Scorpions, Tarantulas, Snakes, Oh-My (Post, Howe: deposit, best, place)

[love roses]

O.k, here's something a lady told me today. She's had a lifelong love of snakes, never kills them. However, she says that if you kill a rattlesnake by removing its head, you need to bury it very deep, because if any type of biting insect (mosquito, bee, fly) lands on the head and feeds on it, then comes back and bites you, it can transfer the venom to you.

[Trainwreck20]

Hmmm.....sounds iffy to me . Also,the amount of vemon that could be transferred via a mosiquito would be minor compared to a bite. Also, the venom probably degrades and looses potentcy as time goes by....

[love roses]

Hadn't thought of it that way, but sounds good to me

[Trainwreck20]

But you are supposed to bury the head....they can be stepped on, and you can get a bit of venom that way.....revenge from beyond the grave .

[DisplacedMidwesterner]

I used to use the glue traps mentioned above, but when I saw a poor toad stuck to one ( he was still alive) I decided to not use them.

[edge_gordon]

Originally Posted by love roses

O.k, here's something a lady told me today. She's had a lifelong love of snakes, never kills them. However, she says that if you kill a rattlesnake by removing its head, you need to bury it very deep, because if any type of biting insect (mosquito, bee, fly) lands on the head and feeds on it, then comes back and bites you, it can transfer the venom to you.

I love snakes too, they are beautiful! They eat rats and other pests!
However.. this info is..

Completely NOT TRUE.

Nevertheless, critters that bite you can be icky.
Please refer to the Texas Parks and Wildlife site (I was a webmaster there in the late part of the last century) for further info:

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department | Hunting & Wildlife

Be patient, you have to be a trust fund baby or willing to live in the state park near the office to afford to work for them. Despite this, they try to do a good job.

Meanwhile, if you see a rattlesnake, just get away. If it is on your property, use snake shot and aim at the center of the coil. Birdshot from a 12 or 14-gauge works too.

Do not go hand to hand with a rattlesnake. The odds are not good.

Scorpions DO sting, and it's a neurotoxin that can make you very, very sick.

Get a Sting Extractor before moving to TX, and keep it with you at all times. REI sells them, AFAIK. It helps a lot with scorpions, red wasps, yellow jackets (got one under my sport bra one time, pain beyond mention!) not sure how much help it is against brown recluse or black widow spiders (we have both).

We have all Middle US poisonous snakes, from 6-9 foot Timber Rattlers to Diamondbacks to the occasional Pygmy Rattler (worse than a Timber Rattler in a tiny package) cottonmouths (nasty water snakes with a bad attitude and bite) copperheads (polite pretty leaf-colored snakes you surprise accidentally in your woodpile and then need a finger amputated) and the lovely coral snake. Red and Yellow, kill a Fellow, but only if you pick it up and let it bite you.

Red and Black, Friend of Jack, but only if he knows that the King Snake, the red and black guy, eats poisonous snakes for you. Sure, they're delicious, but let this guy eat them, and you don't have to peruse recipes for yourself.

We also have the Mala Mujer (AKA bull-nettle, carry alcohol wipes to counter this bull-pestering blistering pain) regular nettles, poison ivy, poison sumac, juniper species which cause allergic reactions and death in older and compromised populations (due to overgrazing and encroachment of juniper on the highlands, enjoy your beef!) lots of incredibly happy ragweed, grass, oak, and many other allergens (Austin is the Allergy Capitol of the Midwest) Lyme Disease and Spotted Fever ticks, Fire Ants aplenty (Amdro is the best solution, and boiling kettles of water on mounds are satisfying if not effective) and many other joys and exultations.

When the Devil moved down to Hell, he modeled it on Texas and didn't come close.

If you didn't grow up with this kind of thing, and it freaks you out, move back to CA. Bigger spiders, from what I hear. ;-)

No, I don't like black bears either, but I grew up killing possums with a stick, and chasing Charolais bulls off with a signal whip and a .357.
Thanks to a good dog, I never had to use the .357.
Never had problems with the black bears, but I was always Visitor and they were Home.

To be honest, what freaks me out about moving back to Austin is the politics and the traffic.

It's not as simple as a copperhead under the doghouse.

I killed countless copperheads with a machete (NOT for the uninitated!! Snake blood on your face is a giant faux pas for homecoming husband!) , but I saved the snakeshot for the one rattlesnake I had to face down. I still have a belt made from the skin, a necklace from the rattles, and a deeper feeling of mortality.

MLE

[TexasGirl@Heart]

Originally Posted by edge_gordon

No, I don't like black bears either, but I grew up killing possums with a stick, and chasing Charolais bulls off with a signal whip and a .357.
Thanks to a good dog, I never had to use the .357.
Never had problems with the black bears, but I was always Visitor and they were Home.


I killed countless copperheads with a machete (NOT for the uninitated!! Snake blood on your face is a giant faux pas for homecoming husband!) , but I saved the snakeshot for the one rattlesnake I had to face down. I still have a belt made from the skin, a necklace from the rattles, and a deeper feeling of mortality.

MLE

Who are you??? Grizzly Adams?!?!?

[love roses]

If I saw a rattle snake, I would not let it roam around in my yard...Any other snake, maybe, but something that deadly, if necessary, wouldn't make it very far. If I could get away, I'd call animal control too. There haven't been black bears in the hill country in a while, but I think they are making a comeback up from Mexico. My friends mom in Idaho says a good yell and waving your arms around can usually chase off a bear. If you get jumped by a mountain lion, fight back! (that was what forest service in Colorado said), beat it with a stick or rock, kick it in the face(you have to make yourself a formidable opponent). I've seen a few rattlesnake necklaces in my time...It doesn't necessarily make someone "grizzly adams". Possums can be nasty little buggers if you've ever encountered one. They won't just run off your porch if you shoo them, they sit there and hiss at you. Cottonmouths and Water Moccassins are pretty aggressive snakes. Of all the snakes I knew about growing up, my grandparents and parents were always adamant about avoiding them the most (one set of grandparents had a lakehouse, and there were always moccassins around).

[Tennesseestorm]

Thats true about the fire ants... I have not heard to much about them getting into homes... they love it out in the lawns. I think we had them once here at my house... I have not heard of them too much far north of here.

My aunt that lives in northwestern South Carolina has had them before - pretty heavy too. When we went to Lancaster, South Carolina last year (which is about 30 miles southeast of the Charlotte metro area), our pup had set down on a fire ant colony. She was not happy!

[edge_gordon]

Grizzly Adams? He didn't have to deal with fire ants, did he. ;-)
Or killer bees, another lovely import from further South.
Attacked by a swarm of killer bees, put an arm you don't like high over your head and run to cover. Bees attack the highest point, and you don't want it to be your head.

Originally Posted by love roses

If I saw a rattle snake, I would not let it roam around in my yard...Any other snake, maybe, but something that deadly, if necessary, wouldn't make it very far. If I could get away, I'd call animal control too.

I was out in Bastrop County, and couldn't even rely on the sheriff to show up within 30 minutes. I only ran into bears on trips up the Rockies (thus the Home advantage ;-) ).

I've seen a few rattlesnake necklaces in my time...It doesn't necessarily make someone "grizzly adams".

LOL no, of course not. Honestly, I just felt so bad about killing such a big old snake, I wanted to do it justice somehow. I picked Navajo Sun God conchos for the belt so the snake would always be warm in its snaky afterlife. I would have just walked away, but I thought it had killed my cat, and it was right by the vegetable garden. I would have just relocated a coral snake, they're easy. Rattlesnakes cop serious attitude. I had a moccasin play dead on me once, though, when I didn't know diddly about snakes and caught it in a butterfly net. You should have heard my friends screaming when I brought it over to show it off.

Possums can be nasty little buggers if you've ever encountered one. They won't just run off your porch if you shoo them, they sit there and hiss at you.

Yeah, what happened to Playing Dead! I shot one seven times with a 22 and ended up having to butt-stroke it to kill it. Incredibly tenacious, if not exactly charismatic. They do eat chickens and get into compost. They will come in through pet doors and eat pet food, raid garbage cans, and get into anything vaguely edible.

Cottonmouths and Water Moccassins are pretty aggressive snakes. Of all the snakes I knew about growing up, my grandparents and parents were always adamant about avoiding them the most (one set of grandparents had a lakehouse, and there were always moccassins around).

The cottonmouth and water moccasin are the same snake.
Western Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma)

I have been an amateur naturalist since I was a kid, and took the Master Naturalist course while I was working at TPWD.

Other than that, I was born in Austin, and grew up there, with frequent trips to East Texas and eventually moving out to undeveloped land in Bastrop County.

I've been stung at least three times by scorpions, and get deathly ill every time. It's why I swear by the sting extractor.
I also get very sick when the juniper (cedar) pollinates.

I've adored our time here in Bavaria, where the snakes go the other way when they see you, there's no poison ivy, thorns are laughable by Texas standards, and most of the year, it's too cold for the pests to get up to mischief. There is a wierd problem with weasels eating auto wiring and insulation, but a garage takes care of that.

Meanwhile, my first order on return to Austin is a trip to the allergist's...

Some Grizzly Adams, eh?
;-D

edge