Snakes

[Harps]

Some friends and I were night fishing below Truman dam when I was in college and I apparently stepped on a copperhead which then, as you would suspect, bit me on the ankle. We went to the hospital in Clinton and they kept me under observation for a while. I didn't have any major swelling so they advised against anti-venon/venom?. They did give me a tetanus shot, and I would rather the snake bit me a couple more times! The snake bite stung for a day and the shot hurt for a week!

[bigfish]

first off everyone is entitled to thier own opinion and as I will admit those are good shots of the black snake but if that was my fence i would have burnt that sob down with a quickness

[mhall02]

Some friends and I were night fishing below Truman dam when I was in college and I apparently stepped on a copperhead which then, as you would suspect, bit me on the ankle. We went to the hospital in Clinton and they kept me under observation for a while. I didn't have any major swelling so they advised against anti-venon/venom?. They did give me a tetanus shot, and I would rather the snake bit me a couple more times! The snake bite stung for a day and the shot hurt for a week!

That is pretty much my understanding on the copperhead, unless you have some sort of reaction they are not really much of a problem. Kind of like a bee sting, it depends on how you react to the venom. My grandpa was bit on the hand years ago, same story they treated the bite wound, not the venom itself. I have only seen about 3-4 copperheads in my life, 1 for sure cottenmouth, no rattlers, and 100s of hamless water snakes/terresterial snakes.

Rattlesnake and cottenmouth, different story, bigger snake!!

[Dumb to fishing]

If they fall in the boat, DONT start shooting at them. Will make your fishing trip a bit shorter.

<----First hand kmowledge.

That was genius!!!! My stomach is cramping i'm laughing so hard

[Dumb to fishing]

Agreed that God put everything here for a reason and all creatures Great, Small, And CREEP must have a purpose and reason to be here. I actually caught a show on I think it was discovery channel or maybe history channel, any way about why we (humankind) have a fear of snakes, and they said that yes it was alot to do with the way they have been portrayed thru the years, all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Also another good snake story is that my wifes Grandfather who lives down in Arkansas has a 1500 acre spread or so and had hired a guy to do some work for him. I'm not sure of the details I think the guy lway he lived on the property as a hired hand. Anyway he had several boas, pythons and such raised themas a hobby, Gramps and him had a falling out the guy ended up doing a midnight move and a couple weeks ago Poor Gramps found some of those exotics swimmin' around in the cattle's watering hole! Thankfully Arkansas should have cold enough winters to kill of those non native species but you fella's down there should keep an eye out for em. And yes the two that he found got to meet their maker pretty quick form my understanding.

What part of Arkansas?

[fox_76]

What part of Arkansas?

mountian home area

[Dumb to fishing]

Wonderful! That's where i live.

[fox_76]

Wonderful! That's where i live.

Do you know the "Hoggards"? what a quinky dink.

[CDC]

I myself am a firm believer that everything has a right to live and serves an important purpose. I don't begrudge you for killing a snake but just remember that over 1/3 of all people bitten by snakes were trying to kill it when they were bitten. Most of the rest of the people bitten never saw the snake and stepped on it by accident (pretty common with copperheads as their defense is camouflage). What that means is that, if you see the snake, and leave it alone, you pretty much have no chance of being harmed by it. And to add to it, less then 1% of all people bitten by venomous snakes die because most of the time the snake doesn't even inject any venom...its just a bite to make you leave it alone.

Some of the things that snakes do to help the environment:

-Keep the rodent population in check (no snakes means an over abundance of rodents...and the diseases they pass on to humans)

-Eat garden pests like slugs, snails, centipedes,

-Serve as a food source for other animals (birds, fish, some mammals)

-Run the swimmers out of my fishing hole

There are others but that gets the point across.

Don't get me wrong, if there is a copperhead in your house or back yard then you may need to kill it to protect the family but out in the woods or on the river, my suggestion is to just leave it alone and walk away...it will most likely do the same. I have been bitten by lots of snakes (i used to catch just about everyone i found) but have never been bitten by a venomous one and never by one that I wasn't trying to catch.

[Stockton Lake Guide Service]

We had huge bull snakes out on the farm here in kansas and NEVER had a rattle snake. THey are sworn enemies and will track them down and eat all the offspring. So we took care of the bull snakes ..

So do other snakes like the black, eat copperheads. I am wanting to buy some land down there and been warned plenty about copperheads and others.

ANyone know of any farms for sale, 40 acres or less. I foundone with three caves. ARe there snakes in those caves> I saw a bear in there already on a tour of the land. hah

Get yourself a mess of king snakes and they will eat all of the other snakes, even venomous ones and they are not going to hurt you. That is what they feed on is other snakes, of course then you might start having a rodent problem, but the snakes will be gone. Or a better idea is just go fishing and forget about snakes unless they fall in your boat and then it adds a little excitement to the fishing trip.