Let's visit on the Porch II (Three Forks, Cascade: infestation, carriage, house)

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Threerun

Yes it do! Time to fill freezers!

Oh, so that's what happened to the moderators....

[MTSilvertip]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Oh, so that's what happened to the moderators....

First bugs, and now this???

You've been living in Laurel too long!!

[Reziac]

It's a dangerous place, I tellya... at any moment I might walk up to the tracks and race the train as it goes by (and about half the time, I'd win!)

Wanna see the giant spider I found in my kitchen? Biggest durn wolf spider I ever saw, even bigger than the ones we had in the desert, about four times the size of the biggest spider I'd ever seen in Montana... well, that explains why I haven't seen any black widows even in primo black widow habitat... wolf spiders eat 'em. Carry on, big fella!!

http://www.doomgold.com/temp/spider/..._bigspider.jpg
My, what big eyes you have!!

http://www.doomgold.com/temp/spider/..._bigspider.jpg
for scale, those tan lumps are sesame seeds, and it's in the bottom of a medium-sized peanut butter jar.

http://www.doomgold.com/temp/spider/..._bigspider.jpg
Not very cooperative about sitting still over the ruler, so out of focus, but yes, body an inch long and leg span just over three inches.

(These guys are harmless to humans, so don't be killin' any you see. Running away is acceptable, tho. )

[MTSilvertip]

Ugly but useful, Got it

I had an encounter with a Rattlesnake on opening of antelope season. Got out of my truck and felt a tap on my boot, looked down and wondered why a garter snake would stay around and be aggressive instead of running off like they usually do.

I looked closer and it was a baby rattler, about 7-8 inches long. Those are actually more dangerous than the adults because they have problems regulating how much venom they inject, but his fangs were so small he couldn't hurt my boot.

So I chased him off, (little varmint struck my cane twice!) and he went reluctantly. When I told some people in town later they couldn't understand why I didn't dispatch it with extreme prejudice. But like I told them, he was a long way from anybody, way out in the boonies and I might be the only human he encounters in his whole life.
Second, rattlers eat prarie dogs which are overruning the country down there.

If it isn't an immediate threat, and if I'm not going to eat it, I usually leave them alone. They have the right to live too.

I mean, the kill on sight thing really isn't what I do, although people are normally scared of snakes and spiders etc. they still serve a purpose.

And besides, it's not like it was a wolf or something really hazardous to the environment

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

Second, rattlers eat prarie dogs which are overruning the country down there.

Except... I've read some interesting research on that... turns out rattlers only eat once or twice a year. The "safe" snakes eat once or twice a week. So from a vermin control aspect, rattlers aren't worth having.

[Threerun]

Rattlers are why I prefer to hunt birds with my dogs up in NE Montana. They are few and far between, if none at all. Early season I stick to mountain grouse and wait for hard frosts to run those suckers into hibernation..

[MTSilvertip]

Rattler hit my sister's dog about 3 weeks ago. Hit it right on top of the head! Dogs fine and healing.

I don't mind rattlers, I guess I see them as survival food just about anybody can catch if they use a little sense.
One guy told me that because I didn't kill that snake it would go kill somebody else. Personally, I think rattlers are the gentlemen of the snake world because they tell you they're there before they strike. Don't expect that kindness from a cottonmouth.

Anyway, I see rattlers as having a purpose.

Wolves on the other hand, not so much.
I just went and bought my tags, WHAT A RIPOFF!!
$20 for an elk tag that means a winter's worth of meat, $19 for a wolf tag that is only good for it's mangy pelt!

In my area, if there aren't any wolves, then I can find elk, but if the elk are gone it's probably because the wolves are there, so I can still avenge my empty freezer.

Still, shouldn't be more than $5 for a wolf tag, if not a bounty on 'em.

[RotseCherut]

When I was in Africa, I had couple run-ins with Cobras. Not only are they silent snakes that are hard to see, but one bite and you have just a matter of hours to get help before you die. Rattlesnakes serve a good purpose in our environment to keep our environment over-populated with rodents, yet, at the same time, they are not excessively deadly. You usually have enough time to get anti-venom, in the rare occasion you do get a poisoned bite. In Africa, where I visited, many people were killed while they were out farming by cobras and pythons. The pythons were a real problem as they would jump from a tree and strangle people to death very quickly with their powerful bodies. Now, Florida is having a python epidemic as these annoying creatures have been introduced into the environment and wiping out the habitat that other species there need for survival.

[divisionbyzero0]

Originally Posted by Threerun

That's good to hear!

We have a Boy Scout District camporee this weekend at Hellgate. My son and I are in the OA (Order of the Arrow) and we are responsible for running the events. My role? Cooking for 20 teens and adults.

So tomorrow I am making a BIG 10lb BBQ meatloaf in a 9qt dutch oven and a huge apple strudel in another dutch oven for desert.

That's meatloaf has 8lbs of ground, one package of chopped bacon, 3 medium yellow onions and 3 green peppers (diced) one whole garlic (minced), 4 cups of oatmeal, 4 eggs and a bit of various seasonings. It's going to be a monster, lol. The strudel is going to have from scratch pie pastry bottom filled with 4 lbs of fresh sliced apples mixed with sugar, cinnamon, touch of salt then a mix of condensed milk, egg and sugar on top. Then she's latticed with fresh pastry and put on the coals for 45minutes.

I'm going to be a busy beaver all weekend.

And of course- it's going to rain like He*l all weekend too. Of course- it wouldn't be an official mass gathering of Boy Scouts without rain and mud, lol.

Boyscout greetings! From Indonesia

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by RotseCherut

Rattlesnakes serve a good purpose in our environment to keep our environment over-populated with rodents, yet, at the same time, they are not excessively deadly. You usually have enough time to get anti-venom, in the rare occasion you do get a poisoned bite.

This isn't precisely true. While there are few fatalities from rattler bites (only about a dozen per year in the U.S.) it's pretty common to lose a large chunk of muscle or even the entire limb from the effects of a bite, due to major tissue necrosis. Here are some photos of the medical effects of a rattlesnake bite that happened to a 13 year old boy in the Sacramento area (this was originally ID'd as a western diamondback bite, so one of the "less venomous" varieties, but from the effects it was probably a Green crossbred):

(WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC PHOTOS)

Justin's Rattlesnake Pics

Here's similar photos of a dog that was bitten by a rattler:

http://medwelljournals.com/fulltext/...2009.2392.2394

And, see above about their lack of influence against rodents. Basically all the rattlers in the world could vanish overnight and it wouldn't make a speck of difference in the pest population, and at worst the same niche would be taken over by safe snakes. Wouldn't you rather have safe snakes living in that same spot? cuz it's not like nothing will ever take over that space after you kill that rattler.

"Mojave green" rattlesnake venom contains a neurotoxin, and is much more deadly than that from a prairie rattler. When I lived in the desert I had dogs bitten pretty regularly (snakes would get into the kennel, looking for water) and while it wasn't usually serious (dogs are much more resistant to snake venom than are humans; the main problem was infection if it happened to get 'em on the neck -- snakes have filthy mouths), I did have one dog die from it. Happened to be a young rattler and it nailed her square on a vein. She was down in five minutes and dead in 15.

Mojave greens will interbreed with prairie rattlers, and the crossbreds have the neurotoxic venom. As a result the average rattler's venom is becoming more dangerous. And you can't tell a crossbred by looking at it. The crossbred population is generally moving east (and perhaps north... see above), but will eventually affect all of North America.