Stand Your Ground.

[dan hufferd]

On 9/2/2022 at 10:00 PM, Al Agnew said:

One thing that's refreshing is to see somebody actually correctly identify cottonmouths!  Facebook (especially the Missouri Nature Lovers group) is a cesspool of people misidentifying harmless water snakes as cottonmouths (when they aren't misidentifying them as copperheads).

I've had several over the years swim up to my canoe and look it over.  I've had to splash them with the paddle before they'd back off.  It's not that they are thinking of attacking me.  I think they are just curious about that strange log floating by and want to check it out and maybe climb up on it for a bit.  And they really don't much care if it's already occupied.  Half the cottonmouths I've ever encountered fled from me like I was certain doom.  The other half were just of the opinion that if I had a problem with them I was expected to back off and get out of their way.

I've waded chest deep water, in just shorts and tennis shoes, stood a few minutes to get that cast in just the right spot, I have had cottonmouths swim just a few feet from me, see me, then dive under water. I just keep fishing.

I will say this, if I had seen it first, I'm not sure if I would have went in right away.

Copperheads float too, I once saw one fall off a bluff, into the water. I don't think it was part of the plan, it got out asap. I was told as a child that all poisonous snakes float (most of the body)  when in water. I have not seen all poisonous snakes so don't know that for sure.  

[jdmidwest]

6 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

My dad was one of those ... "The only good snake is a dead snake"  kinda guys, but I've always had a fascination with them, and a very important respect for them as well.  I only kill poisonous snakes that are very near my house.

Spiders, on the other hand......All need to be killed immediately. Regardless of where they are found.  If they are bigger than a Rice Krispie then they are considered a definite threat to my safety and well being.   🙄 

Makes me wonder about the psychology of that.  Why do I have no fear at all of snakes, even though I was raised to hate them.......Yet I am admittedly petrified by almost any spider?   Where do these lifelong love/hate things come from?   

All monkey's need to die too !   I don't know why, they just don't belong on the same planet as I do.  Never had a bad monkey experience, nor a bad spider experience, really.  I just don't want them on the earth, at all, and I don't think anything could ever change my mind.      It's crazy really. 🤔

Been fighting spiders all summer.  Farm house is infested with them, sprayed twice and still have webs everywhere I go.  They like to build webs in front of cameras outside, they can see the light from infrared.  The webs have just enough motion to trigger alarm.  And when spider crawls across I get shot of huge alien bug.

[jdmidwest]

2 hours ago, dan hufferd said:

I've waded chest deep water, in just shorts and tennis shoes, stood a few minutes to get that cast in just the right spot, I have had cottonmouths swim just a few feet from me, see me, then dive under water. I just keep fishing.

I will say this, if I had seen it first, I'm not sure if I would have went in right away.

Copperheads float too, I once saw one fall off a bluff, into the water. I don't think it was part of the plan, it got out asap. I was told as a child that all poisonous snakes float (most of the body)  when in water. I have not seen all poisonous snakes so don't know that for sure.  

They do, seen them all float, even rattlers.  Big 5 foot timber rattler went across the creek one time above me while fishing.  Seen them on lake a few times.  Copperheads will swim across, but don't really seem to like it.

[Al Agnew]

13 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

They do, seen them all float, even rattlers.  Big 5 foot timber rattler went across the creek one time above me while fishing.  Seen them on lake a few times.  Copperheads will swim across, but don't really seem to like it.

I was floating the James River not far below Springfield when I looked upstream and saw a snake swimming as if it was trying to get from one side to the other.  It was floating high in the water and not moving very fast.  Even from 30 yards away, I thought it looked like a copperhead.  It kinda gave up swimming across and just started angling downstream toward me, and sure enough, it was a very big copperhead, over three feet long.  It came right up to the front end of my canoe, and disappeared at the front.  I was thinking I'd next see it trying to get into the canoe, because it acted like it was looking for a way to get out of the water, but soon it appeared again on the other side, and kept half swimming, half floating downstream until it reached a little log jam about 20 yards downstream on the same side it had apparently started from, and crawled out onto a log and just draped itself over the log like it couldn't move anymore.

[Hawg]

On 9/5/2022 at 12:10 AM, fishinwrench said:

My dad was one of those ... "The only good snake is a dead snake"  kinda guys, but I've always had a fascination with them, and a very important respect for them as well.  I only kill poisonous snakes that are very near my house.

Spiders, on the other hand......All need to be killed immediately. Regardless of where they are found.  If they are bigger than a Rice Krispie then they are considered a definite threat to my safety and well being.   🙄 

Makes me wonder about the psychology of that.  Why do I have no fear at all of snakes, even though I was raised to hate them.......Yet I am admittedly petrified by almost any spider?   Where do these lifelong love/hate things come from?   

All monkey's need to die too !   I don't know why, they just don't belong on the same planet as I do.  Never had a bad monkey experience, nor a bad spider experience, really.  I just don't want them on the earth, at all, and I don't think anything could ever change my mind.      It's crazy really. 🤔

Probably because we’ve all had the experience of laying comfortably in bed for the night in what we’ve assumed to be a safe place to rest when something minuscule scampers over your face completely shattering your sanctuary as well as any hope of sleep that night and possibly the next.

Doesn’t happen nearly as often with snakes..

[FishnDave]

Saw a bunch of snakes while fishing this weekend.  Mostly Northern/Common Watersnakes, some others as well.

This one didn't move much...I never saw all of it, but it was huge...about as big around as my forearm.  Had a distinct ridge on the top of its back:

And this Fishing Spider is for @fishinwrench : (I'm not a fan of spiders either)

 

[Seth]

The only snakes and spiders that I don't care for are those of the poisonous variety. We find brown recluses fairly regularly in our basement and in the tub and sinks once in a while. They get killed on site. If I see a black widow, it would get the same treatment. Wolf spiders and just about any other spider is left alone. In the fall when it start cooling off, I can go out in my yard at night, shine a light acrosst he grass and it will light up like the Las Vegas strip. It's all from the glow of wolf spider eyes. I think it's neat, but I'm sure it would give an arachnophobic a heart attack.

[Quillback]

Wolf spiders are out there, and they are watching us...

[Al Agnew]

7 hours ago, Seth said:

The only snakes and spiders that I don't care for are those of the poisonous variety. We find brown recluses fairly regularly in our basement and in the tub and sinksY once in a while. They get killed on site. If I see a black widow, it would get the same treatment. Wolf spiders and just about any other spider is left alone. In the fall when it start cooling off, I can go out in my yard at night, shine a light acrosst he grass and it will light up like the Las Vegas strip. It's all from the glow of wolf spider eyes. I think it's neat, but I'm sure it would give an arachnophobic a heart attack.

Yeah, I kill every brown recluse I come across, but it's a losing battle.  The only thing it accomplishes is making sure that particular recluse doesn't bite me.  Probably every household in Missouri and Arkansas has at least a few brown recluses.  Pest control people, if they are honest, will tell you that treatment for them actually kills their food sources (along with their predators), and not the recluses.  

Want to find out how common recluses are in your house?  If you have baseboard around your floors, especially hardwood floors, wait until the lights have all been off for a couple hours, get up, turn on the lights, and look around the baseboards.  Chances are you'll see some; they love to hide between the baseboard and the floor during the day, and come out at night to hunt.  Or, you can just put sticky traps in the corners and see how many you get.

[Terrierman]

I like snakes of all kinds and all spiders with the notable exceptions of good old brown recluse and Black Widows.  The black widows love valve pits.  Will kill a copperhead in the yard and if I ever had a rattlesnake show up it would be in mortal danger too if spotted.  Otherwise, they're all just wildlife, where I have a truce unless you're edible, a fly or a wasp.