If you kill rattlesnakes for pens....

[ed4copies]

...wait a while to pick them up!!!

Fortunately, in Wisconsin we don't encounter rattlers, so I know NOTHING about killing them. But for those who DO need to kill them from time to time, here is an important story:

"A Texas man nearly died after he was bitten by a rattlesnake he decapitated.
Milo Sutcliffe and his wife, Jennifer, were doing yard work at their Corpus Cristi home when they encountered the four-foot rattlesnake on May 27.
Jennifer Sutcliffe told KIII-TV her husband then took a shovel and severed the snake's head, but when he bent down to pick it up, the snake's head bit him."

The story goes on to say it took 26 doses of anti-venom to stabilize the husband, who is recovering.

Hope this helps some of you who have "rattler problems"!!

 

[its_virgil]

kinda like a chicken with it head cut off. Takes awhile for the nerves to settle down. The head of a venomous snake is not to be handled. Dig a hole and cover it up...use the shovel. Thanks Ed. That story was in all the local news recently. Happens more than is noted. That is one reason I purchase skins from the butcher room at the local snake roundups. Let someone else do the dangerous work.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

...wait a while to pick them up!!!

Fortunately, in Wisconsin we don't encounter rattlers, so I know NOTHING about killing them. But for those who DO need to kill them from time to time, here is an important story:

"A Texas man nearly died after he was bitten by a rattlesnake he decapitated.
Milo Sutcliffe and his wife, Jennifer, were doing yard work at their Corpus Cristi home when they encountered the four-foot rattlesnake on May 27.
Jennifer Sutcliffe told KIII-TV her husband then took a shovel and severed the snake's head, but when he bent down to pick it up, the snake's head bit him."

The story goes on to say it took 26 doses of anti-venom to stabilize the husband, who is recovering.

Hope this helps some of you who have "rattler problems"!!

 

[JohnU]

Thankfully my snakes come with the heads already off also. We don't have much to worry about here in IL either but I still don't like them. Snapping turtles are the same. 40 years ago I grew up watching my grandpa and dad catch them. We used to watch the heads bite down on sticks after they were decapatated. I'm glad I never had to worry about rattlers.

 

[brownsfn2]

Wow. Did not know that. Just one more reason for me to stay far away from all snakes.

 

[TellicoTurning]

Wow. Did not know that. Just one more reason for me to stay far away from all snakes.

That and the fact that I'm kind of a wuss around snakes anyway... I don't even like to watch them on TV.

 

[Ligget]

Forget the snakes, wait until you get chased by a haggis! :biggrin:

 

[gimpy]

i was told that a rattle snake will bit 24 hours after it's death

 

[m4skinner]

i was told that a rattle snake will bit 24 hours after it's death

I was told when I was a kid that snakes don't die till the sun goes down, but who knows.

 

[Master Geppetto]

I can relate, except that it was the headless side of the rattlesnake that struck me (thank goodness!). It seems to vary from rattlesnake to rattlesnake on how long it takes for their instinctive nerves to give out, but it usually takes a minimum of two hours. Don't leave your headless snakes unattended!

 

[Scissortail Pens]

Thankfully my snakes come with the heads already off also. We don't have much to worry about here in IL either but I still don't like them. Snapping turtles are the same. 40 years ago I grew up watching my grandpa and dad catch them. We used to watch the heads bite down on sticks after they were decapatated. I'm glad I never had to worry about rattlers.

Then you sure wouldn't want to mess with this little guy that was caught this weekend.

 

[TellicoTurning]

All these snake stories reminded me, when I was about 9 or 10 we lived in West Texas on a cotton farm... my dad killed a King snake in the cellar and tore the cellar apart looking for the other 'cause Mom said she wasn't going back in there until he found it...that was where all the canned goods that she had put up were stored. Don't remember if he found the other one or not, but he said for me to take the dead one off to the windrow/wind break... a line of trees planted around the fields to break the wind.... I had him/it on a shovel and started up the road to the tree line.... I don't know if I jiggled the shovel or the snake spasm'd or what, but he slid off the shovel.... he/it got buried right in the middle of the road, I dug a hole and raked it in and covered it with the sand... I wasn't going to try to get him back on the shovel.... as I said, I'm a wuss about snakes... they may not hurt me, but they can sure make me hurt myself..:biggrin::biggrin:


All this wussy started when I was about 4 and we were living on Grandpa's old farm... we had a log barn and wild game chickens that would only nest up high... the nest boxes were above my dad's hat on his 6'2" frame and way above mom's reach... dad was gathering eggs on evening with me tagging along when what we always called a chicken snake (probably a bull snake) came slithering out of the nest and down Dad's arm and into the crack between the logs into a corn crib... Dad stepped back and stabbed with his pitchfork and caught the snake a short distance from his tail.... the snake struck back at him.... the part not impaled was almost as long as the pitchfork handle... Dad had mom hold the end of the pitchfork so he could reach the other end of the snake and get a hold on it's tail... he then cracked it like a whip and snapped the head off.... I had nightmares about that snake chasing me to the house for a few years after that... I won't get near a snake, I won't touch one and I don't want to ever make a pen from a snake skin wrapped tube.


WUSSY

 

[steamshovel]

Yea but they are sure good to eat (rattlesnakes). My wife won't cook them for me so I have to eat them raw-yum-yum.

Preston

 

[Woodchipper]

I saw a fellow in the Florida Keys that had some nasty scars on the calf of his leg. He killed sharks for the jaws to sell to shops in Key West. One turned and sunk his teeth in him. Keep in mind this was over 48 years ago. Not sure what the status of this activity is now.

 

[mdburn_em]

Not a fan of Rattlesnakes either

Chuck, I don't think I was quite as scarred as you were but I'm no fan of the evil critters.

I had a 4 footer (approximately I never measured) come visit me in my kitchen one cold August afternoon. I grew up in Northern Montana and I've seen snow every month of the year. It wasn't cold enough to snow but it was cold enough that he (she?) wanted to come in and get warm. I was working at a grain elevator and was home for lunch. I had the electric fire hazard, er, space heater going. It was probably 50 degrees outside. I got up to put the sandwich fixins away and I heard this noise. Couldn't figure out what it was. I thought maybe the fan in the heater was having a problem so I bent down to shut it off. I stood back up and moved to the table to get my plate and take it to the kitchen sink. I heard the noise again...coming from the direction of the sink.

I looked and there directly in front of the sink, perhaps 6 feet from me was a rattlesnake coiled up and rattlin' like crazy. Pur-ty evil lookin critter. ~shiver~

I ended up wounding him, he crawled under the cabinets, I ended up prying up the base (while he was striking at me) until I had enough space to use an ice scraper on him.
After he was dead, I used a very long screwdriver to load him onto the handle of the ice scraper and then took him outside.

I did not keep any part of it, not even the rattle. It was a company house, provided at no cost by the company I worked for. I was getting ready to go to college. I took all of my stuff out of there that night and never went back.

After reading this, I guess I'm even more fortunate that he didn't strike me after I "killed" it. I know I've needed a lot of luck to get to the age I've attained. That's certainly not the only hairy situation I've been in. Most of them have been caused by lack of sense, this one, well, just one of those things.

 

[thawkins87]

My uncle was bit by a copperhead years ago... What this poor fellow is about to find out (if he hasn't already) is that pit viper antivenom is absurdly expensive. I think he (my uncle) had to have 10 doses of the stuff, and the hospital sent his insurance a bill to the tune of $150,000... who, naturally, declined to cover the charge. Took him weeks to get everyone to a final cost to settle at. Kinda floors me how much the US medical industry will charge for things without giving you a quote, cost estimate, warning, etc...

 

[Big]

Sadly, I graduated at the top of my class from the "Scream like an 8 yr. old girl" with regard to snakes. I even have nightmares about them. Although, I did eat rattlesnake meat while stationed in Texas while in the Air Force. Wasn't too bad actually. I don't mind snakes if I run into them as long as I have at a minimum, an AK47, then I'm good.