Australian here (Sydney). 12 out of the top 15 most venomous snakes exist only in Australia, and the Sydney Funnel Web spider is (allegedly) the only spider in the world that has killed an adult man in under two hours. It's fangs can pierce the nail on your big toe.
1) Every snake is venomous until proven otherwise.
2) Don't tread lightly or sneak around. Snakes can only see around two metres in front of them (unless they're in movies apparently) and are (by our definition) deaf. But they feel vibrations extremely well. Unless you're in South America dealing with anacondas, snakes don't see us as prey and will quite often give us a "dry bite". Venom doesn't come cheap for them and they'd rather save it for something they can actually eat. So, tread heavily. They'll try and hide or leave.
3) Never stick your hand inside or under anything. Holes in trunks, leaf litter, rocky overhangs......leave it all alone.
4) Their spines don't allow them to strike upwards very well. Similar to how a horse can't gallop without freedom of neck movement. A snake would generally have to jump to strike you above the knee. So, "their world" exists no higher than a foot above the ground. Again, keep your hands out of "their world".
5) They can't strike out much further than around half their own body length. So disturbing their habitat to "check if there is a snake present" would really only require something like a garden rake, or a reasonably long tree branch. They're cranky bastards when disturbed, so if you disturb them once, they'll let you know that they're there. They won't remain quiet out of spite just to wait for you to step closer.
6) Get a good set of Kevlar chappies. The ones that the tree loppers and ground clearance crews use to cut down trees under power lines. They are chainsaw-proof. But I've never seen any that cover the actual boot/shoe, so a thick set of boots would be required as well. If you are genuinely paranoid about snakes then a chainsaw retailer would be a good place to ask for advice.
7) MOST IMPORTANTLY: Never trust a dead snake!!!!!!! I read a scientific study a long time ago that found that the head of a decapitated rattlesnake can still deliver a venomous bite 56 hours after the head has been removed. These things hibernate, so lack of blood flow doesn't really bother them too much. Nasty. If you really need to kill one, then do the rest of us a favour and cut off it's head with a shovel. I've tested that scientific research personally with some of the Red Bellied Black snakes and Eastern Brown snakes that are prevalent in my area. Snakes are 100% protected in Australia, but their heads have a habit of magically falling off on our farm. Strange. I know from experience that the heads are very much alive for quite a while after they mysteriously fall off. But with grand-kids and horses around, I've never tried to find out how long the heads remain alive for.
I did a job many moons ago where a Red Belly Black snake was run over by steam-roller. Flat. Splattered. Innards became bird food. Two days later someone tried to scrape it off the road with a shovel. It bit the shovel.
Again, never trust a dead snake!!!!
Mick
JaRo's wife could give lessons on snake killin'! My wife can give lessons on running very fast.
Snake chaps (or tall boots) and an understanding of your surroundings.
I do carry a 22 pistol sometimes and a machete. One thing we do carry most of the time is a tree spade for digging.
I sharpen mine on both sides with a grinder for hacking brush, but it would do a number on an anaconda.
Sometimes you end up hiring an idiot. One of those was working with me laying out magnetometer lines. As we were walking down a line I came up to a rattlesnake. I used a lath to pin it down behind it's head and cut it off with the hammer/hatchet I was using for pounding lath. I gave the lath to the idiot and dug a little grave with the hatchet, meaning?ÿ?ÿto push it into the hole cause there were other people milling around and I didn't want anyone to get bitten by the dead head of the snake. The idiot had the lath so I told him to move the head into the hole and I would cover it?ÿup, instead he flipped that head with the lath and it landed flat on my forearm, I was looking into the eyes of that snake not a foot from my face stuck to my arm with blood and sweat.
Please?ÿnote this fella was NOT from Oklahoma, but from south of the Rio Roxo in Texas.?ÿ Take this info as you may...
ps - I miss Kent....sometimes.. ??ÿ
ps - I miss Kent....sometimes.. ??ÿ
Every once in a while I get nostalgic and feel that way for a split second or two but then I come to my senses and realize that I am not fond of someone talking down to me while regaling me with his infinite wit and wisdom and vast storehouse of inexhaustible useless knowledge on all matters both trivial and large.
I would rather take TDD.
ps - I miss Kent....sometimes.. ??ÿ
Every once in a while I get nostalgic and feel that way for a split second or two but then I come to my senses and realize that I am not fond of someone talking down to me while regaling me with his infinite wit and wisdom and vast storehouse of inexhaustible useless knowledge on all matters both trivial and large.
I would rather take TDD.
I say that in jest.?ÿ And even though I enjoy?ÿtalking regularly with Kent I will fall short of attempting to defend his on-line persona.?ÿ?ÿ I did once make a guess that while he and his wife are sitting in front of the TV, all the dogs probably sit by his wife... ??ÿ
?ÿ Every year I kick up two or three nests of baby copperheads
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I just threw up a little bit in my pants when I read that...
?ÿ Every year I kick up two or three nests of baby copperheads
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I just threw up a little bit in my pants when I read that...
Then please don't?ÿlook at this... ??ÿ
Having been raised on a ranch in Montana, I was taught at an early age what were the good-uns and the bad-uns for the area and to always be on the alert for the bad-uns. There were at times various snakes in the yard, Garter Snakes, Water Snakes, Bull Snakes, and Blue Racers of the non-venomous kind and of course Rattlesnakes.
I remember one time when I was about 4 years old and my two brothers and I were playing in the yard and our mother came out of the house and told us kids to get up on the porch. She went and got the hoe and killed a rattler that was laying in the shade of the brace panel at the yard gate, which was 10?? or so from the step to the porch.
I had been surveying for several years before I ever encountered a rattler when out in the field. When I was working for the Bureau of Rec, in 1963 we were breaking down a section near Steagall, Nebraska for a proposed substation site. I was heading chain and had moved my instrument man up so we could finish chaining the last 700?? or so of the East Line of the section at the end of the day. After he set the transit up and I headed out for the next 300?? stick, I was about halfway out when I heard the buzz, looked down and there was this green rattler about 3?? long and the same color as the grass headed for a gopher hole about 10?? away. The funny thing was, I had been telling my crew that there weren??t any rattlers there, as there was too much activity for any to be around. After that it seemed like we would see one or more on every job we were on.
They say that there are 2 counties in Wyoming, Teton and Sublette, that don??t have any poisonous snakes in them, but I never could determine how the snake was able to figure out where the county lines were.
Anyway, I never worried about leggings, snake chaps, or high boots when out in the field, just a regular 8" work boot is all I ever wore.
I had a guy working for me in 1974 when we were surveying some buried telephone cable routes South of Glenrock, Wyoming, which was a snake infested limestone rock area, that said when he was behind the transit giving line for the chainmen, he felt something tap his leg and when he looked down there was a rattler crawling off. He said that the thing had hit the seam of his Levis, luckily, and did not go through, but the venom was running down his pant leg. Said he was pretty jumpy the rest of the day.
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If you've never owned a gun, unless you were to get at least some beginner's training for handgun use, I'd arm you with a garden rake or a spade, both of which work well on snakes.
If you've never owned a gun, unless you were to get at least some beginner's training for handgun use, I'd arm you with a garden rake or a spade, both of which work well on snakes.
That is a very sound piece of advice. The very worst time to learn any new skill or tool is when the need is urgent.?ÿ
Ain't automation wonderful?
