Rattlesnakes killing chickens. (homes, scorpions, roofing)

[_yb]

What do you New Mexicans do about snake infestation problems? My brother has caught 7 rattlesnakes on his front porch already this year. Run across several more on the land. Use to be he had mostly bull snakes which posed no concern at all.
Anyway he has found a few of his prize dominics dieing from rattlesnake strikes. He took the dogs to my dads place to get them out of danger. He still worries about his 2 young daughters. He pretty much started making sweeps of the place before he lets the girls out.

Did the rattlesnake drive all the bull snakes away?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by _yb

What do you New Mexicans do about snake infestation problems? My brother has caught 7 rattlesnakes on his front porch already this year. Run across several more on the land. Use to be he had mostly bull snakes which posed no concern at all.
Anyway he has found a few of his prize dominics dieing from rattlesnake strikes. He took the dogs to my dads place to get them out of danger. He still worries about his 2 young daughters. He pretty much started making sweeps of the place before he lets the girls out.

Did the rattlesnake drive all the bull snakes away?

as for the chickens I have no clue, the dogs, instead of taking him to dads why not get the snake vacine which all vets will provide? AS for 7 already this season, thank god the season is all but over.....Poor chickens...

Nita

[rybert]

Keep walking the fence.

[Fasder]

Not a expert on snakes, but have friends that love them, and study the species a bit. A bit of a search found a New Mexico site on area snakes, which is listed below.

Edit - Bull Snakes will effect Rattlesnakes according to Wikipedia but mainly by eating their young. Also, it mentions that many snakes have immunity to poison snake venom. But I have heard that King Snakes to eat Rattlesnakes among other snakes in general.

Another interesting (if you like this type of stuff) is fact that it is very common for humans to come across Bull Snakes (Gopher snakes - same species) instead of Rattlesnakes. Turns out that Bull snakes do such a good job of looking like Rattlesnakes, that they get killed by humans mistaking them for their poison cousins.

Nevertheless, I'm betting that IF you could increase the population of King Snakes on your property, it would help with the poison types and Bull Snakes. Since King Snakes do not act like Rattlesnakes, you would not notice them as much, if you uncovered them.

Lastly, following link notes things that can be done to ward off, increase chances of snake proofing (nothing is 100%), and other helpful hints.

New Mexico Snakes*—*recognizing the poisonous ones and controlling them around homes :Southern New Mexico Travel and Tourism Information

[BrianH]

I work at the airport and we run across both bull and rattle snakes, and out at the inlaws property there is a huge Prarie Dog population, which leads to the big snake population. Bull's can look like Rattle Snakes. I wouldnt move the dogs away as my (RIP) Great Pyrenese Goliath and Tacoma always alerted us to them and saved me on at *least* two occasions from a guarenteed bite. Dogs can hear (I guess smell too) them before we can and will help your family allot.

[_yb]

One of the dogs is very old and going deaf. In his prime he was a snake killing machine. The other is just a young border collie pup. Still needs more training.

The snakes are being thinned down a bit.

A coyote killed 10 more chickens this AM. The coyote has been terminated.
Dead chicken count this week=12.

[Devin Bent]

In my experience if you look closely, the markings of the Bull (Gopher) Snake and rattlesnake are different enough that you can distinguish them fairly easily.

I have never seen a Bull Snake imitate a Rattlesnake but I've read about it often enought that I believe. The only ones I have seen just slithered away in no great hurry.

The rattlesnake rattles with its tail and the Bull Snake (again this is just from my reading) imitates the rattle with its throat. Thus the tell tale clue is supposed to be that the Rattler lifts its tail while rattling and the Bull Snake doesn't. Does anybody know if this is true?

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Devin Bent

The rattlesnake rattles with its tail and the Bull Snake (again this is just from my reading) imitates the rattle with its throat. Thus the tell tale clue is supposed to be that the Rattler lifts its tail while rattling and the Bull Snake doesn't. Does anybody know if this is true?

Many snakes imitate a rattlesnake by rattling their tails, including kingsnakes. As for a bull snake making a sound with its throat? Im not certain, but Id have to say that sounds like a wives-tale. I could be wrong, but the only noises Ive known snakes to make are hisses and puffing. Some rub their scales together as a warning to predators (ie saw scale viper), but Ive never heard of them imitating sounds before.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by _yb

What do you New Mexicans do about snake infestation problems? My brother has caught 7 rattlesnakes on his front porch already this year. Run across several more on the land. Use to be he had mostly bull snakes which posed no concern at all.
Anyway he has found a few of his prize dominics dieing from rattlesnake strikes. He took the dogs to my dads place to get them out of danger. He still worries about his 2 young daughters. He pretty much started making sweeps of the place before he lets the girls out.

Did the rattlesnake drive all the bull snakes away?

Usually its the other way around. Many other snakes drive rattlesnakes away (ie Kingsnakes, etc). If you live in an area with rattlesnakes, you have to expect that animals like chickens will only attract them. Remember, you live on THEIR land, and keeping chickens around is just asking for predators. Might as well hang a neon sign up.

Seriously though, the chickens are probably dying because they attacked the rattlesnakes. Chickens are notorious for chasing things around (they LOVE scorpions), and Im sure snakes are no exception. A rattlesnake wont bite something unless it feels threatened, which might be the case if a chicken was harassing it. Rattlesnakes wont bite and kill anything they cannot consume, so I hope you dont assume that rattlesnakes are coming onto the property just to kill the chickens for sport or something, that doesnt happen.

[Devin Bent]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Many snakes imitate a rattlesnake by rattling their tails, including kingsnakes. As for a bull snake making a sound with its throat? Im not certain, but Id have to say that sounds like a wives-tale. I could be wrong, but the only noises Ive known snakes to make are hisses and puffing. Some rub their scales together as a warning to predators (ie saw scale viper), but Ive never heard of them imitating sounds before.

Here is Wikipedia on the matter:

"The bull snake capitalizes on this similarity by performing a very impressive rattlesnake impression when threatened. First, it hisses, or forcibly exhales through a bisected glottis, which flaps back and forth producing a very convincing "rattle" sound."

As far as I know, the glottis is part of the throat and so either

1. Wikipedia is wrong -- has been known to happen
or
2. Bull snakes can make a rattling noise with their throat, more specifically the glottis

But then you also read (and in the very same source) that they make a rattling noise by beating their tale against something?

So do they two ways to imitate a rattle?

I don't know -- the only ones I ever saw slithered away rather than scaring me with a rattle. I am grateful.