My Wife vs Snakes.

poadeleted21

poadeleted21

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
12,332
My wife hates snakes (and alligators) and kills the snakes on site. Drives me absolutely nuts. We live in a swamp with all sorts of critters and the snakes are a welcome addition to keep the rodent numbers down. So I get home yesterday and she's got a fresh kill. I asked "why did you kill it?" She replied "Because I saw it on my walk" this snake was posing no threat to her. She walked across the property got a shovel and went back and killed it. Walked 300 yards to kill it. I told her I have a hard time believing it was posing an immediate threat to her given the nature of her defense. She gets defensive and tells me to give it up when I tell her the snakes are beneficial to keeping the rats and mice at bay and they pose little to no threat to her. She even admits it's irrational but refuses to give up her snake killing ways.

Here's yesterday's victim.

attachment.php


A chopped in half garter snake is not uncommon to find in the drive way.

We did have a HUGE great horned owl in a tree the other day too... Hopefully he's working OT on rodent extermination.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    115.7 KB · Views: 347
Last edited:
My wife is the same way. I really work on her to not kill snakes before I look at it to see what it is. At least we don't have alligators here in the high desert. Terantulas don't bother her a bit.

I slipped a rubber snake under the bathroom door once..... I won't do that again.
 
Hmmm... can't tell but that sure looks more like a Copperhead than a garter snake.
 
And thanks for the picture. My wife just saw it and locked herself in the bathroom....

A little hard to tell, but that isn't a copperhead is it?
 
wsuffa said:
Hmmm... can't tell but that sure looks more like a Copperhead than a garter snake.
Click to expand...

Yeah...that's a copperhead. She's also got one huge Canebreak notched in her car tire. Garter, corn, rat snakes are the usual victims. There's a big black rat snake living beside my shop and she's "letting it live" as she says.
 
bartmc said:
Yeah...that's a copperhead. She's also got one huge Canebreak notched in her car tire. Garter, corn, rat snakes are the usual victims. There's a big black rat snake living beside my shop and she's "letting it live" as she says.
Click to expand...

I might well "off" a copperhead m'self, but that's just me.
 
I'd have a low tolerance for poisonous snakes, especially if kids are around.
 
My daughter bought a house with some land in OK. It's not swampy, but there are plenty of good bogs, and thatch for snakes to hide in. I was walking to the shed, and saw one move out of the way. I advised her to leave it alone, and so far, so good. She's not interested in getting into the thatch, and the snake isn't interested in getting into the lawn.

So far, we have a Mexican stand-off. She doesn't like snakes, but she understands the job they do in keeping the rodent pop down. And funny enough, we took a walk a few nights ago, and a big, big grey barn owl flew across the street and into a tree. I barely saw it, and of course didn't hear it at all but he was big.
 
Matthew said:
I'd have a low tolerance for poisonous snakes, especially if kids are around.
Click to expand...

They pose little to no threat, you just can't be an idiot around them. Her banging away at it with a shovel is probably a good way to agitate it.
 
docmirror said:
My daughter bought a house with some land in OK. It's not swampy, but there are plenty of good bogs, and thatch for snakes to hide in. I was walking to the shed, and saw one move out of the way. I advised her to leave it alone, and so far, so good. She's not interested in getting into the thatch, and the snake isn't interested in getting into the lawn.

So far, we have a Mexican stand-off. She doesn't like snakes, but she understands the job they do in keeping the rodent pop down. And funny enough, we took a walk a few nights ago, and a big, big grey barn owl flew across the street and into a tree. I barely saw it, and of course didn't hear it at all but he was big.
Click to expand...

That was the first great horned I'd ever seen in the wild.
 
Here's the Canebreak she got at the end of the driveway with the car. He was large. I went back with a flash light and snapped the picture after she told me what she'd done.

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    152.6 KB · Views: 263
Last edited:
I personally don't kill any snakes. However, I understand the fear others have. When the subject comes up I explain why I don't kill them, maybe that will help someone else understand them. My brother will kill any venomous snake on the spot, no question asked, but will leave the others alone. My wife hates rats more than snakes, plus she is too scared to get near one, so my place is pretty safe for ol' Mr. Noshoulders.
 
We love snakes, both of us. Here's one of our friends patrolling the shop for a meal:

attachment.php


I just love it when a "city kid" moves out to the country to enjoy nature and then starts killing everything that moves on their property because they're afraid of it. Really? Go back to the city. Surround yourself with pavement...problem solved.

About the only thing I'll ever consider killing is a cottonmouth. The ones here can be quite aggressive. But even then, if it's minding its own business then it's free to keep doing so. But if it follows me down the trail for 100 yards...not so much. Everything else wants no more of me than I want of it so they're free to roam.
 

Attachments

  • blackey.jpg
    blackey.jpg
    130 KB · Views: 392
timwinters said:
We love snakes, both of us. Here's one of our friends patrolling the shop for a meal:

attachment.php


I just love it when a "city kid" moves out to the country to enjoy nature and then starts killing everything that moves on their property because they're afraid of it. Really? Go back to the city. Surround yourself with pavement...problem solved.

About the only thing I'll ever consider killing is a cottonmouth. The ones here can be quite aggressive. But even then, if it's minding its own business then it's free to keep doing so. But if it follows me down the trail for 100 yards...not so much. Everything else wants no more of me than I want of it so they're free to roam.
Click to expand...

She's more country than me. Though I don't think where she's from in Indiana has the level of pit vipers that we have in a South Carolina swamp. I grew up backed up to several acres of woods in MS and snakes were just something you looked out for and didn't do anything dumb with.
 
I am a farm boy. It is not just the ladies. My grandfather had an absolute hatred/fear of snakes. Big, small, beneficial, didn't matter. I can still hear him in my head bellowing from across the orchard/barnyard, "Hoe Dennis, bring me the hoe."
So I would (being maybe 9 or 10) do as ordered, muttering all the way under my breath, as I am barefoot and he is wearing leather boots that would stop a bullet, "It's just a guddam garter snake, sheesh"
 
bartmc said:
She's more country than me.
Click to expand...

My statement wasn't aimed at her...it was just a general comment. I've seen it many times. People move to a rural setting (or even to a subdivision with large acreage lots) and start killing everything...not just snakes.

I've seldom lived on less than 5 acres...currently live in the middle of 160...and have no desire to eradicate anything. Well, except maybe for mosquitoes and ticks and chiggers. But that's impossible. :)
 
I like snakes. but yeah, that is a freakin' copperhead. killing it doesn't make too much sense, as there are probably another 100 right behind him somewhere in the woods. oh, uh, don't tell ur wife that lol.
 

Attachments

  • snake.jpg
    snake.jpg
    91.2 KB · Views: 48
We have a couple of 4-6' bull snakes that live in our rock wall. Haven't seen them yet, but they leave their poop on the side walk and patio. Other than the poop they don't bother anyone and they keep rodents and big black crickets scarce. They are docile unless provoked, then they can get ****y and bite. They are non poisonous. Garder snakes are welcome here also. :dunno:
 
Send the wives down to Florida.... there is a big snake problem down in the everglades. Judging by her success at exterminating snakes, maybe she can help fight the invasive constrictor species that has invaded FL!
 
bartmc said:
Yeah...that's a copperhead. She's also got one huge Canebreak notched in her car tire. Garter, corn, rat snakes are the usual victims. There's a big black rat snake living beside my shop and she's "letting it live" as she says.
Click to expand...

I'll go well out of my way to kill any copperheads I find on my property.

I don't kill any non-poisonous snakes, I like them really. I have a big 5ft king snake living around my house now. It surprises me now and then but its a very mild mannered snake. I can walk right up to it and it just moves away, does not coil up.
 
Last edited:
AviatorAdam said:
Send the wives down to Florida.... there is a big snake problem down in the everglades. Judging by her success at exterminating snakes, maybe she can help fight the invasive constrictor species that has invaded FL!
Click to expand...

I read something about that recently. Didn't one get a Key deer? Those little deer are a strange breed.
 
Subject line containing the words "wife" and "snake", and a picture that looks like it could be a snake curled up on a (very sunburned) woman's breast... I might need to take one of those Rorschach tests or something.
 
C182P said:
Subject line containing the words "wife" and "snake", and a picture that looks like it could be a snake curled up on a (very sunburned) woman's breast... I might need to take one of those Rorschach tests or something.
Click to expand...

Now that was funny! :rofl:
 
bartmc said:
attachment.php


A chopped in half garter snake is not uncommon to find in the drive way.

We did have a HUGE great horned owl in a tree the other day too... Hopefully he's working OT on rodent extermination.
Click to expand...


Looks like a boob to me too! :dunno:
 
I've worked on my wife about this for many years. She has now acquiesced into accepting that all snakes are a positive influence in general and no longer kills every one she sees. She can identify copperheads and cottonmouths, the main species in our area. She kills those when found in the yard, but now gives the black racers, black rat snakes, and garter snakes free rein.
 
docmirror said:
I read something about that recently. Didn't one get a Key deer? Those little deer are a strange breed.
Click to expand...

Yes one did get a key deer and they are strange indeed. More impressively.... they are eating full grown gators.........:eek:
 
The one and only benefit I give you southern guys is there are more snakes down there. I love them, got three at home in aquaria. I consider it a sign of good fortune when I run across a critter. Found a rat snake in my yard in Cincinnati the week before I sold the place.
 
AviatorAdam said:
Yes one did get a key deer and they are strange indeed. More impressively.... they are eating full grown gators.........:eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah, the influx of burmese pythons in Florida is nothing short of an ecological disaster. They're huge (a local specimen named Miss Piggie weighed north of 250 lbs and took 3 men to handle) voracious, and can eat anything they can fit down their maw. They have no natural predators to speak of in Florida and are putting enormous pressures on the local species. You Floridians see one of these please feel free to bash it with my blessings, not that I think they matter to anyone outside of your truly.
 
steingar said:
Yeah, the influx of burmese pythons in Florida is nothing short of an ecological disaster. They're huge (a local specimen named Miss Piggie weighed north of 250 lbs and took 3 men to handle) voracious, and can eat anything they can fit down their maw. They have no natural predators to speak of in Florida and are putting enormous pressures on the local species. You Floridians see one of these please feel free to bash it with my blessings, not that I think they matter to anyone outside of your truly.
Click to expand...

Worldwide, a very common problem. Species move faster geographically than evolutionary checks and balances can keep up with.
 
Oh lord. I know you guys have an internet connection. There's better looking boobs out there than staring at the bottom of kids beach bucket.
 
We see boobs everywhere.

'Look! That cloud over there.'

'hehe - looks like a boob.'
 
I used to work there. It was known as the boob plant for a while by the engineers.
 
We moved to eastern Washington back in 1961 and one of the first things people warned us about were rattlesnakes down in the Snake River breaks. It took about 10 years before I saw one, and it was emerging from under the wheels of my girlfriend's (now wife) motorcycle. I didn't have time to react before I hit it with mine. Less than 100 yards up the road we hit another one. I don't think I saw another one. Best for the snakes, I tend to kill rattlesnakes on general principles.
 
docmirror said:
I used to work there. It was known as the boob plant for a while by the engineers.
Click to expand...

I interviewed for a job at Diablo Canyon. I think I didn't get it because I was non-committal on the question of "what kind of work do you prefer doing, indoors or outdoors?" ("I can deal equally well with either.")

Translation: We need a patsy to patrol up and down pipelines and valve boxes and look for leaks, and we need to make sure you're the right guy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top