Resuming the contest

[Wayne Lomman]

It's hot and I am back to running the irrigation pump on the dam most days. I had decided that my old nemisis the resident tiger snake was either dead or moved to better territory. However.... In the process of fishing my pump shed out of the water where it was blown a day ago, Fat Tiger Snake popped his head out and shot off into the rushes. The contest continues. On the plus side, the waterlogged shed had freshwater shrimps moved in already. Delicious! Cheers

[Mike Cutler]

I'm not sure I'd want to mess about with a Tiger Snake
Played around with Rattler's as a kid.A tiger snake is just a whole different creature.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have a friend who retired from the USMC. Years ago he was working in a local gun shop and I would often stop in to discuss politics with him. Others in town did the same. One day while in the store he introduced me to a gentleman. After the guy left, my friend informed me that the gentleman was a retired university professor and for a hobby caught rattlesnakes to be milked for their venom. A year or so later, while visiting my friend, he asked if I remembered him introducing me to the professor. I said yes. He then told me the professor hadn't been seen for a couple days, some friends became concerned and went to his home where they found him dead, sitting in a recliner where he had died from the effects of a rattlesnake bite.

I am cautious around poisonous snakes!

[John K Jordan]

Lucky you, living where I hear venomous snakes are common, rare in these parts.

JKJ

[Mike Cutler]

Ken

As kids we used to catch Diamondbacks. I'm not sure whom needed their head examined more? us, or our parents.
In southern California where I grew up, they were everywhere at the time. I remember one getting in the house one Thanksgiving Day when I was about 15.
We used to take them to Cal Poly Pomona in the early/mid 70's, where I guess they studied them and "milked them". I never liked killing them, unless it was necessary. Sometimes they got onto the front porch to get out of the sun and we did have to kill them.
In 1993 I went to Australia, and I remember being in the Herpetarium at the zoo in Sydney just fascinated by them. Australia/Tasmania is home to 8 out of 10 of the most venomous snakes in the world, including the top 5. I also remember that one of them was "aggressive, fast, diurnal, could live in trees, and the ground, and swam. I just thought,,, Great!!!
I think in Wayne's position I'd just build a new shed and let the snake have that one!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike,

We have our share of rattlesnakes in our area. Because the valley is 2,000 feet lower in elevation than the surrounding high elevation prairies and even lower than the nearby mountains, we see a lot of rattle snakes locally. I used to run with one of the radiologists with whom I worked. There is a system of earth covered rock dikes that keep the Snake and Clearwater rivers from flooding our down town area. There are over 20 miles of dikes with an asphalt pathway on top. We ran on the dikes. In the wee hours of the early morning often in the dark or semi-dark in the spring and fall, we would periodically find live rattlesnakes on the pathways where they had crawled to enjoy the effects of thermal mass and solar heat before and after hibernation.

This professor I was discussing according to my friend, had been bitten many times with no problems. But, he had become elderly and since his wife's death was living alone when he was bitten the last time.

In areas where our homes are built, we see no snakes, but do see a few rabbits and quail until the owls, hawks or eagles find Mother Nature's diner. Those who build on the edge of the city do see a few snakes. We have had moose, black bear, elk, mule deer, cougar, and white tail deer in town within a few blocks of our home. Recently a family fenced in an area on their property in the center of town and had 4 goats on the property until one night a cougar killed all 4 goats. That happened in the approximate geographical center of town not 10 blocks from our home.

[Brian Henderson]

When I was much younger, I was part of the local herp club's "hot snake" group, we'd go out and catch rattlesnakes out of people's yards, have them milked, then take them out and release them far from where people were. It's really not that difficult or dangerous if you know what you're doing, but you have to know what you're doing because getting tagged by a rattler is no fun and the anti-venom treatment isn't pleasant. I've never been bitten, but I knew a couple of people who did and still bore the scars.

[Steve Demuth]

Never been around venemous snakes much - timber rattlers are found where I live, but they are scarce and so shy that actually seeing one is a once per decade or less experience even though we live in the kind of rocky wooded area they prefer - but y'alls youthful snake catching stories are making me nostalgic for my own experience as an adolescent snagging snapping turtles. Not venomous, but their bite certainly hurts like hell, and it can be a real challenge to get them to let go if they do get hold of you. I've got several scars still visible 50 years later where the turtle's letting go meant me letting him or her have a small chunk of me as a reward for their perseverance.