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Hey guys, just a little warning for you....there are "melanistic aberattions" in coral snakes where they lack certain band colors and then are mistaken for milk snakes etc.
I'd just be super super careful unless it's like super big and thus couldn't be a coral or you REALLY know your identification.
P.S. Misidentification of a snake by someone else who then handed the snake in a bag...who then reached in and got bit.....is what killed herpetologist Joe Slowinski of Kansas State University about 10 years or so ago.
Oh, was he that "It's a ****ing krait!!" guy? Man, that was a terrible momentary lapse of judgment on his part. An ugly way to go.
Living in the Appalachians, I treat every snake as a rattler or copper until I know I've had a long, clear look at it. So often in the bush, you just catch a fleeting glimpse in the underbrush, and the basic patterning is superficially very similar to rat, corn, and water snakes. One night last summer I did pass a copper in the road at around 40 MPH, and even in that split second I could clearly make out the "hershey's kiss" pattern in the darkness, and I was amazed at how much harder it is to get a clear look in the daylight when you just see a few inches of snake slipping through the weedery.
That said, I have to admit I might kill a pit viper if it were in the yard. If I could safely catch it, I'd prefer to relocate it, but I don't want one living in our crawlspace, and frankly they don't usually do well when relocated. If it's just me, I'll take my chances, but I have a wife and 2 cats to think about.
Sigh another fool. This is just like the mamba owner I knew in Arizona or the guy who got drunk and tried to kiss a rattler while camping. Both are lucky to be alive.
People- please don't handle the wildlife or own animals that are designed to kill efficiently and can outsmart you. I'm actually OK with people herping IF they know what they are doing and what they are grabbing. But there's no need to catch wildlife and bring it inside much less gift those animals. They are usually loaded with parasites and need intensive care just to keep them alive whereas outdoors they do just fine in their low-stress natural condition. Wild-caught is fine for your Salmon but please leave the native herptiles alone!
Sigh another fool. This is just like the mamba owner I knew in Arizona or the guy who got drunk and tried to kiss a rattler while camping. Both are lucky to be alive.
People- please don't handle the wildlife or own animals that are designed to kill efficiently and can outsmart you. I'm actually OK with people herping IF they know what they are doing and what they are grabbing. But there's no need to catch wildlife and bring it inside much less gift those animals. They are usually loaded with parasites and need intensive care just to keep them alive whereas outdoors they do just fine in their low-stress natural condition. Wild-caught is fine for your Salmon but please leave the native herptiles alone!
Ugh!
I once had a boyfriend who was very into snakes, his best friend was a herpetologist etc. For our dates, we would go snake hunting, mostly in the pine barrens of NC. He did keep snakes....
Was thrilled when I discovered a beautiful orange corn snake and then a scarlet kingsnake all in one day. He kept the corn snake for years.
Even now, with a tiny bit of experience, I'd never pick up a snake. Too much room for error.
The only snakes here I won't kill are the common harmless garden snake and the black indigo or coach whips. All others are on the open season list. We have the corals, kings, western rattler, rock rattler, cotton mouth, copperhead, pig, and massasauge. The one I hate most is the rock rattler. They don't get big but have a huge attitude and it ain't good.
Why would you kill king snakes?? They are not only harmless, they actually eat rattlers.
It is a fascinating read and very well written, by a professional writer. It has little sections on herpetology interlaced in the narrative. He interviewed the participants on that mission to Myamar (was it called Burma back then?), and Joe's friends and colleagues in academia.
3) I have been told that water moccasins are "territorial", so that may explain why one might trail you along a bank, appearing to "track" you. But the other poison N. American snakes (coral, copperhead, rattlesnake) are not aggressive. If a human gets bitten, it is most probably because almost stepped on the snake, or were handling the snake.
Basically, we humans have destroyed and invaded their habitat. If they could talk, they would say "get out of my yard!" However that may be, I can understand protecting young children and pets from their bite. Please relocate them if at all possible -- cities have animal control officers who can do this safely.
4) Texas (where I have lived my entire life) is shameful in its treatment of snakes. As elsewhere in the deep South, Sweetwater has its annual herpetological holocaust, AKA rattlesnake roundup. There are prizes for who catches the most, and the biggest rattler, etc. These rattlers are not found around town, nor in people's yards, but mostly out in the desert. Most are captured when gasoline/kerosene fumes are sprayed into their dens, forcing them to vacate the den.
Prior to the show, the snakes are kept in barrels,and many suffocate or die from dehydration prior to the event.
Environmentalists have tried to get this shut down, but Sweetwater businesses make too much money off this roundup. Come to find out that torturing snakes is a boom for the local economy. TX Parks & Wildlife raised concern several years ago, because it violates agency standards against fossil fuels being released in the environment. They did a long study and, after all was said and done, the politicians made them back off. No ban was issued. I would like to tell you this didn't happen, but it did.
Investigative reporters are routinely harassed or even arrested by local law enforcement officers if they try to report on this event. I even wrote the elected representative (in whose district Sweetwater is located) asking her to ban this needless cruelty.
Snakes are vertebrates with advanced nervous systems. They can and do experience pain; they simply don't have vocal cords to express such. They are amazing creatures that we need to treat with utmost respect and it is best to leave them alone.
Get a grip -- it must be depressing for a snake that enjoys the natural environment and its den to be confined to a plastic case for its entire life. There are plenty of domestic critters that make great pets; don't take wild animals and lock 'em up. That should be self-evident.
Thank you. You may now returned to your regular Internet surfing. And have a great day.
1) Snakes don't hunt humans. If a snake bites a human, the human has screwed up. One of the ways of increasing the chance of being bit by a snake is to engage it, which one has to do in order to kill it.
2) Snakes play an invaluable role in controlling rodent populations. Rodents spread disease, eat crops, chew wires, and cause far more damage and disruption to dwellings and agriculture and industry than snakes. Even Texas Parks and Wildlife states that snakes should not be killed, for precisely the reasons listed above.
PS - The Texas population of the timber rattlesnake is protected in Texas under both federal law and Texas state law.
Great answer. Clearly the public still needs educated.
Great answer. Clearly the public still needs educated.
All creatures have their place. But not all creatures belong everywhere. A cockroach in the baby's bassinet is going to be quickly dispatched. Any scorpion spotted here is doomed as quick as a way to dispatch it is available.
Any venomous reptile is out of our yard immediately. If the situation allows...bag and relocate. But if not out. We will leave rodent control to the cat and dog and the coyotes on the other side of the wall.
And note that a bitten cat or dog can run through thousands of dollars. And we love our creatures so we are not going to be sensible about it. So those things that threaten them...gone.
We have already had one $30,000 dog. Do not need another.
I live in the desert SW and used to live on 2.5 acres on a hill with BLM land right behind me. It's amazing how many varieties of snakes I would see. In the few years I was there I saw 2 types of rattlers, king snakes, gopher snakes and a rare desert boa. They were beautiful to see. Never did I have an urge to pick one up or bother it in any way.
One time, I almost was bitten by a rattler when I went to pick up the hose and the snake was coiled inside of the wound up hose. I saw it twitch when my hand was only inches away from it. It was my fault for being careless and not paying attention. I moved away from it and came back later when it was gone to use the hose.
I had dogs there too. I made a small outdoor area for them that was fenced in and snake proof. My dogs have always been house dogs and go out basically just to potty.
I've never had a snake try to hunt me down or chase me. I had a live and let live policy with them and it worked for me.
People- please don't handle the wildlife or own animals that are designed to kill efficiently and can outsmart you. I'm actually OK with people herping IF they know what they are doing and what they are grabbing. But there's no need to catch wildlife and bring it inside much less gift those animals. They are usually loaded with parasites and need intensive care just to keep them alive whereas outdoors they do just fine in their low-stress natural condition. Wild-caught is fine for your Salmon but please leave the native herptiles alone
I hate to admit it, but I did capture an albino corn snake while hiking a few years ago. He makes a great pet. I felt badly about, and still do, but I knew a bright pink snake wriggling around in an open field wouldn't have a very long life expectancy.
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