Speaking of snakes...

[Steve Ash]

Just when I thought it was safe to live in Michigan, I get this email from a friend....

THEY GROW 'EM BIG IN MICHIGAN!!!
This snake was recently found at the old Turkey Creek COAL plant
located just south of the St. Charles on Highway M-52 North of
Chesaning, Michigan. [THAT'S JUST 20 miles NORTH OF Owosso

9 feet, 1 inch - 97 lbs.

[Jerry Olexa]

What type snake is it?? It sure is BIG!!!

[Jim Young]

That would be a copperhead, right?

[Lee DeRaud]

That would be a copperhead, right?I'm seeing the start of rattles right at the bottom edge of the picture...don't think copperheads get that big.

[Don Baer]

Lee's correct. That looks like a bog ol Diamond Back to me...:eek:

I hate snakes.:mad:

[John Miliunas]

Uuuuuuuuh...How long is that pole the guy's got??? NOT long enough for me, this I know!!!:eek: :cool:

[tod evans]

looks like a rattler with a bullet hole in his head to me......i`d of used a 12ga! .02 tod

[Doyle Alley]

This guy snuck up to within 6 feet of me while I was sitting on a cooler. I heard the grass moving behind me and looked back to see him stretched out moving right along. I jumped up and shot his head clean off (the top 6 inches of his neck and head are missing in this picture.)

He was 2 feet shorter than one my neighbor killed a month later.

[Mark Cothren]

If that's a copperhead then I'm moving to Venus.......:eek: ;)

[Jim Young]

I thought it was a little big for a copperhead too but I don't think diamond backs grow around here. I could be wrong, happens all the time, just ask my wife.

[Jim Hinze]

I thought it was a little big for a copperhead too but I don't think diamond backs grow around here. I could be wrong, happens all the time, just ask my wife.

Until I saw that picture, the Massasauga rattlesnake was michigan's only venomous snake... that thing does look like a diamond back... hopefully someone lost him and they haven't started migrating north east.

[Barry Beech]

That picture has been floating around the internet for sometime. In the e-mail that I saw they said it was from TX.

Not trying to burst anyones bubble, just an FYI.

And it is definately a diamondback.

[Steve Ash]

Not trying to burst anyones bubble

You didn't burst my bubble..you made my day. I happy as heck that thing came from Texas. They can keep them down there. After posting that picture I went back to work (siding a house) and I'm looking all over for a dog gone snake to crawl out of a board somewhere. They give me the hibby gibbies....now I am at ease.

[Frankie Hunt]

No doubt that this is a big rattler, but it is not as big as it seems. It is way closer to the camera lense than the fellow holding it, so it appears REALLY big.

I grew up in southwest Virginia. Our property bordered Jefferson National Forest. We saw lots of timber rattlesnakes and copper heads. You needed to take the rattlers seriously. Just about every family had a dog. Sometimes a dog would find a copper head and kill it. If the dog got bit, then it would swell up pretty big around the bite location, but that was about it. Different story with the rattlers. The dog would die from the rattler bite. We killed all rattlers and copper heads near the house. When hunting (not near the house) we just left them alone.

[Norman Hitt]

Uuuuuuuuh...How long is that pole the guy's got??? NOT long enough for me, this I know!!!:eek: :cool:

The pole looks to be, (and is most likely) between 3 and 4' long, and the "Rattler" is Definitely a Diamondback and is probably a minimum of 6' to possibly a little over 7' long. The picture was most likely shot in Texas or Oklahoma from the scenery, and the buildings appear to be a small natural gas processing unit and booster pump station. The large tank in the background should be to collect the liquids (usually saltwater and raw gasoline). From the size of that fellow, there would have been a good bit of "Fine Eating" to be had there.:D

Note: I'm with Steve on this one, "I HATE SNAKES", but I will leave the non poisonous ones alone so they can control the Pesky Vermin.

[Michael Cody]

Don't worry, it's a fake -- unless someone had a pet -- it's a diamond back and they don't grow naturally in Michigan (neither do copperheads BTW).. the real thing you have to look out for is pets. Lots of "IDIOTS" like to keep exotic and often venomous snakes as pets then release them or they get away. That is what I would worry 'bout if I did worry about them. Saw a show on PBS from Chicago Animal Control. Some criminally stupid fool sold 40 Gabon vipers (very very deadly) at an exotic pet show. They found one in a garage in suburban Chicago.. some kids were playing with it. Could have ended badly for sure! It's not like a Chicago Hospital keeps that kind of anti-venom around I wouldn't think.

[Curt Fuller]

When I was in the Army (AIT) at Ft Sill, Oklahoma the big guns (artillery) we were firing would bring big rattlers like that out of the ground. Folks there would make belts, boots, wallets, etc from the skins and deep fry the steaks. They were so sluggish that they weren't much of a threat though.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Curt.........As a kid living in Blanding Utah....My dad helped move an oil rig that had been stacked out for a year. They moved one of the pipe bins and Dad went to the car and got his 22 rifle. He killed 31 rattlesnakes. Lots of snakes in the desert in southeaster Utah .....at least there was in the '50s.

[Barry Stratton]

I'll take a very P.O.'ed sow grizzly with cubs on a moose kill over a snake ANYDAY!!!!!!! Those crawly things give me the heebies big time..........

I have to admit, they do taste good though.

[Rick Gibson]

Sure makes me glad I live in the frigid north. :) I think the last time I even saw a snake outside a zoo was about 20 years ago and then it was just a garter snake.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

In my hometown, Kelowna BC, Canada, we have rattlers on the west side of the lake, none on the east side. Way back when, they had a real problem with the snakes killing cattle, dog, and people, so some smart guy brought in a bunch of wild pigs. I gather that the pigs HATE snakes, and the pigs hide is too thick for the snakes to bite through, so the pigs eradicated the snakes, good news!

Fast forward a few years, and yep, you guessed it, they had a big problem with wild pigs :D

Killed a rattle with a big stone when I was a kid, we were walking up a narrow path in a gully, rock all round, we got the the end, and it did not go up the mountain any further so we had to back track. On the way back, we ran into a rattler, maybe 3 feet long, we had no where to go, so my buddy grabbed a long stick and poked at it to keep it's attention on him, and I went up the rock a bit on the side, and dropped a big rock right on it's head, killed it.

Scared myself silly :o

Nope, don't like snakes....

[Eddie Watkins]

I can't image a guy being able to hold 97# on a stick that long straight out like that. We have several towns around here that have a "rattlesnake roundup" once a year where a bunch of goofies get together and catch rattlesnakes. Usually, they will catch hundreds over a weekend. Evidently the venom is used for other purposes and the hides are used for belts, boots, wallets, etc. They have a big cookout with rattlesnake meat and it is kind of a carnival/social gathering thing. Oddly, I have never seen a rattlesnake around my house, but they are pretty much everywhere around here.
Recently, a guy that wouldn't kill snakes on his property was bitten on the foot by a rattler and when he fell trying to get away, a pygmy rattler bit him on the arm. He was able to get to a hospital and get treated and was fine after a few days.

[Jerry Clark]

It may be a fake picture-- but that is still ONE BIG SNAKE-- :eek: I don't like snakes-- We do have several Gopher snakes here and I leave them alone-- :D

[Tom Sherman]

Just think of all the snake skin pens you could make with that thing.

[Steve Ash]

Just think of all the snake skin pens you could make with that thing.

No Thanks....I don't like touching a snake even if they are dead :eek:

[Doug Shepard]

Dont know what type of rattler is was, but when I was a kid I used to take (with help) a 5-gallon pickle jar to school for show and tell. Inside was a rattler my uncle had shot with a bow about 2 miles from here. That snake was coiled inside and completely filled the jar, along with formaldehyde. It was a big hit with all the girls in class. So they do come that big in Michigan.

[Vaughn McMillan]

When I was in about 5th or 6th grade, my dog cornered a decent-sized rattler under a bush on our property. Figuring I needed to kill it, but knowing my dad would kill me if I used one of the guns that were always kept loaded in the house, I grabbed my Bear bow and the 5 target arrows I owned and went out to "save my dog". ;)

Of the five shots I took from just a few feet away, only one managed to pierce the snake, and it was far enough from the head that I was afraid to reach into the bush and grab the arrows that missed. The snake was wounded, but still pretty lively and mighty upset, so I couldn't finish it off (as I'd always been taught to do). Resigned, I took the dog in the house, and hoped the snake would die overnight. First thing the next morning, I went to check, and the snake wasn't under the bush, but I found it a few feet away, definitely injured, but still very much alive. Now able to get my arrows -- minus the one that was still stuck in the snake -- I was able to shoot it fatally from point blank range fairly quickly. I still feel bad about the whole thing.

I should mention here that I don't like snakes (or reptiles in general) at all, but I'm tolerant of them if they aren't threatening me. Nowadays, I would have just taken the dog away from the rattler. LOML doesn't mind reptiles, but hates insects, so I handle the bugs and she handles the occasional lizard or skink that comes into the house.

- Vaughn

[Paul Downes]

Steve, you're exposing a weakness. I might have to bring a pet snake to the next wwing meeting.:D My son caught another garter snake today. He's got quite a collection. Chip off the old block.

My dad was a scientist and we typically spent a lot of time in the field. He would always instruct us on what was ok to catch and what wasn't. Of course we always looked for the poisoness snakes. I will admit that I've been bitten by non-poisoness snakes several times. I once caught a 5' blue racer by the tail as it went down a hole. That bugger swaped ends on me in a hurry and bit me 3 times on the hand before I could let go. Way faster than the western diamond back I had in a cage. In Michigan we have caught massasaga ratlers several times. We found one once on the main hiking trail in a popular state game area. We took it to a remote area and let it go. My brother in Florida hunts snakes with his samuri sword. He makes stuff from their hides. He got nicked by a pigmy once and is a lot more cautious now. Those little buggers have a highly potent venom. Not to be messed with casually.

[Mike Tempel]

Yes that pic has been floating around for quite some time now. We had that one along with some others of reportedly the same snake that was found by the tires of an airplane at Ellington Air Force base here in Houston. All in all it is still a very impressive specimen. My grandfather was a flight instructor at Ellington back in WWII and he used to tell some whopper stories about snakes. One of which was that the first thing every morning before chow they all (everyone on the base had to help) had to get their brooms and go out and sweep the snakes off the runways. It seems that the snakes would lie on the concrete at night to soak up the heat from the hot concrete and they had to be removed before any flight ops during the day since the airplanes would slip and slide on the snakes when landing or taking off. Like I said it is a whopper of a story but if you knew where Ellington is and the terrain around it and subtracted 60 years of development it seems to be a quite plausible story.

[Frank Fusco]

That was one of the very first urban legends to make the rounds when e-mail was just starting to catch on almost 20 years ago. I don't know if it is real or fake. But it is ancient by computer standards.

[Frank Chaffee]

I have always loved the lithe slinky undulations of snakes slithering through my fingers, but a few years ago, when in adolescence and I was developing my own snakeness, I was chopping a tree on a steep hillside, legs spread wide for stability, and I became terribly frightened upon discovering a four or five foot bull snake between my legs, and I killed it with my axe.

Bull snakes are consummate rodent eaters, and in no way can their bite threaten human life when treated by readily available medical care for puncture wounds.

So why did I react as I did, killing a being who was little threat to me?

In relatively olden times, perhaps a thousandths or billionths of a portion of a blink of some eye ago, snakes were an avenue to the human unconscious utilized by the priestesses of the goddess.

Why are we so afraid of snakes?

Frank