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Old July 8, 2009   #16
kevokie
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Can't stand snakes...hate them, absolutely hate them...
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Old July 8, 2009   #17
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I rarely see copperheads.

Rattlesnakes, on the other hand...I live near three dens. The largest I've seen was about 6 1/2 to 7 feet long. I once went looking for them. It took me all of about 30 seconds to find one. Also, there's this one "silent" rattlesnake (it makes no rattle noise) that shows up near the hiking trails. That one, I really keep an eye out for.

Someone in our city was bitten a few years ago. The local hospital had the antivenom, but no one knew how to use it. He had to go to another State for treatment.

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Old July 8, 2009   #18
tjg911
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Marlborough man rattled by snake bite

BY KALA KACHMAR | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
MARLBOROUGH -- Connecticut doesn't have many rattlesnakes left in its forests, but they can still make their presence felt.

For decades, two dens of rattlesnakes have been living in the woods behind the Chrostowsky family home in Marlborough. But the family didn't know they were there until Sunday, when a 5-foot-long rattler bit a man while he was playing in the yard with his family during a Fourth of July celebration.

Robert Burns, 45, of Wallingford, was transported to Middlesex Hospital and then to Hartford Hospital, where he is still recovering, according to Elizabeth Chrostowsky, a relative of Burns.

"I think about when my son used to go out and play in the woods," Chrostowsky said. "It makes me sick."

Rattlesnake bites are extremely rare, said Hank Gruner, vice president of programs at the Connecticut Science Center.

"I can't think of three or four rattlesnake bites in the last 25 years," Gruner said.

The snakes, which are found in small populations in central and northwestern parts of the state, are known for being secretive animals that typically don't show themselves around people.

"You really have to handle them or come in contact with them to get bitten," Gruner said. "It's very rare that you put your foot next to it and it strikes you."

Gruner said that before Sunday's incident the last rattlesnake bite was in Southbury about five years ago. He said there have only been four or five reported bites since the 1980s.

Chrostowsky said her relatives were playing Frisbee around 8 p.m. on Sunday when Chrostowsky's nephew ran after the toy near the woods. The snake came out of a pile of leaves.

Burns rushed over and tried to "get the snake onto a stick" when it bit him on the wrist, Chrostowsky said.

Chrostowsky said she didn't see the snake bite Burns, but she heard its rattle, even though she was 50 feet away on the back deck. Family members yelled to her to call 9-1-1.

"I could hear the rattles from the deck," Chrostowsky said.

A family member immediately killed the snake with a shovel, out of fear that it would bite one of the children.

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Old July 8, 2009   #19
stormymater
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AWK! We have pygmy rattlesnakes down here - they are federally protected as an endangered species. My understanding is they don't like to be near human habitation - the copperheads just do not seem to care. The big one that came out of the mint bed kind of messed me up for harvesting the catnip when it was lush & verdant - I had the heebie-jeebies about standing next to the dense catnip on one side & the pampas grass pressing in from the other. When I pick mint I am using a rake to push around the mass of plants before I reach in there. I am a chicken, a careful chicken. Plan to cut the pampas grass WAAAAY back this winter.
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Old July 8, 2009   #20
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We share a fence with a neighbor that has a giant, rodent attracting wood pile that has been moldering away for the past several decades. The county sends him letters but doesn't do much else because it's behind a board fence and not visible from off the property. The first year we lived here my fat, lazy cat was out sleeping on the screened in back porch and was killed by a copperhead. I'd seen them in the shrubs across the yard by the fence that borders the wood pile, but this was not even two feet from my open back door. We cleared a ton of bushes from that area and now keep a .22 loaded with snake shot handy when we're working in the back yard to take care of the few brave enough to poke their heads through the fence. The other neighbor has taken to tossing hands full of poison pellets over the fence because she couldn't even use her pool, it had become a rodent watering trough and the pump house was a snake den.
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Old July 9, 2009   #21
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Glad to hear you're okay and didn't get bitten.

I try to make a noise and stir things around from a distance when I'm around my compost bins (and other areas on my property). I don't like to forget, but sometimes I do. Anyhow, I have a bunch of snake stories too. I accidently impaled one with my pitchfork while turning compost. I accidently picked one up with my bare hands when I picked up a bunch of leaves. Even though it wasn't a poisonous snake it still gave me a bit of a start.

I like having the non venomous ones around, except when they get caught in something like deer netting (see attached photo). I had a difficult time getting him free.

Be careful everyone.

Randy
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Old July 10, 2009   #22
cleo88
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Every time I see the title of this post, I am reminded of my daughter's Animal Ark books, which all have titles with aliteration concerning animals: "Kitten in the Kitchen", "Bunny in the Basket", and I keep thinking how awful it would be if they had one called "Copperhead in the Compost".
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Old July 10, 2009   #23
stormymater
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OK Cleo88 - now that's funny! I have a big pile of siding pieces from repairs to the house before painting (in progress) in our back yard. It's been there & growing over the past month & I am tired of waiting for the crew to start clean up so I am attacking it this weekend - with long pants, heavy socks & covered shoes - no matter how hot it is b/c I am concerned about snakes. I saw a great big fat blue tailed 10 inch long lizard out there basking on a board & several of our green Anole lizard friends so I bet there is a snake up under there.
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Old July 10, 2009   #24
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a Southeastern Five Lined Skink - that's what he was out there!
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Old July 10, 2009   #25
organichris
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I haven't seen any copperheads since I was a kid. They used to be very prevalent where I lived in central Oklahoma, but I gradually stopped seeing them. Kinda like horny toads. Neither of the two have I ever seen in Kansas.
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Old July 10, 2009   #26
matoman
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thanks cleo88

That made me laugh.....there's probably a nursery rhyme or suessian story in there somewhere....
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Old July 12, 2009   #27
Billy K
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wow i would have my house up for sale so quick,,na i would jump in my truck and never look back..lol i cant say i hate snakes, i just fear them
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Old July 12, 2009   #28
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Randy, I had the same thing happen to me. Had a mid-sized black rat snake get caught in the netting over my strawberries. Thing was, it had a big huge companion black rat snake accompanying it that did not want to move aside so I could get the tangled one loose. I had to use a long pole to fling the big one away (several times--it kept coming back) and then I had to use small manicure scissors to cut the stupid snake out of the netting. Then they both disappeared into the field.

My husband has run over a couple of copperheads while Brush Hogging our property, so I know they're around.

This thread is a good reminder to me to keep an eye out around the compost pile.
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