Snakes, did you know?

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Pearl

Finder of lost things AND The Boss
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Apr 19, 2021
Messages
16,580
Location
North central Texas
My whole life as a country gal I never knew snakes could shoot a foul smelling substance from their rear! Until yesterday when I attempted to remove a large bull snake from my feed shed. As I tried to scoop it up with a hoe it squirted skunky white stuff out. Looked it up in a snake book and on the internet and this is not uncommon. It is uric acid produced during digestion that they can store as a defense! I live in snake country and never encountered this!
 
I guess I have never caused a snake to resort to chemical warfare. I certainly have been close enough. I would have to be with somebody knowledgeable to point out a distinct smell, or I would never recognize it. Thank you for sharing, I did not know snakes could do that.
 
I have killed a lot of snake in the hen house, but I try to leave them alone otherwise.
They remove a lot of mice & rats, as do hawks & other birds of prey.
I do not mess with sting insects for the same reason, even if I might get strung sometimes.
Never had that problem, that I recall, but they do stink.
Armadillos can transmit leprosy, rabies, and other harmful diseases.
 
Not the musty smell: One year in my classroom, we had a garter snake to represent reptiles. We had representations of mammals, birds, amphibians and fish as well. We cleaned cages on Friday afternoons and the snake would get passed around until it warmed up and pooped on whoever was holding it at the time. It was a great experience for inner-city children who are taught to be afraid of anything that moves.
 
Forgive me for this slight change of the subject, but it is somewhat fitting.
Has any one ever bet on a duck walk?
You draw a grid on the ground, concrete slab, or what ever. Letters across the top and numbers down the side of the grid. Then you sell raffle tickets for grid places, like C3, etc. Then you place chicken wire fence around the grid. Then you put a duck in the pen and wait for the duck to poop on a grid spot, selecting the raffle winner. My wife said she has played it on a grander scale, called CowPatty Bingo.
 
Forgive me for this slight change of the subject, but it is somewhat fitting.
Has any one ever bet on a duck walk?
You draw a grid on the ground, concrete slab, or what ever. Letters across the top and numbers down the side of the grid. Then you sell raffle tickets for grid places, like C3, etc. Then you place chicken wire fence around the grid. Then you put a duck in the pen and wait for the duck to poop on a grid spot, selecting the raffle winner. My wife said she has played it on a grander scale, called CowPatty Bingo.
Yes, we’ve had that raffle with cow pies.
 
As a kid, my brother and I used to play with garter snakes. Yes, some would squirt ick out of their cloacas. Yuck!
Oh yeah, common occurrence when dealing with garter snakes, I have
never seen any of the rattle snakes that I have dealt with around here do that, but I'm sure it's in their ability, I'm more concerned with making sure I don't have any interaction with their fangs, even a dead rattler can bite you from reflex, neighbor had that happen to him years ago when he reached down to pick up a snake he had shot, it bit him on the thumb, from what I heard, he almost died. I don't shoot rattlers, I just use a flat nose shovel and the first thing I do is to cut off their head and burry it.
 
Oh yeah, common occurrence when dealing with garter snakes, I have
never seen any of the rattle snakes that I have dealt with around here do that, but I'm sure it's in their ability, I'm more concerned with making sure I don't have any interaction with their fangs, even a dead rattler can bite you from reflex, neighbor had that happen to him years ago when he reached down to pick up a snake he had shot, it bit him on the thumb, from what I heard, he almost died. I don't shoot rattlers, I just use a flat nose shovel and the first thing I do is to cut off their head and burry it.
I don't get close enough to rattlesnakes to dispatch them with any kind of tool. Around the house I go for the single-shot .410 shotgun, grab 3 shells with #6 or 8 birdshot & go. Don't have to worry about aiming, just point & shoot. No head left to bite.
 
My bf took her snake to school, was allowed to let it live there for a few months in the tank. We were in 6th grade. She was handling it over top of our science teacher's desk, and yeah, it spewed forth that nasty white stuff. Don't recall it smelling bad.
 
As a kid, my brother and I used to play with garter snakes. Yes, some would squirt ick out of their cloacas. Yuck!
Oh yeah, takes the fun out of handling so called, harmless garter snakes.
 
Where I grew up we had rattle snakes and sidewinders, never got around to playing with them..... Generally if I saw it first it was going to be removed..... I have the perspective that all snakes are poisonous until proven dead, and even then they can bite you.....
 
I don't get close enough to rattlesnakes to dispatch them with any kind of tool. Around the house I go for the single-shot .410 shotgun, grab 3 shells with #6 or 8 birdshot & go. Don't have to worry about aiming, just point & shoot. No head left to bite.
Ohhhhh, it's a challenge for me😁
 
Where I grew up we had rattle snakes and sidewinders, never got around to playing with them..... Generally if I saw it first it was going to be removed..... I have the perspective that all snakes are poisonous until proven dead, and even then they can bite you.....
Years ago we had a neighbor that got bit on his thumb by a rattler he shot and thought was dead.
 
Not sure how true it is, but heard a few times that if your out hiking and smell a cucumber you need to stop immediately and look carefully as there is a copperhead real close by.
 
My wife loves hognose snakes because they flatten out their heads and act like cobras. The other reason she likes them is because she knows that I hate snakes. Once she picked up a 6-foot hognose and chased me around the yard with it. The problem with picking up a hognose is the smell. We've always said it was so scared that it pooped on you. In the video below, my wife talks about a small hognose snake.

 

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