OT- If you find a rattlesnake in your back yard-do you kill it?

[jwizzle]

[quote=upwardspiral]I live on a view lot in Stonebridge. I killed a baby rattlesnake just last week. It is important to note that baby rattlesnakes are much more dangerous than adults. Babies are born with fangs and venom, but do not yet have the ability to control the amount of venom they pump. This is not to say that I would not kill an adult rattle snake. I have two dogs and a very curious 3 year old son. [/quote]

I read somewhere recently that the baby rattlers are more dangerous thing is a myth. It’s true they cannot control their venom, but they have much less venom than an adult, so it’s a wash. One thing is that a baby is much less likely to give you a ” dry” bite, so in that respect, they are more dangerous.

I think it’s interesting how many of us have 3 year olds!

[plm]

upwardspiral,

Can I ask if your snake fence is green to match the iron fence? Trying to find 100ft rolls of 1/4″ mesh that is green.

The professional snake fence company I spoke with mentioned that the mesh is needed under the wooden fences between the yards and also the gate needs to be snake proofed as well.

[UCGal]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=UCGal] . . . (Picture from the outside – looking into a store room.)
[img_assist|nid=16783|title=snake at work|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80][/quote]

omg! Does anyone know how it got in?[/quote]
Nope… that was the big mystery.

I can honestly say I work with a snakes. HA!

[svelte]

Yes, I kill them. Wife’s orders, I’m the enforcer of her zero tolerance policy. Not my favorite job but somebody’s gotta do it.

And yes, our dog has been bitten by a rattler. The dog was a pup and the snake was a baby. It was a very expensive week at the vet.

[NotCranky]

[quote=UCGal][quote=bearishgurl][quote=UCGal] . . . (Picture from the outside – looking into a store room.)
[img_assist|nid=16783|title=snake at work|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80][/quote]

omg! Does anyone know how it got in?[/quote]
Nope… that was the big mystery.

I can honestly say I work with a snakes. HA![/quote]

Looks like “relocation” job to me.

[ocrenter]

This is a big issue with canyon view lots in all of SoCal, stonebridge or otherwise.

Have encountered one single one near the garage and it was an automatic kill order.

Otherwise since we are not canyon adjacent this has not been an issue.

I agree with everyone so far, snake fencing is a must for all canyon adjacent homes.

[Navydoc]

Thanks everyone. Yeah, in retrospect I should have killed it, but it’s gone now. When I throw those boxes away this weekend I’ll be picking them up REALLY carefully. I hate to kill a snake, since I love them. I’m the year of the snake, and have even had a few as pets, but a dangerous one this close to me and my family should be destroyed. My girl is almost 5 and she was terrified of it so I don’t have to worry about her seeking them out of curiosity. I’m definitely looking into those snake fences.

By the way, don’t roadrunners eat snakes? I saw one of those walking along the fence a few days ago. Do they make roadrunner attractant?

Now let’s talk about the scorpion I found in the garage.

[NotCranky]

The scorpions around here are not that terrible, as far as I know, I don’t kill them but do keep a distance.

The tarantula vs. tarantula hawk battle is pretty interesting. The tarantula hawk is a beautiful huge blue and orange wasp like critter(probably is a wasp,don’t know for sure). It flies around looking in holes for tarantulas and goes in after them. They often drag them out of the holes to do battle. The tarantula hawk always wins, as far as I know. It then lays its eggs in the dead, or dieing,tarantula!

I did just see a road runner in the yard today, they are neat. King snakes eat rattlesnakes, but unfortunately, I have not seen one since buying this rural lot in 2004.

[svelte]

This thread is a trip.

We heard a comedian a few months ago talking about snake fences in his routine. We thought he was joking and have been lobbing “snake fence” jokes at each other for months now.

With this thread, I find out they are real!! I just googled it – they sell them!

I can’t quite wrap my head around the concept – they must just work with bigger snakes cuz smaller ones would scurry right through I would think.

And don’t snakes climb?

[spdrun]

Snakemeat is edible. Kill ’em, and fry it up 🙂

[CA renter]

I would definitely kill a rattlesnake in our yard, but would leave the non-poisonous ones alone. No need to even relocate the non-poisonous ones, IMHO, since they go after all the rodents, etc.

It sounds like the rattlesnake population is doing very well this year. There’s been an increase in sightings around here (La Costa area). A couple of people we know have had them in and around their houses in just the past couple of months. One (a baby) was in our friend’s kitchen when she accidentally stumbled upon it.

[cvmom]

[quote=spdrun]Snakemeat is edible. Kill ’em, and fry it up :)[/quote]

When I was young and my dad found and killed a large rattlesnake, we did eat it. Tasted like chicken, I still remember it, LOL

[UCGal]

The first snake we saw, not long after we moved in, was a king snake. My older son was 3 or 4 and shouted out “SNAKE”. My husband ignored him… but the shouts continued, so he looked… there, along the back wall of the house (backyard) was a nice sized king snake.

Very cool.

Actually – now that I think about it – we haven’t had any snakes in our yard since the owls moved into the owl box 2 doors up. We’re on our second season of having the owls there.

The tarantula hawk thing sounds very cool to watch.

[Essbee]

Several months back, we were hiking on the trails around 4S and my 3 year old daughter knelt down, saying, “What’s this??” She was actually touching a baby rattlesnake! Thank goodness it was kinda cool and the snake was lethargic. It was alive though…could see the tongue going in and out.

We’re not on a canyon, but that didn’t stop our next door neighbors from having a coyote and several raccoons get into a giant fight in his backyard! We saw the raccoons… they stripped our peach tree a few months ago. We’re trying to save at least a few of the persimmons for our friends.

[CardiffBaseball]

I ate some rattlesnake at the “Rattlesnake Roundup” in Sweetwater Texas back in my West Texas days. Kind of chewy and not much flavor if you’ve ever tried Alligator it was that same feel.

College kids used to help fund school by collecting up Rattlesnakes for the roundup, where they were paid by the pound. In their pits, they are somewhat docile and you just reach in with the snake tool and pull them out. My neighbor used to get snakes as well. He was a total redneck, I sat there and watched him milk the venom one day and show me how he puts the venom in his 357 hollow tip bullets. Then he’d put a layer of wax over the venom to supposedly keep it from spattering when the bullet was launched. He was nuts I took my one year old over as he prepped a deer for hanging in his garage. Showed me how you have to carefully cut away this piss sack so as not to spoil the meat. Anyway it would freak my kid out watching that snake’s mouth come open during the milking. We kept our distance.

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