Found this guy in the house last night

[hutter]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SallyLightfoot[/i]
<br>Why not just toss it outside? You have to wonder why it came inside if its food supply is outside.

Your dispatching the snake (irrationally, imho) just made a lot of rats and field mice very happy.
[/quote]
Hell, I've killed snakes for just being in my yard. What if one of my nephews came across one? I nearly stepped on one a couple of weeks ago, bastard was bold enough to be laying in the middle of the walkway. Didn't take me twenty seconds to get an ax from the garage and go Rambo on it.

My cat takes care of the rats and field mice, as well as squirrels, rabbits, birds and whatever else she can sink her teeth into. Good kitty.

[SallyLightfoot]

[quote][i]Originally posted by coop41[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by SallyLightfoot[/i]
<br>In Arizona and the SW aren't there only a couple of poisonous snakes? Rattlers, copperheads-- what else?
[/quote]

I'm surprised you didn't know right off the top of your head!
You are correct about Rattlers, in addition to the dozen or so variations of those, there are several variations of Sidewinders and of course Coral Snakes.
[/quote]
But rattlers, sidewinders and coral snakes are all so easy to identify, you'd almost have to be drunk to confuse another species with them. Do you also kill all spiders as a general rule in case they might be tarantulas? Or all lizards in case they might be gila monsters?

Just own up to it, you killed a harmless snake because you have a natural fear of them and you didn't want your family to see you do a 'fraidy pee.

[drsevrin]

[quote][i]Originally posted by coop41[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by drsevrin[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by DreamRedux[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by drsevrin[/i]
<br>The tarantula and scorpion were gently relocated.[/quote]
Using one of these?

<img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff34/DreamRedux/GiantSling.jpg" border="0" alt="GiantSling">
[/quote]

It only I'd had one . . .
Now I just need to figure out how to deal with the pack of coyotes behind my house. 'Nother cat went missing last month.
[/quote]



Dog food seemed to do the trick for me.....
http://nwoutpost.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24056

haven't seen them in a couple weeks
[/quote]


Well how cool is that? Sorry I missed that thread the first time around. Arizona coyotes must be a bit more civilized than their northern cousins.

[coop41]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SallyLightfoot[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by coop41[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by SallyLightfoot[/i]
<br>
But rattlers, sidewinders and coral snakes are all so easy to identify, you'd almost have to be drunk to confuse another species with them. Do you also kill all spiders as a general rule in case they might be tarantulas? Or all lizards in case they might be gila monsters?

Just own up to it, you killed a harmless snake because you have a natural fear of them and you didn't want your family to see you do a 'fraidy pee.
[/quote]


Exactly Dr. Doolittle. Fear of Snakes, I suppose (The family is deathly afraid except my one son who keeps one as a pet). Believe me, my family is well aware of my fears, I'm man enough to admit it to them (Heights especially).

Maybe you are an expert on all snakes and the hundreds of varieties of venemous and non-veneomous snakes that inhabit Arizona. I am not. And all Rattlesnakes look alike? How about Coral Snakes?

I actually have a Spider Sanctuary in my house so no need to kill those, it's just difficult keeping the scorpions out.

So which Arizona snake would you kill? Go ahead, google it, that will help you:
<a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/?action=view¤t=1-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/1-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/?action=view¤t=2-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/2-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/?action=view¤t=3-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/3-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/?action=view¤t=4-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/4-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/?action=view¤t=5-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/5-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/?action=view¤t=6-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/pjsaturno/6-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[phillyidol]

I could NEVER live anywhere that scorpions come in the house! Holy crap!




Worlds GREATEST Photographer!

[hutter]

[quote][i]Originally posted by phillyidol[/i]
<br>I could NEVER live anywhere that scorpions come in the house! Holy crap!




Worlds GREATEST Photographer!
[/quote]

Haha, when I lived in Phoenix, after a year I had a big tumbler filled up with scorpion corpses...all killed in my house. You get used to having them around, though. Never had ANY bug problems. If it wasn't for scorpions tendency to occassionally wander in a shoe or underfoot, they'd be the perfect bug exterminators.

[SallyLightfoot]

For coral snakes (and king snakes) the old saying is: Red on yellow, kill a fellow; red on black, venom lack.

The other snakes are trickier to recognize, but if all you have is rattlers, I'd say it's pretty easy to recognize them by taking a looking at the tail-- setting aside the fact that they'll usually warn you when threatened. In this case, the defense mechanism behavior of writhing and defecating might have clued you in that it was not a poisonous variety.

I apologize for badgering you about killing the snake. It's a disappointment that you killed the animal, but, assuming I couldn't recognize the species, I might have been forced to do the same thing. Now, as for eating it, I don't think it would have occurred to me to eat an apparently demented animal that just writhed in its own shit and blood.

[birdmadgirl]

[quote][i]Originally posted by phillyidol[/i]
<br>I could NEVER live anywhere that scorpions come in the house! Holy crap!




Worlds GREATEST Photographer!
[/quote]

Mr. BMG is an exterminator. He has to go do scorpion jobs at night--he uses a black light-type thing to hunt for them. It makes them glow. I would have nightmares for a year if I saw a glow-in-the-dark scorpion.

[CounterCircular]

In some areas such as the SW, and many other places, you also have the water mocassins to contend with. You NEVER want to encounter them in the water. While generally not aggressive, when they have no choice, they will strike with fury. They are really mean looking and probably don't deserve their reputation as herpetologists have shown how far they will go to avoid striking. They show their 'cottonmouth' as a scare/warning so they won't have to strike and damage/lose any fangs. Still, they are scary even to look at. I encountered a coral snake on a gold course in Texas, in some taller grass. Since then, I just wear higher hiking boots and jeans if in taller grass, because the coral snake's mouth is small and it usually cannot penetrate even through jeans, certainly it wants to get out of your way if it can. As for scorpions, we catch and remove at least a few scorpions every month in the warmer months, once even in our bed. Those suckers will even make it in through any branches overhanging a roof, then get in through the vents and drop down off a ceiling. YES, I know this as fact, we once found one in our baby's crib. It's just a rule, you always check shoes, even shake out blankets, etc, just to be on the safe side. It's pretty common to see dead rattlers on the roads because of them sunning on the warm pavement. We once had some kind of non-venemous snake above our front door outside going after a birds nest in a nook in our entry way. I just used my rake and removed it, not harming it, though I suspect it just came back because the next day we never heard any noises from the nest and some twigs, etc, were on the ground below. It was a fairly fat snake, maybe 3 feet in length, brown, someone told me maybe a hog-nosed snake.

Corals we always remember as red next to yellow, kill a fellow, red next to black, friend of jack...

[coop41]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SallyLightfoot[/i]
<br>For coral snakes (and king snakes) the old saying is: Red on yellow, kill a fellow; red on black, venom lack.

The other snakes are trickier to recognize, but if all you have is rattlers, I'd say it's pretty easy to recognize them by taking a looking at the tail-- setting aside the fact that they'll usually warn you when threatened. In this case, the defense mechanism behavior of writhing and defecating might have clued you in that it was not a poisonous variety.

I apologize for badgering you about killing the snake. It's a disappointment that you killed the animal, but, assuming I couldn't recognize the species, I might have been forced to do the same thing. Now, as for eating it, I don't think it would have occurred to me to eat an apparently demented animal that just writhed in its own shit and blood.


[/quote]


Hopefully you know I was joking about eating it! Rattlers I have no problem with, usually just back away slowly and I have been confronted on two occasions, one last year that my wife nearly stepped on at the in-laws and like you said, they usually let you know.
Hey BMG, I have a buddy who is obsessed with killing scorpions at night and he has a fence that is loaded with them. He goes out at night with one of those headlamp headbands and a propane torch. The reason I know this is he had a huge burn on his arm and I asked him what happened......apparently the torch got him!

[phillyidol]

Always remember: Theres a snake! Kill with a rake. Theres a squirrel!.....punch him in the side, spray with a hose, throw rocks.




Worlds GREATEST Photographer!

[coop41]

[quote][i]Originally posted by phillyidol[/i]
<br>Always remember: Theres a snake! Kill with a rake. Theres a squirrel!.....punch him in the side, spray with a hose, throw rocks.


[/quote]

No wonder they keep coming back, it's like a massage, shower and play time.

The correct motto should be There's a snake! Kill With a rake. There's a squirrel, Kill with a rake.

[BigBri]

[quote][i]Originally posted by phillyidol[/i]
<br>Always remember: Theres a snake! Kill with a rake. Theres a squirrel!.....punch him in the side, spray with a hose, throw rocks.




Worlds GREATEST Photographer!
[/quote]

Right out of the Boy Scouts manual.

[schwenko]

BTW- how many houses do you have[?]

[phillyidol]

Can't scorpions kill you?




Worlds GREATEST Photographer!