I always shake my shoes before putting them on, especially outdoor garden shoes or boots. Scorpions, cockroaches, you know.
When I used to have peafowl and guineas, they did a great job keeping rattlesnakes down, I saw peafowl eating large rattlesnakes while sitting on the fence or on top of the barn often.
I've yet to see a rattle snake in my yard here but my parents in Scottsdale have seen a lot.
Maybe they don't like flood irrigation?

If it isn't one thing, it's another. My garden is being bombarded with mistletoe! Clumps of mistletoe are breaking loose from the oak trees in the high winds in Atlanta, and landing everywhere in my garden. Some tomato branches are broken, but overall minimal damage.

Kiss that, mistletoe.

[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/aeebc1b2-100a-669d.jpg[/IMG]My neighbors found this in the yard last night.

Please I want the skin pretty please.:love:

worth

I don't know what they did with it, I will let you know.

We don't have many snakes around here anymore since the neighborhood has been totally developed. Years ago our boys would bring home white oak snakes from boy scout camp every summer and we would release them in the shed and garden area. I didn't have any squirrel problems during that time. I did nearly have a heart attack one night when I went out in the shed and reached up on a shelf that was chin high just as I turned on the light. I was nose to nose with a very large coiled white oak snake. I nearly shed my skin.:panic:

Got a few of these arond the place glad to have them.

Hog nosed snake.
[IMG]http://www.victorianvilla.com/sims-mitchell/local/nature/whiteoak/hognose-image.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=ScottinAtlanta;269091]My dad was bitten twice on the hand by a copperhead last summer in our garden. Those things are mean as...well...as a snake. My mom ran out with hoe, struck off the head of the snake, threw the head and the body in a bread bag, drove to the hospital, and dumped the snake on the front desk at the reception. Her purpose was to get correct identification for the antevenom. The hospital staff behaved like a bunch of five year old girls, running around screaming at the dead snake. My dad was treated right quick.[/QUOTE]

I may try this with the local hospital. With at least three rattlesnake dens in my area, I come across them almost every year. One local man was bit a few years ago. The hospital had the antevenom, but didn't know how to administer it. He was airlifted to Rhode Island for treatment. Maybe a rattler on the reception desk would be a teaching moment.

Dr. L:love:ve Apple

Perhaps the IOC should introduce a new Olympic sport: the backwards
long jump.

[QUOTE=Worth1;269438]Not always. I have seen several never rattle at all before they strike.:)
Many years ago my roommate came into house while a friend and I were watching TV.
He had a diamond back rattle snake in a 5 gallon bucket and he dumped it on the living room floor.
My friend and I got on the back of the couch.
Later we took the poor thing way out into the desert and turned it loose.
It never rattled.

Worth[/QUOTE]

I heard that rattlesnakes are rattling less and less, and some are now even being born without rattles at all.

The idea is that people kill rattlesnakes so much, through rattlesnake round-ups and so on, that we're unintentionally selecting FOR quiet snakes, because they don't get caught as easily as the noisy snakes.

So the moral of the story is: don't kill rattlesnakes! Or at least ones that rattle at you. We want to encourage that kind of behavior!

I love snakes and would be reluctant to kill even a venomous one. I've never had a snake act threatening towards me, though. They always seem to be hightailing it away from me as fast as possible. A baby copperhead once curled up under my tent on a camping trip. Found him when we were packing up and lifted up the tent. He was just coiled up as small as he could get, and looked terrified. I got the longest stick I could find and poked at him until he slithered away.

Just yesterday my cat cornered a Texas Patchnose snake. The snake was rearing up and doing it's best to act venomous, but my cat kept batting at it. I grabbed the cat and took him in the house so the snake could escape.

I also get a lot of those little tiny snakes that look like earthworms in my garden. Those are really cute.

^ interesting info about breeding a specific selection type based on what dies/survives. I would agree that the rattle is quite helpful.

Neohippie,
I love snakse too, I get so mad when someone needlessy kills a snake or for that matter any critter.
I also despise rattlesnake roundups.

Worth

[QUOTE=Neohippie;270749]

I also get a lot of those little tiny snakes that look like earthworms in my garden. Those are really cute.[/QUOTE]

They ARE so cute. I found one when digging in dirt when I lived in Tennessee. I had to run for my reptile book to look it up. This one had a pink "belly" to boot. So cute.

Yup, 'nother snake lover here!

[QUOTE=Tormato;270725]I may try this with the local hospital. With at least three rattlesnake dens in my area, I come across them almost every year. One local man was bit a few years ago. The hospital had the antevenom, but didn't know how to administer it. He was airlifted to Rhode Island for treatment. Maybe a rattler on the reception desk would be a teaching moment.

Dr. L:love:ve Apple[/QUOTE]

Hey Tormato, what part of the state are you in? I know we have rattlers in the southeastern part of the state, and a niece and her husband found one in the lot next to their house in Brockton a couple of years ago. Just curious where else they're hanging around.