Got myself snake-bit this morning

That is deportation without a trial. How dare you!!!! The verdict has never came back and you didn't allow it to have a lawyer.

If he could not afford a lawyer one would be appointed by the court of law.

__________________
U.S. Constitution -10th Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

When my grandfather told me black snakes were good snakes and not poisonous, I told him if they wasn't poisonous they must carry the flu because if I got close to one I always ended up with crap running down both legs and sweating like when I got the flu

__________________
"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

Here, when it rains, it seems like we get every darned BIG, old, nasty spitting rattlesnake from up in the hills right down here on the ranch lands!!! Grrrr. We cut the heads off of every rattler we find. Now if it was a big black snake.....not poisonous....I mighta come to the same verdict. Just as long as it was a good long ways away from me after the deportation!! LOL.

I would have voted for relocation, but since you already did that....

That happened to me last summer, except with a little garter snake. It was innocently hanging out behind the pole barn, but the guineas were on their way over and I knew they would try to eat it, so I grabbed it. My plan was to take it down the road a ways, but the thing bit me. When I tried to get a grip behind its head, it somehow turned and bit me again! I had no idea a little snake could hurt me that much. Yowch! Anyway, I was done being bitten, so I let it go. Hopefully the guineas didnt get it, but they are expert snake hunters.

__________________
Abby
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unless life also hands you sugar and water, your lemonade is going to suck.

I got bit a couple days ago too. Mine was a big red-sided garter. Pretty thing. I turned mine loose in the garden, hopefully away from the ducks.

Wash the bites and apply aloe or neosporin. The ones you have to be careful about are the fang bites, and for some reason the type of teeth a black snake has eludes me now. Fang bites are deep penetrations, easily infected because the skin can heal over before any foreign matter can drain. Garters have small teeth, no fangs, so the little scratches are easily washed out.

Years ago I had a Black Snake in my Hen House.I thought I would be nice and put it in my Garden.Well next evening it came back with a friend was eating my Baby Ducks

Couldn't have that was two less Snakes around.

Your Lucky it wasn't a Copperhead or Rattler.

big rockpile

__________________
I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



If I need a Shelter
If I need a Friend
I go to the Rock!

I know they are bad about eating eggs (and baby chicks), but if you can keep them around your general area, there will not be any rattlesnakes or copper heads around. I know this for a fact, through years of experience. The neighbor across the road from me had some bluffs 3 or 4 hundred yards behind his house. He killed a copper head in his yard about once a week in the summer, and sometimes a rattler too. I had pilot black snakes (AKA black rat snakes, black king snakes) over at my place (one, my wife named "grandpa" was 8' long or so and lived in the cellar) I never saw a poisonous snake in the yard in the 7 or 8 years we were there, which was very important to me as we had small children then. Where I live now I have a couple that hang around the house and the barn, I haven't seen a poisonous snake on the property now in 19 years. Yes, the do like eggs, and will take chicks too, but they are almost as good as a cat for keeping mice and rats down.

I raise lots of rabbits, and I have yet to lose a rabbit, but in this case I'm just lucky.... because they will get the bunnies sometimes. A strand or two of small electric wire around the bottom of your pen close to the ground will deter them substantially, but wont keep them out of the coop/pen completely.

PS, if you get bit again, have someone open the snakes jaws as you push his head towards you finger/hand /arm. Their teeth curve backwards and "pulling" them off will cause a worse wound. I only got bit once, was holding one and trying to show the kids how harmless they were. They still laugh about it to this day.

I'd say the reason he bite you is cause he's gettin tired of you taking him down the road a couple of miles, dumping him out to crawl all the way back home and that probably just really chaps his hide!!!! Especially his belly. If you kept doing that to me I'd probably bit you too!

Recommendation: Place golf balls in the hen nest. When they swallow the eggs, they'll swallow the golf balls also. No more snake problem for a while.

__________________
r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

I must respectfully call 'black' snakes or as we call em, chicken snakes, keeping rattlesnakes away, a bunch of hooey! I've had em at the same time. Now a kingsnake might take on a rattler, but not a chicken snake. I've seen rattlers that swallow full size rabbits, and are looking for another...

If I go to the trouble of catching one, I relocate it.

__________________
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Must be that time of year. My 4 yr old came screaming in the house about a big snake. Thought he was talking about a big worm - nope it was a the biggest garter snake I've ever seen sunning itself on the front walk. S/he was in a vile mood - striking out at everything. Grabbed my camera and took a few shots before relocating it to the pasture where it scared the chickens and the goats.

__________________
Wags Ranch Nigerians


"The Constitution says to promote the general welfare, not to provide welfare!" ~ Lt. Col Allen West

That garter is pretty! Ours aren't that colorful.

Wags, are you sure that orange-marked snake is only a garter snake? Did it hiss? I have had BIG snakes that look like yours. They suupposedly get as big as the black snakes. One workman here told me they are a variation of black snake and another man told me they are called "hog nose" snakes and are rare. In any event, the two I have seen were very nasty tempered and threatening. I sure would not want to get bit by one!
What happened with the snake bite - was it Carey who posted the original? Did you ever talk to your dr.? WhAt did she say???

Treat? Yes. Doctor? No. I'd live in a hospital if I went to the doctor every time I got snake bit.

It's a California red-sided garter snake.

I do know that these black snakes take care of a LOT of mice / rats for us, but unless we have an OVER-abundance of copperheads, they aren't doing that for us. We have dozens of copperheads every year, of course by the walkways to the chicken / goat houses. Depending on my mood (and their tempermant), I'll either re-locate them or lop their head off with a shovel.

We've had a goat bit by one in the face last year (assuming it was a copperhead 'cause I found one under the manger just the next day) and now that we have a 13 month old daughter to worry about, I may have to re-think my relocation strategy with the copperheads.

Yes, I did call the Dr. & she said "is it swollen, do you feel sick, etc."? No to both, told her I scrubbed it real good & doused it w/alcohol, etc.. She said not to worry, but if it showed ANY sign of swelling to call her asap. It's just annoying now because one of the bites is on my index finger & the bandage keeps getting wet / dirty / in the way of typing.

If it were a copperhead or rattler, that would be another story. Guess I'm lucky.

__________________
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson