Water Moccasins / Copperhead Snakes

[jdmidwest]

If you tap the brakes as you pass over a snake on the road, it almost turns them inside out. It is great sport on a blacktop road on a late summer night.....

[Ham]

I realize that you're trolling for a reaction, but since I've heard mindless crap like that for years I'm a little less likely to give you the reaction you're looking for. I do find it interesting that on one hand you're worried about excessive use of a renewable resoursce (trees), but have disdane for the idea hat snakes are important part of Ozarks fuana that should not be needlessly killed out of fear and ignorance.

[jdmidwest]

If you tap the brakes as you pass over a snake on the road, it almost turns them inside out. It is great sport on a blacktop road on a late summer night.....

It really works. Just running over them does not do much to them, you have to tap the brake.

Comparing the removal of a poisonous snake from an area where it can harm a human or livestock to the strip mining of forests that causes excessive erosion and gravelization of streams have nothing in common.

For the record, I don't go out in the WILD and look for snakes to kill. But there are some states that hunt them and eat them and have big festivals doing so. And guess what, next year, they still have snakes to hunt, eat, and have festivals for. Its a renewable resource.

[Sam]

On the way to a put in the other day, there was a mid sized copperhead in the road. I stopped the car and used my baitcasting rod to move him out of the road so that the next person to come along couldn't choose to crush him with their car tires.

I'm getting some satisfaction from the fact that the result of your saving/protecting a poisonous snake is temporary, while my killing one is permanent.

Next one you save, just drop him off over here.

[Chief Grey Bear]

A snake has one mouth and one brain the size of a pin head. Humans have two legs, two arms, two hands and one brain that is superior to any other in the world. Some chose to use their brain in conjuction with the other appendages. And appearantly we still have some that don't. Evolution is a wonderful thing! Your evolution may vary.

[jdmidwest]

My superior brain controls the breathing, my hand eye coordination, and monitors the surrounding area for safety while I gently squeeze the trigger removing a dangerous critter that did not have sense enough to realize the danger he was in.

Anybody want some snakes?? I do have a catch stick and can relocate some for you. Great for mice problems.

Did you know that most snakebites happen when idiots try to handle them?

[taxidermist]

They are all over north Arkansas so you know they are in south Missouri. If you are fishing at night on any of the lakes, just shine your spot light on the banks and you will see what I am talking about. Float any creek at night and look at the snakes!

[Martin]

Back to the question: Ironic that I got a phone call last evening about 9:00 p.m. from some neighbors up the road. The live about 1/4 mile from me by road, about 1/8 mile from me as the crow flies. They asked if I wanted to see a 49 inch rattlesnake. I said I did, but please take a photo. I was just too darn tired to put my shoes back on and head up there. I'll see if they got the photo and post it if possible. In any event, there are definately rattlesnakes in the area. A 49 incher isn't a Pygmy, must be a Timberrattler.

Again, watch where you step, and watch where you put your hands.

[jay bird]

We had a kid almost die last year from a bite from a Pygmy a couple of years ago down at Roaring River. He was not messing with it and from the story I hear it was in the swimming pool area when he got bit. If there is a poisonous snake in a public area around people in needs to be removed or killed. I do not have the skills to remove a snake safely or quickly so if I see one in an area where my family lives or visits frequently it will be dead. I have seen snake bites on both adults and kids, the medical cost is un-real, the bite is usally on a hand or arm with a good chance of some permenent disability. The killing of snakes to protect ones family does not make you a bad steward of the world.

Read Act Chapter 28 even Paul killed a snake after it bit him.

[Sam]

Did you know that most snakebites happen when idiots try to handle them?

I know - that's the Darwin effect at work, I think. There's no way I'm going to handle a poisonous snake, but I hate to see that kind of pain and damage happen even to idiots.

I'm not afraid of a snake I can see. The danger of getting bit for just putting a hand or foot in the wrong place is what's bad. The worst situation I ever got in was going rock-climbing with friends in the Mojave Desert. I soon figured out that leading with your hands and then your face, blindly climbing up ledges in an area lousy with rattlesnakes, is a bad idea. I didn't do that again.