Snakes....
By applsofgld
@applsofgld (2506)
United States
May 25, 2007 12:19am CST
What do you do when you see a snake in your yard or on your property? I am terrified of snakes, harmless or poisonous. I prefer for them to be killed. My husband doesn't want to kill them unless they are a dangerous snake. We have a humongous black snake that now for 3 days has been making himself known around here, my hubby finally after me asking him to please kill it, was going to, but the snake disappeared. Watch he'll be back in the yard as soon as he goes back to work. Well this afternoon late, I was going to feed our kitty and called him, he wouldn't go past my rosebush in the back of the house, I mentioned it to my hubby and he knew that was odd for our cat to do this. He stepped off the back steps and quickly went inside for his gun, he said it was a water moccassin. He shot it several times, then let me practice on it, the thing took several shots to kill it. So what do you do, do you let them alone or kill them, and if so, how do you do it? A gun, a shovel? I'm curious to see if I am the only one who dislikes them so much.
15 people like this
32 responses
@sweetaspie52 (2359)
• United States
25 May 07
I am not scared of snakes as long as I know that they are there they do not bother me I go out of my way to avoid them such as walking far away from them but they are not there to hurt you they are just doing their own little thing I am not scared of any thing really
3 people like this
@majiwu (11)
• China
25 May 07
I am a college student . My english is not good,I wish anyone who read my response can understand me . Snakes are rare in my living area, so I feel very lucky when I see a snake,I think they are beautiful and timid. Therefore, I will not kill snakes when I see them on contary I will protect them as possible as I can
@rosie_123 (6113)
•
25 May 07
I understand you perfectly, and I agree. Snakes are a beautiful, living creature with as much right to live as any other. Why kill it? Especially in such a horrid way - taking "practice" shots at the poor creature? Why not call just someone to come and remove it, or lure it into a trap and release it into the wild? Or let the poor thing be, as someone else here said that this type of smake is not poisonous. We don't have snakes much here in the UK, but on the one occaion I did see one on the path near to my office , I picked it up and took it to the woods to release it in safety. I would never kill anything, nor condone the killing of any other living creature. What gives humans the "right" just ecase we're biger. By the way - your English is fine:-))
@maryannemax (12156)
• Sweden
25 May 07
i once saw a snake on our yard one morning while i was watering the plants. but i did not scream nor got that nervous. i just stood there and froze for awhile. studied if the snake will attack me or not. when the snake did not, i went back inside the house to tell my mom about it. i hate killing anything... even snakes. hehe. so, good that the snake did not harm me since it's the only reason why i will try and kill it.
@ozangel82 (753)
• Australia
25 May 07
It is illegal to kill them here, but most people do, i mean who is gonna sit around and waitfor someone to come remove it? I had a friend who wanted to do the right thing and called a professional to come get it and they wanted to charge her hundreds of dollars, so she just got her hubby to chop it with a shovel!
@melanie652 (2524)
• United States
25 May 07
If it's not a poisonous snake I don't do anything. I pick it up and turn it loose someplace away from the house though. I grew up with two brothers, one of which was fascinated with snakes for awhile. I learned alot about which ones are poisonous and which ones are. Non poisonous snakes will have an oval shaped head and the black pupil of the eye will be round. Poisonous snakes will have a triangular shaped head and the pupils will be like a line straight up and down, like cat eyes. It's usually pretty distinctive if you're close enough to look.
I do kill the poisonous snakes. Usually with whatever is handy. Don't need me or someone else getting bit!
@Yestheypayme2dothis (7874)
• United States
25 May 07
I do not know a lot about snakes or what a black snake looks like or how big it is...or the other kind you mentioned. I don't like to kill things. If it is a rampant thing, how about an exterminator? A friend of the family moved to a very wooded area. When they first moved in, they had snakes in the house all over the place. They even had them in the toilet. I have no idea how they dealt with that.
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
25 May 07
there isn't any snakes around here, I never saw one out side of a pet shop. But I do not like them anyway.
2 people like this
@SpitFire179 (2536)
• Canada
25 May 07
i hate snakes and I'm glad i've never had to come into contact with one other than when i was small.
Although when i was small, in kindergarten our teacher had us raising garter snakes, at the time i guess i liked them, now, no thanks, i could live without them... Though that could have something to do with my roomie's fascination with snakes on a .... movies, snakes on a plane, snakes on a train, what's next... oh my....
And my hubby, well he's scared gutless of snakes, there's no way you'd get him anywhere near one, and even the ones on tv make him stand on anything high enough and freeze.
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
25 May 07
I'm ok with snakes - I don't like being startled by them but for the most part don't have a problem and the only time I've actually killed one was in Texas when we had a copperhead (poisonous) in our yard.
@maryannemax (12156)
• Sweden
25 May 07
my mom is just like you. she never gets nervous when seeing a snake. she's just calm and snakes never harm her even when she's working in the farm where snakes are numerous.
1 person likes this
@navtech (1773)
• India
25 May 07
When the somebody tells, there is a snake. Every takes precausion immediately. A proverb goes like this "EVEN THE ARMY PEOPLE AFAIRD OF SNAKE". In our family we male people do not afaird of snakes. My father and my brother used to lift any snakes by hand. They know the trick as to how lift a living snake. I am bit afaird to do this. As far as COBRO is concerned we do not kill them. We generally light a lamp and request him to go away. It is generally practiced in India. We in India consider cobro belonged to God. Therefore we do not kill them.
2 people like this
@tinamwhite (3252)
• United States
25 May 07
The big black snake was probably hunting the water mocassin...here in rural Arkansas we have a big black snake that eats other snakes...we do not kill them...ever!!!
I am not particularly afraid of snakes...I have a daughter who has owned several of them while living in my home....do not misunderstand...I am not extremely fond of them either.....
I do wear boots when walking around out in the yard....and I make my 5 yr. old do the same...I am very aware of the different types of poisonous snakes here...I think that I hae a responsibility to do this since we have so many children here at times.....
If I run into a poisonous snake...it gets shot....by me or my husband.....We do not have to get as close as with a shovel or hoe....
@applsofgld (2506)
• United States
27 May 07
Tina I'm from Arkansas myself originally, born in Little Rock, I have family & friends in and around Palestine, Lonoke, Hot Springs, Forrest City. Great state. What you said about the black snake probably hunting the water mocassin made such perfect sense. We haven't seen the black snake since killing the mocassin. Thanks for posting and sharing with me.
1 person likes this
@applsofgld (2506)
• United States
30 May 07
tina I wanted you to know I have thought about your response several times since you posted, I wanted to let you know that you made so much sense. We haven't seen the black snake since we killed the dangerous mocassin! Now we feel better about letting the black snake hang around if he wants too, we will just keep our distance from him, I have heard that they can be aggressive, maybe not poisonous, but still they will chase and bite!
1 person likes this
@tinamwhite (3252)
• United States
30 May 07
The black snake (King Snake) is not aggressive towards humans unless it feels threatened or trapped. They are very aggressive towards other snakes and that is their staple of food....they grow to huge sizes. I am glad that I made an impact on you and that you have realized that this snake is a natural predator of other snakes....I would not imagine that you will see the King Snake again unless another snake is in the near vicinity, seeing it will be a warning that you have another more dangerous snake close.
Thanks so much for awarding me with the "best response".
1 person likes this
@solomon_sky (9)
• Indonesia
25 May 07
I'm also afraid if there is snake in my yard. If there is snake in my yard, I will call help from the expert, like from the zoo...
2 people like this
@eachen2002 (889)
• United States
26 May 07
There are people that can come and take care of them.I see it animal planet all the time.Not that I like snakes any more than alot of other people but I do respect their territory as much as I can.
@applsofgld (2506)
• United States
28 May 07
What you see on animal planet is a tv show, in the real world that doesn't happen often. Not unless you live in the city. I live in the country, we don't even have a humane society to call when someone doesn't take care of their animals. We had some neighbors dogs terrorizing out garbage cans a few years back, my hubby called the sherriff's dept. and found there was nothing we could do, we couldn't even legally shoot them to scare them off. So we bought one of those really loud horns in a can you use for boats, and it works too to scare off the dogs. But if a snake comes up, we have to take care of it ourself. Now if an alligator comes in the yard, like the one that came 10 years ago, we can call the wildlife people.
@Discordia (95)
• Canada
26 May 07
Where I live we only have garter snakes and other harmless snakes. I would never kill one, even if it was in my house or yard. A poisonous or dangerous snake might be a different story though...but even if one was in my yard or house I don't think I could kill it. I would call the proper authorities to come in and deal with it. I just don't think an animal should die for being what it is. A poisonous snake can't help that it was born a poisonous snake, and it is made that way by Nature for a reason. So I feel the best and most humane thing to do is to call in the animal control people or whoever it is that deals with wild animals and such.
1 person likes this
@Calais (10893)
• Australia
26 May 07
I hate them they creep me out. I run a million miles the other way, although we did kill one once, because it was just too close to the house, I felt really bad, but it should have been in the bush not near the house where I have children. We used a shovel, it was the only thing we could find at the time.
1 person likes this
@ladymoonstone143 (1507)
• United States
26 May 07
I am terrified of snakes and so does my husband. Years ago, I was walking in our driveway back in my native country and I heard a "hissss" sound. I looked around and I saw a snake coiling and was going straight at me. I was rooted in the spot and I was like.."help" but it come out like a whisper. Next thing I scream was "Mama!" and my mother came running. She saw the snake and throw a big rock on it. That gaves me momentum to move away and was throwing rocks like crazy at the snake. Good thing it was still a young snake...don't know if it was poisonous or not but I don't care. It gives me the creeps. That is why I never want to live near wooded areas, etc. I am afraid of snakes and especially I got a toddler. But then if confronted by it and my toddler or a love one is in danger, I guess I will be attacking it with anything on hand.
Sometimes I wonder if I can have a mongoose as a pet like Riki Tiki Tavi...lol.
@KarenO52 (2950)
• United States
27 May 07
I don't like snakes either, but I've never seen any poisonous ones on my property. If I did see one hanging around, I'd shoot it. The garter snakes are good to have around because they eat mice and other rodents. Sometimes I'll see one of those, but they are more afraid of me than I am of them, and they just slither away real fast.
@craz2max (254)
• United States
26 May 07
I have never killed a snake and am afraid of them. My father and brother found a blue racer while we were out fishing one time and they were chasing it. It went right across my lap and I almost fell in the water trying to get away from it. My dad and brother were laughing their heads off. I was so mad. I am a cat lover, along with cats however come the things they catch. My black and white cat came to the door one day wanting in. I was about to open the door when I looked down. He had a small black snake in his mouth and it was alive. needless to say the cat didn't get in. LOL
@forhekset (18)
• Canada
28 May 07
I dislike snakes, in fact I hate them. My roomate once brought home a vicious snake(not venoumous) that snapped at everyone. It always got loose too. i figured ti was big enough to eat me and it probably weighed more then me. One week when I agreed to watch it I(witht he help of a very large guy friend of mine) made sure it never got out of its case again.since it was in its glass case it was easy to kill.something very heavy was used top get the job done.
1 person likes this
