Rattlesnake for JUD

> For you people that will say you always let them be, he has many brothers and sisters nearby. Just heard that the average rattlesnake bite costs around $100,000!!!

Not me!! I say kill em' DEAD!!!!!!! :clap: :good: :hi5:

Just heard that the average rattlesnake bite costs around $100,000!!!

Then don't try to pick them up!

No need to kill snakes. They will not bother you if you do the same.

We have an "ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT" in effect in Ontario,Canada.
The Ministry of Transportation has been known to alter "design build" for a new highway in order to protect a MASSASSAUGA RATTLESNAKE hibernacular. We would be arrested and locked up if we ever shot one!

Machetes are quieter than guns. Just don't take one home to skin - sometimes there are tracking devices implanted. A snake traveling 70 mph down a highway will cause eyebrows to rise.

The only good snake is a dead snake. 'Nuf sed.

I have seen more and more rattle snakes not rattle when approached. Seems to me that they are learning rattle equals dead.

Best tool is a shovel. Pin em down right behind the head, then step on the shovel. Head comes right off. Taught to me by my dad, I'll pass it down to the grand boys.

The best way

to kill a snake is to cut his tail off - right behind the head.

Andy

The only rattlesnake I ever killed was with a 15' collapsible level rod (one of the heavy, wooden ones). I was walking down a logging road after giving a stadia shot across a river. I almost stepped on it. It wasn't coiled...just sunning in the thin grass. I raised the level rod and brought the foot straight down on its head....my heart was racing when I heard the rattles go off. I thought the snake that I had just struck was a copperhead. I was looking all around for the rattlesnake. It was a great relief to finally realize that there was only one snake.:-P

That may be fine if you have wide open ground where you can see easily.

Hard not to bother them when you step on them in the thick grass and brush. Have I been struck? No, but I have come close many times. I have kids that don't look for snakes and dogs that like to sniff everything.

My dad was struck on the boot a couple years ago (steppping over a log). My Brothers dog was bitten 3 or 4 years ago (cost several thousand dollars).

No, I feel there is plenty of habitat that is not my back yard. JRL

Back in my OCS days on large land clearing/grading/construction days in SoCal; the ground shaking/vibrations moving through the ground from all the heavy construction equipment brought lots of rattlesnakes out of their lairs.

If/when we had to dispatch a rattlesnack, a sharp pointed shovel worked very well.
Remove the snakes head, dig a hole and bury the snake head, even after a longtime, if somebody, (like a kid) finds and picks up the snake head, the venom can still poison a person.

Had a couple rattles hanging from the rear-view mirror in the survey truck.
When I left OCS, forgot to grab my rattle sovenirs, take'em with me...
-BbB

Not exactly...

Most people are far more poisonous than your average rattler. Get some tongs, put it in a cooler and move it to a more remote location if you are worried about proximity. If you stop off at band practice and someone reaches in for a beer, it gets a bit exciting.

Not exactly...

You WILL NOT catch me messing around with a rattler like that. That is just asking for trouble. Nope, I agree the shovel works best.

I watched a you-tube video about this stupid earthy guy handling a wild rattler he found beside the road. He handled it for about a week. In the end it struck him and he spent 3 days in intensive care and I believe $155,000 in care. In his follow up video he says he learned not to play with rattlers. What an expensive and painful lesson. JRL

Not exactly...

http://www.okeenerattlesnakehunt.com/snake-tongs/

There is a massive difference between using your hands and well-made tongs. I have moved 30 or 40 off my property in Arizona. No big problem.

Just don't forget you put it in the cooler before band practice...

Not exactly...

Sounds like a good use for a ratchet strap around the cooler to keep the lid closed.

Thanks for the photo. I will kill them if within a half mile of the buildings, the rest I will usually leave alone. Don't know how many I have walked by, they tend to lie still, hoping to not be noticed when something large comes along, they know they can't eat it. Was doing a survey a few years age for a conservatory that was buying 40 acres around some pictographs for preservation reasons. Was about 2 miles below the Ranch and about 3 1/2 below the house and barn. Noticed a baby lying very still with its tongue flicking in and out every now and then, when I went closer to say hello, it took the defensive position, watched it a bit and then went on my way. When I was with ACB-1 we had what was called military training, a 3 week thing that everyone yearly had to take. One of those weeks was spent at Camp Elliot before that area was developed. Anyway defensive perimeters were set up and patrols were made when we weren't at the rifle range. One night those of us on the aggressor team had an ambush set up and all was still until a loud holler, kind of a cross between a scream and a bellow, the guy that ruined our setup, had a 30 cal Browning Machine gun with a BFA. Turns out a rattle snake had crawled up, looked him in the eye to start the ruckus. That snake was beat to death with the butt end of that machine gun, don't know how it was removed from the tripod but it was still in place when we got there and the machine gun had snake all over the handle and trigger, about a 4 foot snake was dead and we ambushed no-one.
jud

Here too, I have a no snake zone that is basically not within my reach by machete or lath at work.

For my home, no place within my property unless it is a king, racer, black or other non poisonous or predatory snake as they are probably just passing thru and will leave when confronted.

being married to a lady from Michigan, it has always been impressed on me the fact that there are no poisonous snakes in Michigan.
That being said I am surprised by the reference to the Ontario area, especially as I looked it up and found this map at this site... http://www.brocku.ca/massasauga/Beltz.pdf

so being from West Texas and home of the Rattlesnake roundup, I was always trained to kill any rattlesnake we found. If you ever see the bin in Sweetwater with thousands of rattlers, the average non-snake killer might see how big the rattlesnake population is, in Texas at least.

from personal experience, at the age of 8, I discovered my first four foot rattler in our front flower bed. My Dad did not ponder the action to kill it, his reaction was swift and fatal (to the snake). My five year old brother a year later in the same flower bed and played with it for hours bepore almost giving my poor mother a heart attack with the damned thing.

even though there are many accounts in this state of the exaggerated lethality of the rattlesnake venom, it still is one of the most painful bites to be experienced. Rattlesnakes should be viewed as the pit vipers that they are. They react to heat sources as threats, having poor vision and poor hearing. They don't distinguish between dog or child or full grown man, they strike at any in range when threatened.

the smaller the rattle snake, the more lethal, as the venom is not replaced with the same potency as the snake ages.

bottom line I'm always preaching to our filed crews is safety first and this is really a safety issue. How safe would you feel if you allowed a rattlesnake to live freely in areas where children play...better safe than sorry is a good motto to live by near poisonous snakes.

eastern timber rattlesnakes are protected in Texas, but I have told my guys if a eastern timber is trying to bite, they should feel no compunction in killing one, last I checked we were still the dominant life form on this planet.

I'm just sayin....

some how the coral snake was not typed in my response as to the snake my bro found in the flower bed.