Why did it have to be snakes?

I came across this snake skin at the base of Culp's hill a few years ago. It was about 5-6 feet long. I wasn't real thrilled about it considering how long the grass was!

Snake Skin.jpg
 
I came across this snake skin at the base of Culp's hill a few years ago. It was about 5-6 feet long. I wasn't real thrilled about it considering how long the grass was!

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Hard to tell from the image but probably a racer or ratsnake . Both are harmless but may bite if you pick them up and they eat rodents among other things .
 
I think what freaked me out about snakes was in Alabama where I grew up we had cottonmouths, timber rattlers, water moccasins, copperheads, pygmy rattlers and coral snakes. Didn't wanna mess with any of em, some of em would chase ya a good ways if ya riled em !
I am an arch-enemy of pit vipers. Fortunately, my favorite rock climbs are well up in places like the Tetons, the Winds, the Beartooths, the Big Horns, etc where the miserable %$$#@ don't live. Of course, I occasionally hit the crags, like Sinks Canyon outside Lander, and I've come across a prairie rattlesnake once in a while. Don't think I've ever actually seen WY's other rattler, the midget faded, whose venom is supposed to be very strong. My most bizarre encounter was seeing a rattler on the summit of Devil's Tower after finishing a four-pitch climb. Who needs that?
 
Probably a black snake with that length, they may frighten us but they are one of the good guys of snakes. We have plenty of snakes in the Hudson Valley of NY but mainly the Copperhead and the Timber Rattlesnake are really dangerous and should be treated as such. When we bought our old house in the mid 90's we were not aware of all of the mice that also considered this to be their home so we had non-venomous snakes coming into the basement. At my workbench, above my head was a 6 foot long black snake that scared at least a couple of years off of my life. It took time but eventually we got the mice out which also eliminated the snake's main prey. Occasionally we will see snakes but I tell my neighbors not to fear the black snakes and the garter snakes; do not kill them, if you leave them alone they will leave you alone. Although they may be creepy they do a good job of keeping the rodents and copperheads away.

Bill
 
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When I was in field school, we would often just swim off the boat to the site..

I do remember swimming in and being about a foot away from a Nerodius sippidon. water snek..they are cranky! And here in Erie they are black..but not a different species. It was really kinda cool..
 
I don't think I've ever picked up a northern watersnake that didn't try to bite me . Several succeeded .
In my back yard I saw a large snake laying near some bushes that was about as thick as your forearm and thought it might be a Timber Rattlesnake because of its pattern. We live near a large forested area with a wetland (aka a "swamp") nearby. I carefully pulled back some branches with a hockey stick and saw no rattles on the tail but it was out of there before I could see the head. Checking the web for indigenous snakes of New York I learned that it was a Northern Water Snake. As you know they are not venomous but they are known to be aggressive. A really impressive reptile for sure.

Bill
 
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When I was in field school, we would often just swim off the boat to the site..

I do remember swimming in and being about a foot away from a Nerodius sippidon. water snek..they are cranky! And here in Erie they are black..but not a different species. It was really kinda cool..
There actually is a subspecies insularium called the Lake Erie watersnake . It used to be threatened but the invasive gobies provided a great food source . The subspecies primarily lives on islands in the western basin . It gets confusing because the regular Lake Erie watersnake is sipedon , the northern banded watersnake . I actually think getting foul smelling musk from them smeared on you is worse than getting bit .
 
Last week I saw an online article about a young girl, living in Springfield, MO. who, while emptying the family washing machine found a copperhead among the wet clothes. The family was able to contact someone who came and removed the snake and let it go somewhere out in the country. The girl was not bit (my guess the snake was too dizzy from the spin cycle to strike at anything), and there was a picture of the snake laying on top of the clothes. There was a lot of speculation in the article of how the snake got into the washing machine, none of which made much sense.
 
We've got a rather long black snake that likes to come around to our yard and hedges. We named him 'Jerry,' so he doesn't come across as too scary. He's been here for around four years at our home in Ocala, FL. Every time we see him or come across him in the hedges, we say, "Hello Jerry!" and keep on trucking on.
 
We've got a rather long black snake that likes to come around to our yard and hedges. We named him 'Jerry,' so he doesn't come across as too scary. He's been here for around four years at our home in Ocala, FL. Every time we see him or come across him in the hedges, we say, "Hello Jerry!" and keep on trucking on.
Unionblue,

Like many people I've been startled by snakes a number of times, it's only natural. Every mammal sounds an alarm then they see that legless reptile shape. I've had some really long blacksnakes in my yard but no dangerous snakes like the copperhead or the timber rattlesnake. I hope to keep it that way and the big long blacksnake is a friend even though they scare the hell out of me sometimes. The blacksnake is known to kick a copperhead's arse. These blacksnakes can get really long, I've seen them go easily up to 7 feet in length. If you leave them alone they will leave you alone and just go back into the woods where they came from. Snakes may be creepy but non venomous snakes like the black (rat) snake, the garter snake, or the corn snake are not out to get us, they really just want mice.

Bill
 
My problem is limited to the first three. And I can confirm that rattler is actually pretty tasty meat.
A friend of mine shot a timber rattler on a horse ride. We cooked it and ate it. Not bad but couldn’t get my wife to try it. None of the other wives would try it either. No adventure.
 
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