#1717789 - 06/19/1710:37 AM
For all you snake killing sissies out there
onthewater102
Member
Registered: 04/14/05
Posts: 1649
Loc: Kent, CT
Quit killing natural pest control.
Mice and other rodents are the main carriers of ticks that people interact with. I'm sure this guy has done his part keeping our backyard free of the furry little disease carriers. We do not spray the yard and we've pulled only one tick off the kids so far this year.
If my 3yr old girl isn't afraid of it why does a full grown "man" feel the need to kill these things? MAN UP and leave them alone to do their jobs!
Some other cool pics...I actually found him about 5' off the ground in a burning bush:
#1717794 - 06/19/1710:58 AM
Re: For all you snake killing sissies out there
[Re: onthewater102]
onthewater102
Member
Registered: 04/14/05
Posts: 1649
Loc: Kent, CT
Rat snake -- I worked with a reptile rehabilitation group the whole time I was in high school so I've had a lot of practice handling all different types of snakes.
Deer get the bad press for ticks, but it's mainly mice and other rodents that carry the diseases that are then transmitted to humans through ticks, as well as for the majority of ticks that are in close proximity to people.
We took him out of the bush before he could raid the bird nests that were in it (my wife loves feeding the birds so we have nests in virtually every bush on the property.) I took him down to the river and let him go in a big brush pile along the bank after making sure the neighbors wouldn't kill him if he happened to show up on their property. My daughter petting it was pretty convincing that he wasn't a threat to them.
This was the biggest wild snake I've ever caught - it was between 5 and 6 feet long judging from this photo of me holding him (the bush I found him in is in the background along with the gate I was closing when I turned around to face him):
#1717806 - 06/19/1701:41 PM
Re: For all you snake killing sissies out there
[Re: onthewater102]
onthewater102
Member
Registered: 04/14/05
Posts: 1649
Loc: Kent, CT
Might not be poisonous but reptiles can have all sorts of nasty bacteria in their mouths that I'd rather not be bitten with, and the teeth on a snake that size would be plenty long enough to break the skin (speaking from experience on that one.) So not sissy - experienced & educated.
With the glove I could give it a little leeway and have some range of motion with its head which helps keep it calm, and I kept repositioning it so it didn't have enough range of motion to bite me behind the end of the glove. If I had it pinned by the back of the head the whole time (as you may have seen on one of those snake hunter TV shows) it would have been much more stressed and there was no need for that if it would behave with just the glove on.
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