Get to know your Illinois venomous snakes...

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Did you ever notice as a region that we avoid a lot of calamitous stuff that plagues the rest of the country? Sure, we have SOME tornadoes and bad winters. But we largely avoid (and of course there are exceptions):

1. Venomous snakes
2. Scorpions
3. Venomous spiders
4. Earthquakes (yes, I know about the New Madrid Fault, but it hasn't been a problem in my 3-1/2 decades of living in the region)
5. Hurricanes/Typhoons
6. Landslides
7. Huge wildfires (though the Peshtigo Fire was pretty bad 100 years ago)
8. Tsumamis
9. Termites
10. Killer bees

Id agree! It must be noted that all spiders are venomous. Some just have more potent venom than others. There are no spiders in Chicagoland that are harmful though. The southern part of the state has recluse and black widows (Latrodectus variolus), we dont.

[gardener34]

Don't forget reptiles that can eat you. If you're a golfer in FL, don't put your hand in the water hazard to retrieve your golfball. Yikes...
And fire ants...

yeah, I like to live in places where the bugs die in the winter.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by gardener34

Don't forget reptiles that can eat you. If you're a golfer in FL, don't put your hand in the water hazard to retrieve your golfball. Yikes...
And fire ants...

yeah, I like to live in places where the bugs die in the winter.

Yeah, gators and crocs, neat as they are, freak me out. You couldnt pay me a million bucks to swim in a pond/lake/river down there. Nuh-uh, nooooo way.

And fire ants suck too. Man those suckers HURT!!!! Feels like taking a tack and jamming it over and over into your skin.

Lets not forget chiggers either. We have some up here, but not like they do down south.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Did you ever notice as a region that we avoid a lot of calamitous stuff that plagues the rest of the country? Sure, we have SOME tornadoes and bad winters. But we largely avoid (and of course there are exceptions):

1. Venomous snakes
2. Scorpions
3. Venomous spiders
4. Earthquakes (yes, I know about the New Madrid Fault, but it hasn't been a problem in my 3-1/2 decades of living in the region)
5. Hurricanes/Typhoons
6. Landslides
7. Huge wildfires (though the Peshtigo Fire was pretty bad 100 years ago)
8. Tsumamis
9. Termites
10. Killer bees

Yes, but if natural hazards are your interests and your career is in the natural sciences the lack of these things in your home region can seem less interesting.

A lot of people make there living monitoring weather, geological activity, and dealing with dangerous animals.

I do wonder if people who go for a a degree in earth science or a similar field in places like California, and other places get a reaction like

"what would you do with a degree in that"

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Yeah, gators and crocs, neat as they are, freak me out. You couldnt pay me a million bucks to swim in a pond/lake/river down there. Nuh-uh, nooooo way.

And fire ants suck too. Man those suckers HURT!!!! Feels like taking a tack and jamming it over and over into your skin.

Lets not forget chiggers either. We have some up here, but not like they do down south.

I "wrestled" an alligator at a zoo outside Orlando back in January. OK - he had his mouth taped and he was kind of young, but not a baby! Longer than I'm tall.

[Tex?Il?]

I'ver never seen a massasagua in the wild. Where in Lake County was the attack Steve? I know there was a population of them along the Des Plaines River around Riverwoods/Deerfield area a few years ago. Nice forest preserves there.

I saw a brown water snake as well as a fox snake in Kane County. Garter snakes are everywhere, I'm sure they can even be found on the edge of Chicago proper in the bigger parks and small forest preserves around there, cemeteries, etc.

The only time I actually encountered a rattelsnake was on a bacpacking trip in northern Arizona last summer. A prairie rattler. They can found on the lower timberline out west.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

I'ver never seen a massasagua in the wild. Where in Lake County was the attack Steve?

You know what? Im retarded. It was in McHenry County, not Lake County like I thought. Here is the link...

Northwest Herald - Local News and Video for McHenry County, Illinois - Rare rattlesnake bites local canine