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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 8:08:50 GMT
I was watering trees and flowers tonight, wondering where my froggies had gone, it's been a few days since I had seen them All of a sudden, I see a large Timber Rattler in my flashlight beam about 8 feet away I put the hose down, and ran back into the house trying to figure out what weapon to grab, I wrote off the guns, since I was scared that if I missed, the snake would run away and would still be on the loose I didn't want to use a sword, and maybe hit a rock in the ground when cutting downward I ended up using my CS Boar spear, and stabbed the snake over and over until it was dead Now I know what happened to my poor frogs At least that snake is history It was about 4 feet long. The buzzards will dine tomorrow if the coyotes don't find it before morning So what weapon would you guys have grabbed
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 8:18:56 GMT
Well, I'm glad that you figured out what happened to your frogs, but I wish that you'd of taken the snakes life quicker.
I'll spare you the lecture on all living things, but stabbing the thing to death leans a bit on the cruel side. Sounds like you need a couple machetes to keep on hand for such occasions. I highly recommend the cold steel line of machetes. Actually... they did just come out with a few new ones that I meant to get, I think I'll go order em now.
And I know you are probably thinking, "I'm not getting close enough to use a machete." Which is of course where a good sturdy quarter staff would come in handy. You could even keep the machete with the staff so that you'll have a nice snake killing package.
Oh, and I realize there is the whole argument of "If it threatens my home and the people in it, then it dies." Yeah, you may have loved ones you don't want to have bitten, and you probably don't want to be bitten yourself.
There are a couple ways to convince the snakes that your property isn't the best to set up shop in. A few old timers around here say that they just run a two cycle engine every other day and it takes care of their snake problem. I'm sure you could also find some interesting alternatives online for keeping snakes away. Just don't use mothballs, it's like dropping radioactive waste in your yard, and it smells bad.
But yeah, I'd have gone for a broom stick and my 24" latin machete. Sorry to be so winded, but I feel strongly on the subject of killing wild animals.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 8:43:04 GMT
I personally would have just caught it and moved it to a remote area the next day. Though I worked with reptiles in the pet trade, owned a savanah monitor lizard or three. I have always had a report with reptiles. While living in AZ at Arcosanti, I managed 15 1/2 acres of landscaping. The place is a tourist attractions, and built on a mesa. The first rattle snake I caught was measured at 6 foot. I caught many snakes over 4 years living there. Rattle snakes are an important part of the eco system and eat a lot of the small animals we consider pests. Yes it might have eaten your frogs, but they also eat mice rats, gopher, rabbits, etc
I would not encourage people with no experience to catch and release poisonous snakes, but it is something I have experience doing. Along with catching plenty of other animals, like skunks, fox, bobcat, bears, even oddly an emu (released by a bankrupt emu farm) while in AZ.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 8:48:47 GMT
Greg, Don't worry youreself too much about that snake suffering, it was over real fast I have a pole machete, but I liked the extra reach I had with that spear I also could have used my Odachi, but would not want to try and sand out a nick in the blade in the case of a rock
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 9:04:59 GMT
I probably kill 20 snakes a year here. I take a shovel and decapitate them quick and painlessly as possible - then dispose of the corpses behind my composte pile where they get eaten by scavangers. We are infested in this area with cottonmouth, copperhead, eastern diamondback, and even the occassional coral snake - so if it squirms on it's belly, we just kill it.
I want to try skinning one someday - perhaps get some funky scabbard or grip leather free of charge.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 10:43:38 GMT
I hope Warlord Midori doesn't read this post, she might stab YOU to death. If it wasn't bothering you why did you kill it?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 10:46:56 GMT
I don't generally approve of killing wild animals but snakes are a touchy subject. I have had to kill a cotton mouth before myself, and I've known a few people who will hunt Rattlers for food. I'll spare you that lecture.
Anyway, when I dispatched the cotton mouth I was armed with a large stick and a pocket knife. I went to guide the thing away from the trailer my family was living in at the time and it went aggressive on me. Since I'm not the late Croc Hunter - I'm not about to try and catch a striking snake. It got a firm whack with the stick and then a quick decapitation with the pocket knife to make sure it was no longer suffering.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 11:50:24 GMT
BTW I was in no way condemning your killing of a poisonous snake in your yard, but just answering your question of what weapon others would use. I believe any animal withing your living area is fair game to put to death when there is concern for safety. Rarely will any animal tolerate other animals within its home space or den, and humans are no different with this. I have a lot of training and practice at catching snakes so for me I tend to relocate them rather than kill them. I do it safely and calmly. Usually it is less for me about worry about the snake attacking a person, but someone attacking the snake and maybe getting bit because they didn't know what they were doing. Most snake bites occur when people are trying to deal with a snake they found, not snakes that attack out of no where. An example of one of the snakes I caught while at Acrosanti
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 12:17:40 GMT
Even in my blurp, the snake had a very good reason for attacking me. I was a threat to it, as I was pushing it with a large stick trying to guide it away from my family's home. I don't blame the snake for attacking, but I do wish the situation had ended differently for the snake. Oddly enough the concept of ending a threat from a human in such a final manner in doesn't bother me anywhere near as much as having to put down an animal.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 14:15:29 GMT
In my opinion, snakes are weak and pathetic, making for very unworthy opponents. They have no legs on which to stand, they have no arms and hands to swing a sword, they're too stupid to lay traps, they have poor hearing and most of them can barely see.
In short, fighting snakes is like picking on a partly deaf, nearsighted, mentally handicapped quadruple amputee. Hardly glorious. I for one would have spared the pitiful creature.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 14:16:03 GMT
If you didn't feel confident enough to catch and release the little belly crawler then I think you did the right thing in killing it. It was on your property posing a large enough threat that taking a chance on it would have been a bad decision. Fluffy bunnies...cool. Squirrels and bird...O.K. Poisonous rattle snakes...not so much. Fact is that I would have done the same. There are certain critters you don't waste time with. It was your property. Your safety. Your call.
It's interesting that you opened this to the forum. It is a topic that is a guaranteed debate sparker. Thanks for keeping us on our toes:)
As for my decided extermination tool of choice: the spade of quick decapitation, just as Odingaard.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 14:19:01 GMT
well I would have used my phone and called animal control because I love snakes and would not want to make one die
*If I were to kill it tho (say it attacked my dog and I was avenging it or something) I would have just grabbed my big ass stick that I have (its a nice stick) or alternatively grabbed a machete) and had I killed it I would have eaten it like bear grylls would cause itd be high in protien and goodness*
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Post by chrisperoni on Aug 14, 2010 14:39:51 GMT
I probably kill 20 snakes a year here. I want to try skinning one someday - perhaps get some funky scabbard or grip leather free of charge. - You definitely should skin 'em, no sense in wasting what's left, and snake skin has many uses- how cool would a custom snake skin grip be- especially if you killed and skinned the snake with the very blade it would eventually adorn. If killing I would opt for a long handled shovel as well- good enough to cut off a head or cut the body in half. Personally I don't think it is necessary to kill a dangerous animal if there is no concern for continued threat- so if this was a very rare occurrence then maybe let the thing live, just get it off your land. If there is an infestation as Odin explained, then do what you must to be safe. We are all animals and it bothers me more when people preach/cry animal cruelty even though we are all hypocrites in this matter. Everybody plays some part in the death of countless animals- unless you are some level 4 vegan living on a hippie commune ...blah blah etc.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 14:45:46 GMT
By the way, if you have a rattle snake problem the best thing you can do to keep them out of your property is to get bull (gopher) snakes to live around your place. Bull snakes will eat any young rattlers, and will defend their territory against rattle snakes. Bull snakes tend to look quite a bit like rattlers but are nonvenomous constrictors. I have caught quite a few of them also and they can actually be fairly docile when handled properly, though can get aggressive if threatened. Oddly Bull snakes like to imitate rattlers, and can put on a pretty good show even imitating the rattle by vibrating their tails on the ground.
Just a little friendly suggestion of how to naturally protect against rattlers. Though bull snakes will eat your frogs too. In fact your frogs are probably the reason the snakes was there in the first place. Another good way to keep snakes away is to keep the frogs away.
As Margshus mentioned this will probably strike up the debate of to kill or not to kill. I have the knowledge and skill to catch and release, if you don't then killing is quite understandable. Though safely from distance always please. Snakes can strike 1/2 their body length or more.
Interesting rattle snake fact. Baby rattlers tend to be more dangerous than adults due to them not being able to control their poison release. Adult rattlers will usually not even inject poison unless you are provoking them. More than 30% of rattle snake bites are dry bites, no venom at all.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 16:07:02 GMT
And that's what I like about this community. We have people on both sides of this "kill or no kill" coin and we all voice our opinions but do not chasten the other side for theirs.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 16:11:51 GMT
I probably would have done it in with my CS 2-handed machete. Not that we get rattlers around here, though I have had to kill a few out at my uncle's place in central Oregon. Always used a shotgun for that, but... he doesn't have neighbors. As for the escalation of force issue... as I see it, you killed not in wantonness, but in defense.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 16:36:42 GMT
No!Poor snake!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 16:43:52 GMT
rattlers are venomous not poisonous, also most rattler bites are "dry" and the logic with young snakes being more dangerous applies to all snakes. I will trade you your rattlers for our inland taipans, or king browns, or...
No need to kill them, catch them or get animal control, that is what they are there for.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 17:08:37 GMT
Shovel/spade would work well, I have a really nice heavy duty titanium shovel, but at the time, I was thinking weapon, and the shovel did not enter my thoughts since I would think of it as a tool fallschirmjager, If I had killed it during the day and not late at night, I would have prepared it and eaten it, rattlesnake meat is one of the best tasting of all As far as animal control, remember I live way out in the country, and there is no such thing around here My feelings on relocation, aside from me risking injury or death from a bite, is that I am just giving my problem to someone somewhere else, like finding a ticking time bomb and moving it down the block instead of defusing it I saw the snake like a computer virus, it had deleted useful programs (frogs) and was a threat to me, family members and our dogs so I deleted it. The frogs had been eating crickets that were swarming, so unless more frogs show up, or I can frog-nap some more frogs and bring them here, the crickets will continue to be a nuisance
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 17:40:31 GMT
OK so I,m not a giant killer I've done some pheasant hunting years ago and they tasted great.But a snake (and a deadly poisonous one) in my yard,I would killed it as quick as possible.Sure I watch the Animal planet channel but not enough the risk my life trying to pick up and relocate a rattle snake. We have a 18 year old deaf cat and 3 dogs that would have had to investigate it and God forbid what could have happened.Thank God we don't have kids just having one kid walk buy the snake and not noticing it could kill a child within a few hours. I dont want to see any animal suffer but that's one mega serious dangerous snake to bump into. BTW I'm getting sick of walking out my front door almost every AM and walking through the giant spider web from the huge golden orb weaver spider that set up home by the outside porch light.He's not dangerous but I seem to get a serious case of the willies. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Orb_weaver_black_bckgrnd03_crop.jpg
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