Right in front of our driveway. Hubby was in the woods and saw him pull over and heard the shot from a hand gun. I was checking the road and saw buzzards walked down saw it was a snake got my camera took this picture. He shot his head off.
Damn. I've not seen any on my property, but I have run across a copperhead (they are aggressive and venomous, but not as deadly as rattlesnakes.)
No Shirley we didn't but it is an idea but I'm sure the buzzards took care of them . Hubby was just in the woods it came out of to cross the road.
I've come across a lot of rattlesnakes when I lived in California and Texas, but the only time I felt the need to kill one was when there was a rattlesnake literally on the threshold of the front door of my neighbor's house while I was living in Elsa, Texas. My neighbors weren't home, and there was only their 12-year-old daughter and a friend. I heard them screaming, and didn't feel good about just running it off, in the event that it came back and one of the girls was bitten. Otherwise, I've simply watched out for them, and left them to live their lives.
We seldom kill anything including rattlers, we use to use a shovel to pick them, up then a senior grabber .We finally bought an official snake grabber a few years ago, it works great. We take them to the woods. We did kill one rattler who just wouldn't stay away and was very aggressive. Also killed a chicken snake who kept killing out biddies.
Many years ago, I was living on the grounds of a horse stable near Corona, California. In exchange for making sure the gates were closed and locked at a specific time (10 pm, I think), I was given the use of a fairly nice house trailer, including utilities. There were a lot of rattlesnakes in that area, particularly when I hiked out into the canyons. There was a large woodpile next to the house trailer that I was living in, immediately to the right of the door. When I entered or left the trailer, I could strike the woodpile with a stick and hear it rattle, although I rarely saw the snake, if there was only one in that woodpile. The snake was nice for impressing my friends. I referred to it as my guard snake.
So you had a pet guard snake now thats a first. I bet nobody thought about sneaking up on you at nifgr,huh? I grew up in Stone Mountain Ga. and it was full of cotton mouths and rattlers, momma got bit by a large rattler on the leg in 1958, she almost lost her leg from infection.
Of course, my guard snake would be as willing to bite me as anyone else, except that I knew better than to go digging around in the woodpile.
As a paramedic in Texas, we didn't consider rattlesnake bites to be life-threatening emergencies. Well, they could certainly be a threat to life, but someone bitten by a rattlesnake wasn't likely to die on us on the way into the hospital unless they were very old, very young, or very sick. It wasn't like we see in the movies, anyhow.
I treated my copperhead in a similar manner that you folks treated rattlers. It was at the back of my property crossing from one grassy area to another. I was on my tractor. It actually struck at the front end loader!!! Message received...you are badder than I. I just backed off and left it alone. I figure that it's gonna eat other critters that I don't want (rodents & such), it will be food for the friendlier black snakes, and all that killing it would do would be to leave that spot in the ecosystem for another to take its place. Had it been near my house or habitually in a spot where I might be on a regular basis, I might have taken other action. Other than that encounter, I've seen lots of black snakes out here.
We try not to kill them either unless we have to. But we are also very careful around them. Our wildlife is really dwindling down in past 10 years. Sad.
@Marie Mallery , if it's still there, cut the rattle off. You can shake it and it will rattle. Country folks have to get their fun anyway they can.
Buzzards didn't waste anytime tearing it up, you know since much of the wildlife is dwindling they are hungrier too. Shirly I don't think I want a rattler though, my emotions aren't what they use to be.
All along the Llano River there are rock outcrops and so inviting for people to swim to and climb. The copperheads are living in those rock outcrops and when you stick your face up over an edge you might be unpleasantly surprised. The Indians lived along the Llano hundreds of years ago and it is still a treasure trove of arrow heads and spear heads. One of the local little restaurants in Llano had one entire wall covered top to bottom with the arrow heads and spear heads. They have continued to be found because the river changes course so often and new findings are discovered. Really beautiful place but most of it today borders private properties of the ranchers and other owners. In the 40s and 50s there were little fishing camps along the river which had one room cabins and all had old steel sears wood stoves. Our little camp site had such a camp but had been closed for decades but all the sears stoves were outside in the weather and rusted so badly they were not worth trying to save one. Of all the places I have seen Llano is one of the most beautiful.