this is stupid i know...snakes in missouri (Neosho, Ozark: coop, crawl space)

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by leaving colorado

Yall are scaring me to death with all this watch out for the snakes.Is it that bad?? I really wanna live in the country.Is seeing snakes something I'm gonna endure often? Will they get in your house.OMG I would die! Just die!I am originally from TN. so is that comparible?If so its not THAT bad.

I see about four or five copperheads a year. Usually squished on the road, but occasionally tooling along minding their own business. At the resort I worked at this past summer we killed three (there was a creek down the middle of the resort which attracted them.).

If you live in town you probably will never see one. But if you do go out into the wilderness at all, the possibility exists.

There are also Pygmy Rattlers and Water Moccasins here, but I have never seen one. We have LOTS AND LOTS of big black snakes, but they are good to have around because they eat rats and other vermin and they do not bother people at all. We have several living on our homestead. It is a little unnerving to be walking through a forest and coming face to face with a six foot black snake dangling from a tree, but you get used to it. LOL

I have known people who have been bitten by copperheads and they all survived with medical treatment. Actually, I worry a lot more about Brown Recluse spiders than I do about snakes.

20yrsinBranson

[RedneckHybrid]

OK. This is where I'll break the ice. I've been reading this forum for about a month & a half and our family has been looking into moving to Missouri for over 3 years (I think I've learned more about the area here than I have in 3 years of research elsewhere). We finally put a bid in on a house north of Mansfield on Friday. We are anxiously waiting for a reply. We have 7 children and our oldest drove out last week to stay with and help a family near Springfield. My dad (who grew up on a farm near here) just passed away in February (he was 82) and we have been doing our best to watch over my mom (69) who has a number of health issues. My sister is flying in from MN this week to take my mom back out with her to get her into a better situation.

I grew up and currently live in the same rural community. This environment has been slowly eroding my entire life - a process that has been accelerating in recent years. I welcomed it in my younger years, but now find the basis of much of modern society as incompatible and sometimes a direct assault on my own foundational beliefs. At heart I am a country girl, but am a bit soft around the edges (I do have a taste for certain conveniences - NOT things like Starbucks , but one-stop shopping, plowed roads and cable internet is awful handy, but I'm working to wean myself ). Yet I want my children to have better strength and resolve than I tend to too often exhibit. I want their priorities to be in good relationships with family and neighbors and hard work and wisdom. I'm hoping we can find an environment out there that will more wholly support these ideals, it's become a real mixed bag around here.

Don't mean to sidetrack this topic, but I thought I best give some kind of intro since this is my first post.

Needless to say, this topic has rattled me a bit. Though we live in a rural/farming area, I have had no experience with truly poisonous snakes or spiders, though I have had my share of run-ins with more innocuous kind.

In more recent years we have had several encounters with Black snakes (I suspect urban crawl to be at least partially to blame for bringing them more out in the open - just too much people and pavement, along with a greater extermination of rodents). I can attest that Black snakes can at times make themselves a negative asset.

This past winter we were out of the house for half a day and returned to find our parakeet no longer in view inside his cage. What we did find in the cage was a Black snake with a bulge a ways down his length that apparently prevented him from exiting the cage the same way he got in.

Additionally we lost 2 young pullets just this spring to a couple of Black snakes.

Just something to consider. Tell me, what is your experience with snakes and domesticated small animals?

And speaking of chiggers: This summer we have tried our hand at keeping guineas (now, there's a dumb critter - a bucket of laughs, they are ) for we also have issues with chiggers and ticks, with deer ticks being a potential hazard. Do folks out there keep guineas? Why or why not? Is there any noticeable benefit? What's the going price for guineas around there?

Thanks!
Valerie

[lifelongMOgal]

IN N. Central Mo: Howard, Cooper, Boone Co. you'll find Timber rattlers, copperheads a-plenty. Not smart to walk in abandoned pastures on through rocky forests/creeks without snakeboots, gators, and a shotgun.

Northern water snakes and black snakes are pretty common around ponds.

I've heard that if black snakes are in an area that rattlers and copperheads wont inhabit the same territory. I don't know that I want to trust that. I'll just keep an eye out and beware in the warm months.

[Hillman]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

IN N. Central Mo: Howard, Cooper, Boone Co. you'll find Timber rattlers, copperheads a-plenty. Not smart to walk in abandoned pastures on through rocky forests/creeks without snakeboots, gators, and a shotgun.

Northern water snakes and black snakes are pretty common around ponds.

I've heard that if black snakes are in an area that rattlers and copperheads wont inhabit the same territory. I don't know that I want to trust that. I'll just keep an eye out and beware in the warm months.

I use to live in Beliar in Cooper County.When the Real Estate Agent was showing us the place I seen him step right over a 6 foot Rattler.I holler SNAKE!! He bounces off the Fence run for his Pickup.I killed the Snake.He refused to finish showing the place.

We went ahead and bought the place and seen several Rattlers after that.

RedneckHybrid I had a Black Snake by my Chicken House.I was nice and took it couple hundred yards away to my Garden.Next night he had came back with friend got into my Baby Ducks and had already atr their fill of them.I couldn't have this so I killed them both.

hillman

[Hillman]

Here is a Pic.Makes life fun,not a Snake but could be exciting.Look half way up the Stand.







hillman

[Okie_Dokie!]

I posted this last year on th Rual and Small town living forum.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/rural...ead-snake.html

[leaving colorado]

Originally Posted by Hillman

Here is a Pic.Makes life fun,not a Snake but could be exciting.Look half way up the Stand.







hillman

what exactly is that?

[leaving colorado]

Originally Posted by RedneckHybrid

OK. This is where I'll break the ice. I've been reading this forum for about a month & a half and our family has been looking into moving to Missouri for over 3 years (I think I've learned more about the area here than I have in 3 years of research elsewhere). We finally put a bid in on a house north of Mansfield on Friday. We are anxiously waiting for a reply. We have 7 children and our oldest drove out last week to stay with and help a family near Springfield. My dad (who grew up on a farm near here) just passed away in February (he was 82) and we have been doing our best to watch over my mom (69) who has a number of health issues. My sister is flying in from MN this week to take my mom back out with her to get her into a better situation.

I grew up and currently live in the same rural community. This environment has been slowly eroding my entire life - a process that has been accelerating in recent years. I welcomed it in my younger years, but now find the basis of much of modern society as incompatible and sometimes a direct assault on my own foundational beliefs. At heart I am a country girl, but am a bit soft around the edges (I do have a taste for certain conveniences - NOT things like Starbucks , but one-stop shopping, plowed roads and cable internet is awful handy, but I'm working to wean myself ). Yet I want my children to have better strength and resolve than I tend to too often exhibit. I want their priorities to be in good relationships with family and neighbors and hard work and wisdom. I'm hoping we can find an environment out there that will more wholly support these ideals, it's become a real mixed bag around here.

Don't mean to sidetrack this topic, but I thought I best give some kind of intro since this is my first post.

Needless to say, this topic has rattled me a bit. Though we live in a rural/farming area, I have had no experience with truly poisonous snakes or spiders, though I have had my share of run-ins with more innocuous kind.

In more recent years we have had several encounters with Black snakes (I suspect urban crawl to be at least partially to blame for bringing them more out in the open - just too much people and pavement, along with a greater extermination of rodents). I can attest that Black snakes can at times make themselves a negative asset.

This past winter we were out of the house for half a day and returned to find our parakeet no longer in view inside his cage. What we did find in the cage was a Black snake with a bulge a ways down his length that apparently prevented him from exiting the cage the same way he got in.

Additionally we lost 2 young pullets just this spring to a couple of Black snakes.

Just something to consider. Tell me, what is your experience with snakes and domesticated small animals?

And speaking of chiggers: This summer we have tried our hand at keeping guineas (now, there's a dumb critter - a bucket of laughs, they are ) for we also have issues with chiggers and ticks, with deer ticks being a potential hazard. Do folks out there keep guineas? Why or why not? Is there any noticeable benefit? What's the going price for guineas around there?

Thanks!
Valerie

Omgosh so basically they do get in your house.Oh no no no.Now someone please correct me if I'm wrong,but I am from West Tennessee.Isn't that pretty comparible?

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by hillman

my wife can tell what kind of snake i'm dealing with by my hollering.

Hillman

That's funny!

[Hillman]

Originally Posted by leaving colorado

what exactly is that?

That there is a Bald Face Hornets Nest.

hillman