Snakes

[37 chief]

I have been mowing, and disking weeds for around 30 years. I started this while working nights at my factory job. I retired from my factory job
in 06. I stopped disking about 5 years ago, and now just do mowing. All those years I very seldom seen snakes. They were probably there, but I
didn't see them. Today I saw 4 today, one being a rattle snake. He was passing in front of my tractor. I went around him. He was heading away
from me. three other snakes weren't so lucky, they looked like gopher snakes The mower got them. I don't like to kill them, they were away from
people, and just trying to survive. About two weeks ago the mower got another big rattle snake. How is your snake population? Stan

 

[Tim PloughNman Daley]

Don't have snake problems here in Michigan, just invasive species issues like socillib nnalert...


Tim Daley (MI)

 

[caterpillar guy]

No real snake issues or most other bump in the night things either. I have been told to wash things like your mower down good before working on it due to the venom being on the underside of it from the snake. Was told this about checking tires where they run over a snake in the road. I never had a problem with it. Just was told about it. IS this a real problem or just one of those old wives tails?

 

[Steve in VA]

I've met up with 4 or 5 black snakes but think they are beneficial so save or avoid them if I can. Two currently live in the tractor shed.

 

[MarkB_MI]

There is only one poisonous snake in SE Michigan, the Massassauga rattlesnake. It is too small to be much of a danger to humans, and is protected by law. We see them very rarely around our place. There's an old millpond in our township with a dam that needs to be either removed or replaced. The township board plans to drain the pond and turn it into a rattlesnake preserve. This has a few folks upset!

I've never seen rattlers as big as the ones I've encountered hiking in SoCal. It really gets your attention when one of those big boys slithers across your hiking trail.

 

[RobCons]

I see them fairly often in Alabama. Vegetation needs to be tall, if its short I rarely see them. If I'm cutting near water cottonmouths and copperheads are likely. Upper land is rattlesnake area. Usually just rat snakes as they seem to live everywhere. I carry a handgun for the venomous ones.

 

[muleman51]

I and my friends are happy to make your life better.

 

[RESLLS]

N w Tennessee. Have only seen 1 snake on my place. Saw this guy yesterday. Just over 4 ft. He lived to see another day.

 

[DPittman]

Chased a two ft. garter snake out the shed Tuesday. Thats the height of my snake excitement after 10 years of living on 8 acres of woods with a creek running through it

 

[glennster]

last snake i saw at the farm was a bull snake about 6 years ago. since then nothing. i have creeks , timber, and grassland. lots of field mice and voles.

 

[rrman61]

Plenty of snakes here in south Louisiana.cottonmouths in the swamps/wetlands and rattlers as you go north.and a lot of different kinds of non poisonous snakes too.agree with tpd below

 

[john in la]

That is a old wives tale.

First you would have to have a open cut and there would have to be a puddle of venom. Venom is not poisonous. It can not be absorbed through the skin.

 

[cjunrau]

Lots as in killed 20-30 this spring around the yard already. Garter snakes only. We used to have them in the house and I kill every one I see. As we have lots of scrap around the yard and spent the last month cleaning it up we see more than generally. By the end of this year I hope to have all the junk cleaned up and that should stop the snakes.

 

[Barts Dad]

Just read an article about a young girl getting bit on the ankle by a Copperhead in her backyard in the Platteville, WI area. If you look at the range for that species, they usually arent found that far north. Im wondering if it wasnt a misidentified Timber Rattler. Plenty of those all along the Mississippi up to Hudson. Im in Waukesha County and havent seen anything other than Garter snakes occasionally while walking the trails in the county parks.

 

[Steven Allen]

Son and I spent Saturday brush-hogging and clearing brush along our creek. Saw two black snakes; gave them plenty of room and our thanks for eating vermin.

Haven't seen any copperheads around here lately. Had one slither into the middle of a Cub Scout camping night once; poor thing lost his head when he saw so many boys running around.

 

[warbaby]

My brothers and I would follow my dad plowing to pick up fishing worms and we'd commonly see Massassaugas when he got down near the swampy areas. I guess nobody ever got bit because we all survived. Unfortunately, the snakes and the swamp didnt. Its now a subdivision.

A summer rite of passage back then was when any of our cousins would come and stay with us and we'd take a day-long hike/fishing trip following the streams and fire roads to the nearest town (Luzerne, Mi.). We would often come across a big Blue Racer snake sunning themselves on the sandy trails and we'd send a gullible youngster ahead to see what it was.

A quirky hunting strategy of that particular snake is that once it visually detects movement, it rears up its head and quickly comes toward the moving object to for a better look and possibly to get a whiff of scent to decide if its a tasty meal or not. To us kids it was obviously chasing us down to kill us all and we'd all run through the woods, screaming and yelling for what seemed like miles with the deadly serpent nipping at our heels! Of course, the snake had probably resumed its languid position in the sun after a only a few yards of imagined pursuit, but we just knew it had doggedly stalked us until we got to town and then probably waited in the shadows as we got a pop at the gas station and fished the old millpond, and then followed us all the way back home as well, hoping to pick off any stragglers...

 

[RJKeith]

I try to give black snakes a little room to. Not only do they eat mice, they will chase copperheads away too.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Not this year but not too many back I happened to notice this 6 foot mouser headed for my shop attic. The birds that had been roosting in the rafters camped on the roof that night. gm

 

[PJH]

I've killed 10 copperheads on this place in the 58 years that I've been here. I leave all of the others alone. I've never seen a rattler here, but they are seen a mile or so south of of us.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I had a bottle of a chemical knockoff the top shelf in my pole barn. No critter showed up on the ring camera.
I'm guessing it had to be a snake.
It was a full quart bottle.