Re: [RC] "I can't get the snakes out of my pasture." - Annie George
If they are out in the
hinterlands I go around them, its their turff, but in the yard they are dead! I
killed 3 so far this summer, and 4 last summer, and I have lost cats & dogs
to them. So snakes, No Mass akee. AG
>> Yes you can.Shoot them.What is your point in
taking that chance with your horses,dogs,friends,etc?You don't have
"hundreds" of them,and rattlesnakes are not really "travelers".Those ones
you are seeing are probably pretty much the same ones,over and over,and
they have a den site very nearby.I am not a snake-hater.I like having
non-venemous ones near the house,but if I have a venemous one near the
house or barn,it dies. Out away from "my" turf,all snakes are safe from
me.<<
As they do at my place; although I don't shoot them.
Mostly I use a 2x4. I have, in fact, killed five rattlesnakes in the
last month, counting the one in the arena that I didn't intend to kill
until it bit itself, I don't consider my arena to be "near the house or
barn" (because it isn't). It is out and away from "my" turf, and
would have been safe from me if it had just slithered away into the grass
when I threw rocks at it. But after it had immobilzed itself by
biting itself, I wasn't going to leave it there in the middle of the arena
where I wanted to ride; and I sure as hell wasn't going to move it with it
still alive. So die it did--I bashed it on the head with a rock and
then flung it out in the middle of road so the ravens would be able to see
it in order to perform the body removal. It was gone by the next
day.
However, out in my pasture is also "out and away from my
turf." My pasture is 100 acres of unirrigated (so now dead) grass (6"
to 2 1/2' tall) on an 800 acre parcel that backs up to the Cleveland
National Forest. There is no way in hell I could patrol that kind of
space for rattlesnakes. Although if I happened to have a 2x4 with me (or
could find a big stick handy) when I saw one out there, then it would die
too. However, I am not naive enough to think that this would have
much effect on the total rattlesnake population.
Additionally, I must
confess to rarely ever even going out in the pasture. I don't have to go
out there to find the horses, because they meet me at the gate when they
hear my truck coming up the road. The only thing I go out there for
is to occasionally check the status of the forage and even
less occassionally, the status of the fencing. Why would I want to
risk stepping on a rattlesnake? :)
Even with the death toll so high
this month, this is a small fraction of the rattlesnakes I have seen in the
last month. And even one or two that I (or my horse) have come pretty damn
close to stepping on.
And yes, I know of a number of horses (and
people) who have even gotten bitten by rattlesnakes. I these
particular cases the attending medical professionals were actually more
concerned about tetnus and other infection than the effects of the venom
itself.
It does not mean that rattlesnakes cannot cause serious
problems in the rare instances where they are provoked to bite. It
just means that they rarely ever do mostly because they are quite difficult
to provoke to bite, even in a place like mine, where rattlesnakes are
RAMPANT. My place is like rattlesnake heaven, and I make it even more
so by inviting large numbers of small rodents with my horse feed.
I
TRY to control the rodent population as much as I can (and even
have stooped to poisoning the no less) because a barn cat would be coyote
bait in no time. :)
I DO like the King snakes because they help
control both the rodent population and the rattlesnake population; but I
see them significantly less often than Ido the rattlesnakes. Too bad
I don't have a den of them around :).
