Snake Bite - Funny

Here is the scoop........

Sitting here at the computer typing an email. Kitty Cat perched in window. Kitty Cat begins to growl. He is overlooking our front porch. Kitty Cat growls, jumps down, and runs away. Other Kitty Cat goes to window and peers out. By now I have strong suspicions. From computer chair, I am looking out the window. See nothing. I think, ok, it isn't a stray cat causing all the commotion. I have a pretty good idea what this is all about. I get up and go to window and look out. Yep, just as I suspected. A snake. Hubby still sitting in recliner hasn't tuned in to the commotion yet or what I was saying LOL Finally get his attention, he comes to the window, I point to snake laying at the base of the window nicely camouflaged in the grapevine wood laying on the front porch. I pronounce it to a Oak Snake. Hubby agrees. Hubby walks back to recliner. I say, "Well, do something about it. Either kill it or relocate it." We agree relocation is in order. Hubby goes to fetch a container to put said snake in. I am thinking, now I know him, he is not going to pick this snake up, and it is going to get away from him. At this point, I decide to do my thing. I walk out the front door, approach said snake. Snake is aware of my presence. Snake turns and starts to slither off. I have had many run ins with snakes and learned a long time ago not to pick up a snake unless I know what kind it is. Oak snakes are on my list of ok to pick up. Well snakey is getting away. Unable to reach his head because he is going under more grapevine wood, I grab him in the middle of the body and start dragging him back out. Now the challenge.......... to grab him right behind the head. He isn't happy. He starts squirming making it rather hard to nail the head precisely. But no fear because it is just an oak snake. A four foot oak snake but that is ok. I grab for moving head, land a little bit off target, not happy oak snake chomps down on finger. New grasp is placed in the correct position. Hubby is returning with an ice chest. I am standing with my catch, dangling some four feet. Hubby says, "Drop him in HERE!!!", IN HERE!!." I am enjoying looking at the snake LOL. Hubby says again, "IN HERE!" I give in and nice snakey goes into cooler with hubby slamming the lid shut. Hubby says, "He didn't bite ya????" I said, "Yep." Show hubby bleeding finger. Hubby says, "That looks like fang marks!" I reply, "No it isn't." Wipe away the blood and the row of teeth marks become visible. He says, "Ok, I see the teeth marks " Snakey is carried to the automobile, we come in, I wash hands, hubby applies antibiotic and band aide. Story over LOL........... oh yeah............. snake is now being relocated. The end.

I think we put the band aide on too tight. Woops

 

LOL sounds like something I would do.

Are your tetanus (I think I spelled that right) shots up to date? Snakes can give you that... just so you know.

 

LOL sounds like something I would do.

Are your tetanus (I think I spelled that right) shots up to date? Snakes can give you that... just so you know.

Probably not. The last shot I got was while we were on vacation and me being the cat lover I am, had to catch a not so tame kitty. Brings back a lot of childhood memories. I was always chasing down little wild kitties and my mom was always dragging me (literally) to the doctor's office to get a shot. Kicking and screaming the whole time.

Thanks for the heads up!!! I will check back and see when the last one was. Gosh I appreciate that!!!!!! x

 

I so would not do that. I hate snakes. During the summertime at work people wil find copperhaeds in the plant... I stay farrrrrrrr away.

 

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a dare devil.

On my last trip to Thailand I 'saved' a 1.5 meter (4.5 feet) long King Cobra. He was in the yard of my guest house and guys were trying to hit it with sticks! Poor thing. I went over and screamed at the guys and they immediately backed off. I don't think it was because of me screaming though. The snake decided I was 'nice' and had begun to wrap itself around me feet. So I got a wildlife specialist to help us out and I carried the snake back to a safer part of the jungle. It was about a 15 mile walk and that snake was HEAVY. Stupid thing was twisted around my arms and over my shoulders and kept lifting it's head to look at things and I had to bend to make sure it, and my head, didn't hit a branch.

That was about two years ago. The snake still lives in the round about area that we dropped him off in and has given the wildlife specialist I called some very useful info about King Cobras in the wild.

You can my mom's reaction when I told her.... haha.

 

Oak snake? Are you referring to the copperhead (colloquially known as a white oak snake)?
Not something you want to play with, if so. They are venomous (though they prefer to give "warning bites" at first, by only injecting a small amount of venom, if you're holding one, it could easily decide it is in enough danger to give a full bite). If you do need to pick up a venomous snake (and I do not suggest this at all... if it's not in an area where children/pets go, probably best to leave it be. If it is in such an area, calling local animal control, which may be your police department, is the way to go), the best way to do so is to use an object like a stick to pin the head, get the proper grasp on the head, then grab the body.

 

I so would not do that. I hate snakes. During the summertime at work people wil find copperhaeds in the plant... I stay farrrrrrrr away.

Lexie, you sound just like my mom. She HATES snakes!!! My late father-in-law also HATED snakes. He believed the only good snake was a dead snake.

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a dare devil.

On my last trip to Thailand I 'saved' a 1.5 meter (4.5 feet) long King Cobra. He was in the yard of my guest house and guys were trying to hit it with sticks! Poor thing. I went over and screamed at the guys and they immediately backed off. I don't think it was because of me screaming though. The snake decided I was 'nice' and had begun to wrap itself around me feet. So I got a wildlife specialist to help us out and I carried the snake back to a safer part of the jungle. It was about a 15 mile walk and that snake was HEAVY. Stupid thing was twisted around my arms and over my shoulders and kept lifting it's head to look at things and I had to bend to make sure it, and my head, didn't hit a branch.

That was about two years ago. The snake still lives in the round about area that we dropped him off in and has given the wildlife specialist I called some very useful info about King Cobras in the wild.

You can my mom's reaction when I told her.... haha.

Mooner, my hubby share the same opinion that your mother does. Something along the lines of "You are crazy" I hear him muttering LOL LOL

Yes, I have a few snake stories I could share.

Anybody else like or dislike snakes or have any interesting stories to relay? Would love to hear them!!!!

 

Haha. She was hysterical. Crazy is not a strong enough word.

I don't mind snakes. I don't particularly like them but I find them interesting. I have LOTS of snake stories. I have yet to be bitten by a snake though.

 

Oak snake? Are you referring to the copperhead (colloquially known as a white oak snake)?
Not something you want to play with, if so. They are venomous (though they prefer to give "warning bites" at first, by only injecting a small amount of venom, if you're holding one, it could easily decide it is in enough danger to give a full bite). If you do need to pick up a venomous snake (and I do not suggest this at all... if it's not in an area where children/pets go, probably best to leave it be. If it is in such an area, calling local animal control, which may be your police department, is the way to go), the best way to do so is to use an object like a stick to pin the head, get the proper grasp on the head, then grab the body.

I agree. If you do not know what you are messing with, DO NOT mess with it. I learned that lesson quite a few years ago!! It was at that time, that I decided that I needed to learn poisonous from non-poisonous. If I am uncertain, they fall immediately into the "not to play with snake group"!!

Just last week, while outside, I looked out over a brushy area and saw something moving. It was moving at ground level. Once approached, only parts of it body was evident. It was black with yellow markings. I felt reasonably sure it was a King Snake. I ran in an ask hubby to come out and take a look at what I had found. Sure enough, it was a King Snake!!! I knew we had a resident King Snake. Now King Snakes are one of your "good" snakes. Very helpful snake to have around!!! The more King snakes you have around, the better. We live next to a pond, which is prime territory for Water Moccasin and the Cotton Mouth Moccasin. I have had WAY to many run ins with them!!! We also have the Diamond Back Rattle Snake that love it right here. The King Snake will kill other snakes. So the more the merrier with them. Especially with the number of poisonous ones that you are highly likely to come across in our yard.

Thanks Sirdarksol for the concern!! But it was a common oak snake. Not sure of the scientific name but they are easily distinguishable. The name oak snake comes from the fact that it has the marking of an oak tree. Great camouflage. It has light and dark gray markings with darker black markings mixed into a pattern. I think this one was a female. The males can have a very very musky smell!!! Not pleasing if you are not another oak snake.

Just a few months back, we had a five foot oak snake make its way into the house. He was as big around as my wrist. Another story to share sometime LOL

I could probably find a pic of one on the internet, but don't know if that would be wise. Wouldn't want someone to think that they recognize it from the picture and it end up not being what they thought.

Like we have said, if you don't know what you are messing with, best not to temp the snake. There are indeed other ways to handle the situations. Lots of other ways in fact.

 

We get rattlesnakes here in the summers. I have to admit that they scare me. I haven't seen one, but I know neighbors have found them in storage sheds and stuff.

 

I have had first hand experience with the rattlesnake on several occasions. One was pretty big. Ten rattles and a button. Definitely not something you want to play with. Can be quite disconcerting to know that you can stumble across one of those anytime you walk outside. In this particular region, we have a lot of gopher holes. The rattlesnakes and the turtle can share the same hole. Certain areas seem to have more than others, and out land sits smack dab on some prime gopher condominiums. I wouldn't change living in the country for anything though!!!!! I have always been a country girl, and love it!!!

 

When we were kids, we had a hollowed out tree on our property that had a common garter snake nest in it. Seems like there were always plenty of babies around that tree and we used to play with them as if they were worms. Granted, they weren't dangerous but still, you wouldn't see me doing that today. I love the boas and have no qualms about hanging an 8 footer over my shoulders but don't try to hand me a little skinny snake. Those are the ones that make me queasy. Go figure.

 

Thanks Sirdarksol for the concern!! But it was a common oak snake. Not sure of the scientific name but they are easily distinguishable. The name oak snake comes from the fact that it has the marking of an oak tree. Great camouflage. It has light and dark gray markings with darker black markings mixed into a pattern. I think this one was a female. The males can have a very very musky smell!!! Not pleasing if you are not another oak snake.

I have never heard of an oak snake, nor could I find any online reference to the creature, beyond "oak snake photos," the first time I searched.
However, I searched again and found someone talking about keeping them as pets. They are typically called gray rat snakes (Elaphe obsoleta spiloides). There are closely related snakes, corn snakes, that live around here. Same musk issue. Pretty snakes, though.

 

Not a huge snake story but I recently got a bit of a warning. We have tons of red bellied blacks around here. They are deadly but shy so are not a big deal. I lifted one out of the mulch pile a while back in a fork full of mulch and it just slithered off. They are also supposed to keep down brown snakes - deadly and aggressive. Not so! Last week I found a large shed brown snake skin in my front garden in amongst the overgrown weeds. Needless to say I am weeding a bit more carefully now. The skin has gone into my sister in law's collection of venomous creature thing she is collecting for her home schooled kids. She has a funnel web spider her father found. No idea how he caught it. They are very deadly and very aggressive. I added a red back spider yesterday. Deadly but not at all aggressive. Ahhh.. the joys of living in Australia.

 

My snake story from a couple of years ago

Glad you weren't hurt. that bandaid looks pretty tight
Carol

 

your all mad! i'm staying in england!!!

 

aww, c'mon Tony! you don't want the excitement a possibly-poisonous snake can bring to your day??
I remember going outside to ride my bike to find a rather large snake curled-up under it, making rattling noises. I knew some snakes somewhere were poisonous, so I went running back inside to tell dad(this was when I was about 7yrs. old) about the huge snake under my bike. He expected I was talking about a harmless li'l garter snake, but followed me out... long story short, he freaked out, got a gun and shot the snake(it died), and we identified the snake as a Bullsnake- the harmless look-and-sound-alike version of the poisonous diamond-back rattler. We don't generally get poisonous snakes in our area, but it's not unheard-of and Dad didn't want to take chances that it could be a poisonous snake. We still have a photo of my older brother holding the 6ft. snake by it's tail(it had been dead a while before that happened).

 

I am indeed enjoying this thread!!!!!!

Thanks everyone!!!!!

Hope some more people join in!!!!

Butterfly, that snake was beautiful!!!! Loved the thread!!!!

This one got relocated. We have so many bluebird boxes around. And the snakes love to eat the eggs or babies.

When we had baby ducks and chickens, snakes took their toil on them too. Hence the relocation project began.

I was gathering eggs late one evening and also ended up gathering another oak snake. Quite the surprise when I stuck my hand in the nest, felt around, something not quite right, so I pulled the nest out into the light. Yep, there was the snakey gulping down a huge brown egg. Hard to believe that he could get that whole egg down, but he did!! With chickens, also come mice that like to eat the chicken food. With the abundance of mice and baby chicks, come the snakes. Living next to a pond and the chicken pen being a stones throw form it, I had a couple of run ins with the moccasins. My last encounter with a huge moccasin wasn't funny and I could kick myself now. Again gathering eggs, but was taking the route around the backside of the pens. Was making my way between the pens and the luscious growing leafy vines and walked right up on a monster moccasin. Now my beliefs on snakes change when it comes to the poisonous ones that are invading MY territory. I think of MY space kinda like a no fly zone for poisonous snakes. Too big of a chance at getting bit by trying to locate it and too big of a chance to just let it go because the next time you come across it, you just might not be lucky. Gosh it was hot that evening, but the standoff began. A very long standoff. All the while hollering for hubby which couldn't hear me because he was in the house. The only thing close enough was a 2x4 that I could reach with my toes, barely. All the while, staying eye ball to eye ball with this very poisonous snake that could very very easily have nailed me. As I said, I walked right up on him. Couldn't turn around and run because of all the grapevine limbs spreading everywhere. A trip would have most likely occurred followed by the snake bite. Ever so slowly, I managed to pull the board to me with my toes and was then able to pin it's head to the ground. Now there I stand with snake in place, holding the wrong end of the board. When I pulled the board too me, I did not realize it had a nail in the other end. Yes I keep my guardian Angels very busy!!! Things were out of control. No way to run and now one very very angry snake with his head pinned down with the wrong end of the board. We were actually in a corner. Couldn't go forward, backward, or to either side. I do not remember how I managed to flip the short board around, but I did. I won't say what happened once I was able to manage that, but that one nail that was sticking thru the board, did the trick. Like I said, my Guardian Angels are on call 24/7.

I knew that moccasins were poisonous but had no earthly idea that you can stand a pretty good chance of loosing a limb if you get bit. Not sure I understand correctly, but something about venom destroys the surrounding tissue.

So having a pond close by is wonderful, but you also have to take the bad with the good. Not something I want to experience again!!!

 

snakes are so scary! I would probably get so shocked that I can't even move if I saw one lol

 

I love catching Garter snakes when isee them. We have diamon back rattlers around here too. I had to relocate several last year. Snakes don't scare me of I know what kind they are.