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Fear of snakes

J

JDB

Member
Anyone besides me afraid of snakes or willing to admit it? Anyone overcome this fear? I grew up in rattlesnake country but poisonous snakes are extreeeeemly rare where I live today. A 45 year old man should not have all the hair on his body stand on end and occasionally scream like a little girl when he see"s a snake. This over reaction has got to stop but how?
 
My wife sent me out to the garden early one Sunday morning to see if I could find a few little potatoes to go in the green beans. Got down on my hands and knees, scratched around a little, got a potatoe or two, went to the next vine, reached under and felt something strange. I looked under the vine and was staring face to face with a rattle snake. No I don't like them but I don't scream. I just get even.
 
Fear snakes no but I do respect them and what they can and can not do both good and bad. I have handled them for decades and know which ones are safe to mess with and the ones that are better off left alone or killed
 
Though I've never seen a live rattle snake we do have copperheads, and the occasional cotton mouth show up on occasion. When I was a teenager I remember walking down a path through some really high grass and had stopped for a minute for some reason. I happened to look down about the time about a 4 foot long copperhead crawled across the toes of my boots. I was alert to the danger to say the leadt, but not really scared...still that was the longest 4 feet I've ever seen.

Beyond the usual caution and alertness for the poinsoness snakes, and the suprise factor when coming face to face with any snake unexpectedly, I don't mind the good ones like black snakes, king snakes, corn snakes, etc, etc. In fact I found a small king snake the other day when I moved something out in the yard. Then,, yesterday afternoon I turned around to to walk back into my shop and saw another one crawling across the floor. I had to move a few things to get to where it holed up but once I found it I simply picked it up and took it back out to the edge of the woods. I know that snakes are territorial and I have personally watched a big black snake kill a copperhead that came into it's territory, so I do my best to let the good, nonpoisioness snakes go their one way unharmed when ever possible.
 
I feel your pain brother. I"m scared to death of them. Can"t even look at pictures of them. I"ve never been around poisonous snakes but I don"t think that would matter.
I talked a naturalist once that had two sons. They were raised the same and just a few years apart. Mother, father and everyone else had no fear of snakes. One of the sons can get close to snakes and lizards, the other is like me. She thought it might be genetic because her sons were raised the same.
So, now I have my own land, I pay my taxes, and I use every weapon I can to kill every snake I can. My brothers used to laugh at my reaction to snakes, now they run from me because I"ve got a pistol, or shotgun, or shovel, or lawnmower, or tractor, or truck, and I WILL kill that snake.
 
Been out of the snake business for a few years. In 2002 I saw a piebald ball python (around 20 inches long) go for $28,000. Pretty snake!
 
I'd start by getting a book and trying to learn how to identify them. A snake you don't recognize at first makes you nervous, but once you can recognize what it is as soon as you see it the reaction is different. Around here the only ones to worry about are copperheads and rattlesnakes, I know what they look like.

Also keep in mind that a snake can only strike about 1/3 its body length, so if you're more than 8" from a 2 foot long snake you're safe.
 
Fear them? Yes. Obsessed with the feeling, NO. I try to educate myself as to their habits/environment and all and protect myself accordingly.

I have heard and witnessed numerous disasterous situations where people have encountered them and LOST>


Mark
 
You NEVER get away from it. At 68 I still can't stand to be around any no mater how small or supposedless harmless they are. Could not go in snake house at Zoo. Wife is same with the snakes but she did make it in at the Zoo.
 
That is absolutly crazy. Given modern medicine and health care in all but the most obscure cases a snake bite if treated will do nothing other than make you sick, And those are the most rare of snakes, 80% of them are harmless creatures who actualy perform an important role.

That is what I tell myself everytime I see one,,, I'M SCARED TO DEATH OF SNAKES!

L.
 
I like snakes, snakes are my friends. I absolutely refuse to harm or kill a snake. More people are killed by bee stings than are killed by snakes every year here in the U.S.
 
My mother showed me what black snakes, bull snakes, garter snakes, & blue racers, looked like, how to pick them up, carry them, and release them without hurting them when I was about 5. Many are good mousers. The most important thing she said about snakes is to never try to scare anyone else with one.
 
If you are ever in Phoenix AZ there is a place on south mountain called Rustler's Rooste. They serve Rattlesnake (when in season) I think "in season" means when they have some on hand.

Anyhow they deep fry it and it tastes quite a bit like chicken. Pretty good though.

jt
 
We don't have any venonmous snakes in Mn, only Garters and Red Bellies. Theres supposed to be a few species like Hog Nosed snakes but I have never seen one. If I see a garter I usually catch it to check it out, I think they are kinda interesting. I discovered Skinks which are scaled lizards live around here about 7 years ago though not real common.
 
I learned as a kid how to handle black snakes and garters. I've also been fotunate enough to have quite a few around here to help keep the mice and rat population lower. No, I won't kill them and am not afraid of them. They just generally mind their own business and I go about mine. They're also cheaper than a cat to have around.
 
Our place seem to be a snake haven, Copperhead.cottonmoth and rattlers have alwys ha dogs that hated them.Last one was getting old,hard of hearinsnd blind One finally got her but she made it to the house. The best we had was a Australian shepard He could smell them and would go frantic to kill them.We have sons and grandsons the same way. Privless. gitrib
 
Never seen anything but a garter snake outside, but in high scvhool our ecology teacher had an albino python that a student gave him (he didn't want it anymore) and he kept it in the green house at school. He'd bring it out and some guys would sit with it on their shoulders throughout nthe whole class.

I'd go near it too, but I prefered to play with the garters he had in a tank.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
Here in Georgia we have rattlers, copperheads, water moccasins, coral, highland moccasins, etc. I don"t know how many close encounters I have had with them. I won"t kill a black snake but the rest are fair game. In the summer when it rains, you can drive down the road about a hour before dark and find copper heads about every time. When you float the river it seems like a Jon boat is a target. They will always come to it or drop out of a tree in it. I don"t fear them but respect them.
 
Well I have to admit a snake startles me a bit when I first see it but it doesn't bother me to pick one up. Couple of years ago I was staring eye-to-eye with a garter snake when I sent down the basement steps. That did get the heart a racing for awhile. Here in NWIA we don't have poisonus snakes so I'm not on high alert when I'm around rocks or normal snake hiding places.


When I was on the harvest out west I heard two ranchers say that when they run into a rattlesnake while fixing fence they are jumpy for the rest of the day. One was by Sterling Co. and the other was by Blackfoot ID. I asked one of them if a cow ever got bit and he said it wasn't very often. The cows respect the rattling. He said the only time he's seen a cow bitten is if the cow steps on a snake and just stands there or if one gets the cow on the nose. The cow's foot will swell up for awhile but there won't be any lasting harm. If it's the nose, it will swell way up and the nostrils will swell shut. He said the cow makes a terrible noise trying to breathe through her nose. In Colorado we'd raise the headers off the ground in the morning before we serviced the combines to be sure a rattlesnake hadn't crawled under there and we were just a little cautious when we walked around the machine when we were greasing. Never saw one though. Jim
 
Here in Arkansas we are blessed to have every poisonous snake indigenous to the continental US except the coral snake. We learn to keep an eye on the trail. I can't say that I'm afraid of them but I sure don't think handling them is natural. I won't kill a non poisonous snake but a copperhead, rattler or cotton mouth is crow bait.
 
I'm pretty neutral with them, but we don't have a lot of poisonous ones around here, mostly garter snakes. My mother was an other story. She hated them all, maybe tracing her hatred back to the snake in the Garden of Eden. My brother and I would catch garter snakes and put them in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. Her reaction was always the same, they didn't wait until sundown to die.
 
If you're that scared of snake this probably won't help. Rattle snakes would rather stick their fangs in something they could eat. you can stand near a rattler until he quits rattling and then it won't bother or bite you unless you try to hurt it. After it crawls away a distance of 4 or 5 feet it will rattle again if you get near it which means it ain't your friend anymore. This is why they let kids get in the above ground swimming pools with hundreds of them suckers at the sweetwater rattle snake round up. The kids will scoot their feet across the pool until they have so many rattlers stacked on their feet and up their bare legs they can't go any farther. A trip to Sweetwater at round up would change the way a man feels about'em, It did me, and I still kill every one I see.
 
I didn't know until I caught one in Texas, that rattlesnakes dislocate their lower jaw and snout. So that stuff about grabbing one behind its head is garbage unless you either have its lower jaw pressed up hard into its snout, or have its snout hooked at its fangs and pulled back. I made the mistake of grabbing it around the neck at the base of its skull like in the movies. Then it not only dislocated its lower jaw, but appeared to dislocate its snout with fangs from the skull. One minute, I thought I was safe. Next minute its fangs were moving in on my fingers. Holy crap, thats what the good sized stick that you were using to tire him and his strikes out with before you thought you grabbed him safely, but didn't. He was a fatty about 3' to maybe 4' as I recall. Another time heard some thrashing around in some tall grass near me that got worse and worse, so I walked over to take a look, and it was a copperhead that made the mistake of slithering over a mound of fire ants. I watched those guys just gang attack it. One second there were a lot on him, and biting, and he was thrashing. Next second he was completely covered by millions of them. Few seconds later, they deskinned him, and a few seconds later he wasn't much more than spine. He was somewhere near 3', little less.

Caught a cotton mouth in some bushes in Georgia were the tent was setup to sleep. Scared the crap out of me, but glad I caught him before he caught me. I came out of the bushes with his snout pulled back, and sent everyone running. That baby had him a bite.

Not that I'm brave around poisonous snakes, just glad I caught them before they caught me first. One of us was going to get it, better them than me.

Here's something to try in the Texas outback so to speak. Find you a rotted out tree trunk that has been lying around and kick some bark off, then watch the scorpions run everywhere. Be glad that you didn't sit on that trunk first to take that break that you were about to, just before you kicked the bark off and said, "Oh crap".

Hey, makes life more exiting.

Good luck,

Mark
 
A few years ago I got the tractor out of the polebarn to rake hay. I had gone around the field about three times when I looked down and saw a snake riding the tractor with me. He was on the deck just in front off my feet. I am not assamed for a minite to admit that I did screm like a little girl. I put the trans in nutral and jumped off the tractor and waited for the snake to get off. He was only about two feet long, but, that was two feet to long.
 
Go visit the Sweetwater Texas rattle snake round up, you'll learn things about'em you didn't know and you can eat as many as you'd like.
 
You do know the Vet has snake shots for your dogs don't you? They can kill snakes without you fearing for their life after they get the shot.
 
I used to be afraid of snakes when I was a kid, but not any longer. 'course we don't have rattlers or other poisonous snakes. I don't want to share a sleeping bag with any snake, but they have a place and a job to do. Just cowboy up!

Larry
 
Lets put it this way..If you and I was walking in the woods and you saw a snake , and started to scream like a girl, and I saw the snake ? All 295# of me would be squatted on your shoulders with my hands clenched over your eyes so tight that your eyeballs would protrude between the cracks of my fingers and I'd be helping you scream . I hate any spiders too , but I can stomp on them without them wrapping around my leg.
 
I am cool as long as I see them before they are right under foot. I can see one on the side of the road and not swerve to hit it. If I am walk'n and see one in time to walk around it I am cool. For example, when the real big black ones hide from the summer sun under square bales left out over night and I pick up a bale and the big guy is right at my feet, I do the little girl dance for a few seconds. Another thing that gives me the creeps is know'n one is around but not know'n what kind or exactly where. Last summer we had a little building at work that I had to walk into every 4 hours. A new spot of snake doo would show up every day or two, twice through the summer we found a 4' shed. No one ever seen it but every night I knew it was around and just made me jumpy.

Dave
 
> We don't have any venonmous snakes in Mn, only Garters and Red Bellies.

We sure as heck have them in SE MN. Timber Rattlers. The DNR is trying to increase the population by clear-cutting bluffs to improve their habitat. They're a protected species so you can't legally kill them either. Even when they're curled up on your doorstep. They're pretty tasty fried up with butter and onions, but I wouldn't know anything about that from first-hand experience, of course.

I've never had the snake or spider phobias. I have some trouble with heights, but not nearly as bad as some people I know. I always said I'm not afraid of heights, I'm just afraid of falling.
 
I hear ya, last spring I had a deal about like that happen. Markers were not switch'n like they should on my 7000 planter, take'n the plate off to clean the mouse next out of the frame, set'n on my butt in the drive way beat'n and bang'n on it about a 3' king snake came out the small hole the cable goes through. I like king snakes and let them do their thing every chance I get, but when the little feller dropped in my lap I screamed so loud and high every dog with in a mile started barking.

Dave
 
In the Army I went to an Air Force jungle survival school. Got to "dine" on snake, jungle rat, plantain, to name a few. Plantain is fibrous, about the size of a banana, top of the plantain tree. Gotta chop down a lot of trees to make a kettle of soup.
 
One great thing about Michigan, no poisonous snakes. We do have the Missassuaga Rattle snake but they are few and far between, and small not like Texas rattlers.

Was offered a job to work in Australia for 3 years. Noticed how many poisonous snakes are on that continent. It was the only deciding factor, but it did help in my decision not to go. ha ha. Not really. But they do have nasty snakes in Australia.

I'll stay right here in Michigan standing on top of my mower when a garter snake goes by.

rick
 
We only have non poisonous snakes around here, but a buddy of mine told me just a couple of weeks ago about one summer when he was a dumb 17 year old working on a ranch in South Dakota.

He was building fence one day, and ran into a 6 foot rattler. They didn't have rattlers around his home at Battle Creek, Nebraska, so not knowing for sure what it was, he just stomped it on the head with a tamper he had for tamping dirt around fence posts and killed it.

His boss showed up about then and like to filled his pants when he saw what happened. The boss convinced Bob that you're supposed to shy away from rattlers, not stomp them on the head with a post tamper. Especially 6 footers.
 
These nasty little brutes used to be all across Ontario but now exist in pockets and patches across the province.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistrurus_catenatus
 
There's nothing wrong with a rattlesnake that can't be cured with a 12ga shotgun. 7 1/2 shot works really good. Just aim for the head.
 
I don't mind snakes as long as I can see them. Everyone has a snake story or two. I was leaving my driveway one day in my 65 VW and this big gopher snake was crossing the road so I stopped to let him pass. The crazy thing crawled up around my motor. It took for ever to get him to leave. I was mowing last year in tall weeds and saw this long black snake crawling through the top of the weeds in front of my tractor. Kind of give me the creeps. Stan
 
I'm not too proud to admit they scare the crap out of me. No amount of money will ever get me to go into the snake house at the zoo. NW Idiotnoise doesn't have many snakes at all. Hear of a few Timber rattlers near Galena and on into SW Wisconsin. But Southern Mississippi has far to many for me. Jan 1 1987 I killed a Diamondback on my way to the deer stand. That morning it was cold enough that the diesel was gelling yet those freaking kritters were moving about. I sucked it up until Valentines day. Had 3 or 4 killed by then so I said see ya and moved back to Idiotnoise. Enough was enough. Sadly now we have the two legged variety crawling out here from Chitcago. Too bad we can't shoot them too.
 
I was messing around in the garden pulling weeds last summer,had a cold one and I looked down and saw this BIG BLACK SNAKE woah!!1 I even spilled my drink! then after I was done panicking I realised it was the soaker hose : )
 
No poisonous snakes around here, only garter snakes- and not nearly as many as there used to be, for some reason. I grew up playing with them, and scaring my little sister.
 
I'm not overly fond of snakes, but I despise rodents. The only poisonous snake we have around here is the copperhead, the others I leave alone.

As an aside, there are black widows in this part of Missouri. We never had any until the day I picked up a used small pig feeder. While my son was cleaning it out, he yelled for me to come over. There was a black widow in there. We killed her and did our best job cleaning it out. I don't know if is related, but every year since then I have run into at least one black widow somewhere on the farm. Fortunately not in the house.

Christopher
 
Snakes scare Me.When I was a kid Dad killed a diamond back rattler that he hung across the back bumper of his 51 Chevrolet to bring it home. Almost touched the ground on either side.
Ron
 

I'm not overly afraid of them, except poisonous ones which I kill, but I stay away from them. There is no way I would pick one up.

KEH
 
LOL
Someone didn't like my post so they complained to mommy.
Poof!
I hope whoever it was can grow a sense of humor before they get too old.
 
Not supposed to be rattlesnakes in Maine.My grand children were playing at a neighbors.One of the neighbors kids saw a snake.His Dad killed the snake with a shovel.He had never seen a rattler so he took it to the paper mill.A fellow from Texas ID it as a rattler.I grew up in MA, never saw a rattler but they had rattler hunsts in western MA.It was know that there were rattlers in the Blue Hill reservation 1o miles from Boston.Never say never.
 
Just saw on the news last night a pilot took off in a small plane, I think in Australia, and soon a snake came out of hiding and crawled on him! Worst case scenerio, the newspeople said they'd been jumping out with or without a parachute! Or maybe you could open a door and put the plane at 90 degrees and dump it out?
 
THE ONLY GOOD SNAKE IS A DEAD SNAKE NO MATTER WHAT KIND! IT MOVES AND IT DOSEN'T HAVE LEGS,IT'S THE DEVIL AND THE BIBLE SAY'S SO!!!!!!
 
When you are scared of them and you have to remove them from the toilet in the house bathroom as was last year and 2 years before that it gets to be a realy big problem. How they get in there I cannot understand. Looks like they come in thru the septic tank.
 
Not one of my favorite things to find. About all I know on sight is a garter snake and a rattle snake. I know they eat mice and bugs, but I'd rather they went somewhere else. The lawn mower does a good job on them...
 
Got a lot of good responses on this one, thanks all. Remind me not to walk in the woods with you Old Roy! Seriously, not that I want a pet snake or to be friendly with them, I just want to get past the stage of screaming and doing the little girl dance. Been looking at pictures on the internet and my hair doesn"t stand up quite so much anymore but the skin from my knees down continues to crawl. Maybe in time I will visit the zoo I really want to get over this fear.
 
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