WARNING:
If snakes creep you out, please click HERE TO SEE A KITTEN post from last year instead.
If you're still along for the ride, scroll down...
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| Texas Rat Snake |
...and down and down, ha. 2nd Family emailed us the other night and the subject line was "open attachment if you dare".
I thought, 'oh, cool, what could it be?'.
Um, it was this!
This is "R" from 2nd Family holding a Texas rat snake. This snake had gotten into the chicken coop and was after some eggs and then tried to get one of their young chicks. They realize (and so do we) that although the rat snake is non-venomous and can take care of rats and mice...it can also be aggressive. Sure enough, when "R" was trying to remove it, it turned on him and tried to bite several times. At that point, it was as he said, a tough but necessary decision.
Part of the circle of life in the country I suppose. Still, it's enough to give us the heebie jeebies, that's for sure.
Do snakes freak YOU out?
No, only the water moccasins. A king snake ate my baby goose one time then tried to slither away in a hole in the barn. I pulled all 6 feet of him back out and slung him around in the air, yelling of course. I then threw him down, grabbed an ax leaning nearby and in one fell swoop, chopped his head off. It was like a movie. I could see the lump of my baby goose inside and almost got it out, thinking I might be able to bring it back to life, but my son pointed out the snakes strangle their victims first. I still can't believe I did that. Those snakes usually come in pairs.
ReplyDeleteOK now that's a horrible thing to have to see/do. I I hear ya though, sometimes you just get mad and do what you have to do. Sorry you lost your baby goose. :-(
DeleteNot if they're outside. Story on the news about a house infested with snakes. That would creep me out.
ReplyDeleteI saw that story, OMG it freaked me out. They had snakes EVERYWHERE.
Deletei like snakes except for when they are alive.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Are you saying the only good snake is a 'dead snake'?
Deletelol, I'm laughing at Jaz's comment!!!!
ReplyDeleteSnakes don't upset me, in PHOTOS!!!! but when I come across the real thing they do a bit, we had a lot of snakes on our property because we were on the water and we had an abundance of frogs, so lots of snakes, but they were just garter snakes, nothing like this, not sure what I would do if I came across this one,
I've seen one form a distance like this at the farm, but have seen plenty of the smaller, more harmless looking kinds. They do instill a sense of dread when you first encounter them.
Delete1st Man,
ReplyDeleteOnly when I'm working in my garden and they slither over my feet or hands!!!! I've had copper heads in the garden the last two years.
Yikes, now THAT would creep me out too. And copperheads? Be careful!!
DeleteThose guys do not get a second chance here. I have a picture of honeyman holding one just like that. That was to date the biggest in diameter and the longest one we have found here.. he killed it in the chicken pen it had wrapped itself around a full grown chicken and was squeezing her. No way the crazy thing could have eaten a full grown chicken but I guess it thought it might could. It was late and night and we heard the girls making noise which you know chickens really don't do at night unless something is wrong. They go into that chicken ZEN Mode and are quite and clam at night. So he goes out there thinking raccoon or snake... he had to knock her and the snake off the roost to get the snake off her and then he shot the snake! So no second chances here.
ReplyDeleteYikes! Scary story! I worry about snakes whenever we do eventually get chickens. No second chances I fully understand!!
DeleteThey don't generally freak me out, but when my daughter was wee there was one (a copperhead, aka cottonmouth) in our garden that was extremely aggressive. I suspect it had just moulted. In any case, it targeted my then 6 year old daughter and was heading right for her - thankfully I had a garden fork nearby and was able to pin it. It wasn't dead, however, and still tried to strike at her, so I ended up having to cut off it's head.
ReplyDeleteOne instance in which I wasn't sad, but relieved I was able to get it before it got her.
Amen, always put our own safety (and those of our family) first and foremost. I hate having to kill something, but if it comes down to me or them or family or them, it's always going to be them. And boy, copperheads/cottonmouths are very dangerous huh?
DeleteAlthough both venomous, Copperheads and Cottonmouth snakes are not the same. The "Cottonmouth" is also known as a Water Moccasin. The Copperhead is just a copperhead. 2 very different snakes from very different habitats, neither of which I would want around my kids.
DeleteWe apparently have water moccasins on the property (2nd Family has seen them) and I only recently learned that was also a cottonmouth. Thank you for that clarification, I was confused, ha.
DeleteCan't abide them. Yup, they have a place on this planet, but I prefer that not to co-incide with mine...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, why can't they just all go to an island or something? Ha.
DeleteNope, snakes do not creep me out. But I do respect them and give them a wide berth.
ReplyDeleteA healthy dose of respect is definitely required, ha.
DeleteClover the kitten was adorable.
ReplyDeleteThey are so cute and playful at such a young age.
Right!
DeleteAren't kittens precious? I love them.
DeleteAll non-poisonous snakes are left to their own devices unless they invade the chicken house or, dare I say, the house! The poison ones are dispatched on sight.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty much the rule 2nd Family has used. Non venomous live to hunt another day but if they are aggressive toward them and/or getting into the house, all bets are off.
DeleteI can post a comment, so lets see what happens now. Snakes freak me out if I am surprised by one. I don't climb on things or run indoors. I do try to put distance between the snake and me if I find myself in close proximity suddenly. Then, I can decide what to do. I might give a girl shriek if it is within a yard or so.
ReplyDeleteNot sure, google is like that sometimes. Distance is good and if close proximity occurs, I might give out a man shriek, LOL!
DeleteSnakes bother me. I respect them (fear is respect isn't it?) and give them a wide berth. We have some of the world's most venomous here and they are protected by law. I can admire them from a distance. A looooooong distance.
ReplyDeleteFear is definitely respect, ha. A looooong distance is a good thing, ha.
DeleteYes they do!! We've had a few on our property over the years and they creep me out every single time. The last one was a four foot long snake that decided to live in our compost bin. Needless to say, it couldn't stay...
ReplyDeleteThey pick the best places to scare us don't they? Or maybe any snake anywhere is scary enough, ha.
DeleteI think snakes are beautiful. Love watching them move. We just have some garter snakes here and maybe an occasional bull snake. Where I lived before we had the mighty king snakes and gophers and rattlesnakes. We always shot the rattlers, especially after one bit my cat. All others were always welcome.
ReplyDeleteRattlesnakes! I went to a rattlesnake hunt once (I was a kid, not hunting) but they had so many (this was in Oklahoma) that they had to hunt them once a year. Beautiful but deadly.
Delete1st,
ReplyDelete“ugh” while I am not a fan of snakes, I do understand their place and respect them also as long as they go their way as I go mine, which is in opposite directions. – G
Opposite directions, always the wisest move(s) huh? ha! A healthy respect is mutually beneficial.
DeleteBut rat snakes have such tiny teeth the bite doesn't really hurt.(And you get a cool crescent of bleeding punctures!)(And I now know how not to ever hold a copperhead-not that I'm planning too.)
ReplyDeleteI generally only kill them if they're full of chick lumps or eggs that were being brooded. (Now everybody is in cages wrapped in 1/2" hardware cloth and safer.) I figure that being 'aggressive' is a reasonable response to giants attacking so I try not to take it personally.
Thank you so much for that last sentence, it's what I was thinking, but you said it much nicer! We never kill non-poisonous snakes, nature abhors a void, and the next snake to come to take it's place may not be a harmless one.
DeleteI agree with both of you (though I didn't know about the tiny teeth, ha). I found out this one had already snagged a chick, it had killed it but not eaten it yet. I like what you said about the reasonable response to giants attacking, makes sense. I will have to remember that. They have beefed up security around the coop and it's pretty much snake proof.
DeleteAnd I will remember that Texaomamorganlady, nature does abhor a void...I like the way you think. Makes us think twice... Thank you both!!