That aint right.", the hippie protested, as hippies do. They went back and forth for a bit like that and the Mexican shoved the hippie. The hippie shoved him back, not as hippies do. Next thing, they are in the street and doing the chest bump. Me and 'Hank Hill' stepped in and broke it up before the policia came.

That was the last time we drank Steel Reserve.

Sorry, but I think killing them was dumb (no offense personally). Unless they were poisonous, which doesn't seem likely. They eat a lot of house and lawn/garden pests. I need some more snakes around my house to take care of the moles/voles.

First off... I laughed my ass of at the Mexican Vs. Hippie story! Second, well yeah I'm not much for killing stuff that isn't f-ing with me. Every year our resident garter snakes scare the living crap out of me when I"m doing some yard work and I reach for something and my hand ends up inches from the snake's head... still, while they're there I know I don't have to worry about rodents and stuff... just my 2 cents... Canadian... oh wait, that joke doesn't work anymore...

Snakes are a good thing, unless they are poisonous. I found one in our yard when I was a kid and went to pick it up. Biggest garter snake I've ever seen! Dam thing reared up and hissed at me! Yep, I left it alone. I know they "can" bite because a kid at camp got two slashes on his finger when he tried to pick one up. Grabbed his finger, and when he pulled it out, the teeth tore his finger.

Luckily for me, we don't have any dangerous snakes in Michigan, except the small rattler, and I don't know how bad they are since they don't really live near me.

I've always lived in areas where there aren't any poisonous snakes, except maybe a few timber rattler up in the mountains. Never seen one, never heard of anyone that has. One of the nice things about living in the northeast.

So, the intellectual side of me says "let them live - they won't harm you! - they'll eat the mice! - snakes are OK!"

The more powerful side of me says "go grab a hoe and chop that damn thing in half!"

I just *hate* snakes. It's stupid and visceral, and I know without any merit... but I hate the damn things.

I saw a spider today. I let it live. You're Welcome.

I'm actually looking at making up a new beer.

Lately, I have been craving the unknown. I want to make a beer so good, that it would satisfy my craving for a lifetime and make me never drink again. And then I want to drink a bunch of it

I'll post it up in the morning. I have been working on this recipe all week after work, and on weekends.

I'm open to suggestions on what everyone has experienced, and I may incorporate some of these if i think it sounds good.

Homercidal said:

Snakes are a good thing, unless they are poisonous. I found one in our yard when I was a kid and went to pick it up. Biggest garter snake I've ever seen! Dam thing reared up and hissed at me! Yep, I left it alone. I know they "can" bite because a kid at camp got two slashes on his finger when he tried to pick one up. Grabbed his finger, and when he pulled it out, the teeth tore his finger.

Luckily for me, we don't have any dangerous snakes in Michigan, except the small rattler, and I don't know how bad they are since they don't really live near me.

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http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12201-32995--,00.html

Eastern Massasauga. They're poisonous, but not aggressive. I have seen some up near where you live when I've gone camping so I can tell you that they are around there. But I still wouldn't change any of my habits, just give them some room if you see one.

I've never seen one up here. I understand they are becoming more rare due to wetland loss. I think there are large pockets of them downstate though.

I thought I saw one once, but it turned out to be a hognose. It played dead and flattened it's head.

i'm about to murder a brown snake.

I was out hiking two weeks ago and came across a decent sized copperhead. Damn thing scared the hell out of me. I was walking up a creek and looked down to see him stretched out in the water trying to catch fish right between my feet. Those things blend in so well. They look exactly like piles of leaves. Even though the little fellow was poisonous, I let him be. They're all good - poisonous or non.

We had a snake here, that can close its eyes, and turn them. Looked it up online and figured it out. Should have offered it a beer..... where were my manners!

When I first moved into my house, I had the back door open, and a little field mouse decided to visit. I had a hella time catching that thing, getting it outside. A year or so later, I found out that I have a large (5-6 ft) black snake living under my garden shed. Although it creeps me a bit when I see him slither around, I leave him be. No more field mice...

They wanted you to kill them because "they have been seeing so many"? Yeah, I'm sure killing those two snakes really got rid of their infestation...

Hang Glider said:

When I first moved into my house, I had the back door open, and a little field mouse decided to visit. I had a hella time catching that thing, getting it outside. A year or so later, I found out that I have a large (5-6 ft) black snake living under my garden shed. Although it creeps me a bit when I see him slither around, I leave him be. No more field mice...

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OOOh that reminds me. Last year before i went out of town, a rattlesnake got in my house. Wasn't a very large one, but it was in thar!

I like snakes and let them live unless they're poisonous, and we don't have poisonous ones around here. Snakes are cool, though I wouldn't keep one as a pet or anything. Spiders on the other hand... Anything with more legs than my dog gets SMASHED on sight! As was said before. It's a visceral thing. See spider, smash spider, feel better.

Speaking of too many legs, it's centipedes that truly creep me out. Read a story recently (was in Getting Stoned with Savages) about foot-long poisonous centipedes in Fiji. Apparently, you can chop them in half and then you have TWO bits of the giant ugly bug scurrying around trying to get you. Yeesh. I get the willies just thinking about it. I'd take a good sized black snake over that any day!

Why the hate for poisonous snakes? I can understand if they're up by your house and you have kids or pets around, but if they're out in their environment then let them be. I run in to cottonmouths and copperheads all the time when I'm out doing site recon or surveying. Just keep an eye out and give them some distance. It also helps to be loud when in an area you know snakes are present.

Not many snakes around here, but do the occasional Black Widow. For that reason, all spiders must die.

Because of Black Widows, ALL spiders must die? You people are strange. Spiders are as helpful as snakes. We get Black Widows all over here and yes, they are dangerous and numerous so feel free to kill them, but why in the hell would you kill other spiders? It's very easy to tell them apart.

And yeah, don't kill snakes, even poisonous ones if you can help it...they can simply be relocated.

Out here in the desert, if it slithers or crawls it's likely poisonous, we have western diamondbacks, gila monsters, bark scorpions, brown recluse spiders, black widows, tarantulas, fire ants, ect. heck even most of the plants have gnarly thorns! I mostly avoid the critters when out and about hiking ect. but if they are in my backyard, garage, or in the house, I just kill them all so I dont have to worry about my pets, wife, family, neighbors and their kids ect.

I only kill snakes because they are evil. No other reason.

They are kind of evil. Look into their eyes...they have no souls. Like gingers.

See? Birds of a feather...

I grabbed one at work the other day out of someone's bathtub. Stuffed it in a pillow case and brought it to my neighborhood's local hippie who takes in any kind of animal anyone brings in. He then adopts them out and actually has a great turn around rate. The lady was screaming, "It's in the tub!!" The Lieutenant went in first, looked down at the tub and didn't see anything. I was behind him and looked up, 3 inches above his head, and saw the snake on the shower bar. He slowly backed out of there while I stood on the toilet bowl and grabbed it. Problem solved, no blood shed.

I never really got the "kill snakes on sight" mentality. I love seeing garter snakes and bull snakes in the yard/garden/wild. They control the insects and rodents, and they're just cool. I used to catch garter snakes in the garden so kiddo (she was 4 at the time) could pet them.

Since we live in rattler territory, I've had to teach kiddo about not flipping rocks over or reaching where she can't see. Rattlers can be very very bad for little kids, even within shouting distance of a well-equipped ER. I say, teach the kids instead of killing the snakes.

More snakes == fewer mice and voles. Just spent a week and $400 getting gnawed wiring in my van fixed. Cocked the traps in the garage and caught two micro-rats last night. I set the bodies on a stump and they'll be gone in the morning.

Rubber boa any one? I didn't believe it when I saw one in the meadow. They really look like they are made of rubber.

If it's on the ground, it's a rattler. If it's in the water, it's a water moccasin. Both must be terminated with extreme prejudice, without hesitation and without fail. Also, all spiders except Daddly Long Legs are black widows and must be killed.

jds said:

I say, teach the kids instead of killing the snakes.

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Exactly. Terminating those that you see won't ever stop those that you don't. As with most issues, education is key

I let the non-poisonous ones go. The poisonous ones in my yard get the hoe (we get lots of coral snakes down here). I have 3 kids and a dog.

azscoob said:

Out here in the desert, if it slithers or crawls it's likely poisonous, we have western diamondbacks, gila monsters, bark scorpions, brown recluse spiders, black widows, tarantulas, fire ants, ect. heck even most of the plants have gnarly thorns! I mostly avoid the critters when out and about hiking ect. but if they are in my backyard, garage, or in the house, I just kill them all so I dont have to worry about my pets, wife, family, neighbors and their kids ect.

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I think that place doesn't want people to live there...

passedpawn said:

I let the non-poisonous ones go. The poisonous ones in my yard get the hoe (we get lots of coral snakes down here). I have 3 kids and a dog.

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We get them too but I almost never see them, they're very reclusive. As a Floridian, I assume you're aware of the Scarlet King snake aka False Coral snake? It looks very similar to a Coral snake but the color bands are in a different order. In a Scarlet King snake, the red bands are never adjacent to the yellow bands and there's the old saying: red and yellow will kill a fellow or red touches yellow will kill a fellow.

Although in the heat of battle sometimes you gotta kill first and ask questions later.

Biggest snake problem we have in Florida are the pet Burmese pythons that all the people have released. These snakes will probably eventually work their way north. IIRC, there is a study being done in one of the Carolinas and the pythons do just fine that far north (apparently they hang out high up in trees).

Bedlam said:

Speaking of too many legs, it's centipedes that truly creep me out. Read a story recently (was in Getting Stoned with Savages) about foot-long poisonous centipedes in Fiji. Apparently, you can chop them in half and then you have TWO bits of the giant ugly bug scurrying around trying to get you. Yeesh. I get the willies just thinking about it. I'd take a good sized black snake over that any day!

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One morning I stumbled into my shower, naked, and before I had the chance to turn the water on I happened to look down at my feet and saw this.

I pulled the curtain rod down as I scrambled to get out. Needless to say I was wide awake afterwards.

+1 on not killing snakes needlessly. In Africa we would come across cobras, puff adders and gabon vipers among other non-poisonous snakes. Never killed a single one. Never ran into a black mamba but they are really fast and generally flee from humans. The kitten that hung around the field site loved to chase away cobras. There was a gigantic wolf spider that decided to hang out on my bedroom ceiling for two days. I figured if he jumped down he would hit the mosquito net so I left him alone. Admittedly it did make for a creepy feeling as I fell asleep but I'm not a pvssy so I didn't kill it.

About 10 minutes after reading this thread I found a small (1ft) garter snake crawling in my CD rack, I have NEVER seen a snake in my house. Anyway, I didn't shoot him... but he did die.

Bedlam said:

Speaking of too many legs, it's centipedes that truly creep me out. Read a story recently (was in Getting Stoned with Savages) about foot-long poisonous centipedes in Fiji. Apparently, you can chop them in half and then you have TWO bits of the giant ugly bug scurrying around trying to get you. Yeesh. I get the willies just thinking about it. I'd take a good sized black snake over that any day!

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LOL, a thought came to my mind as I read this. If you cut it up into 50 pieces, will you get 50 two legged centipedes?

saw this cute little guy a couple years ago. it lived