SURVEY: Snake Atacks?

[David]

FlySwatter wrote:
David,

Was the fang in the rock she sat on (no snake attached)? That's just bad luck, dude.

There was no snake attached..just a tooth that got washed up during high water.

 

[pete41]

JayL-word to the wise
Prairie rattlers are not endangered and people do die from their bite[Lewis and Clark exp.]
very,very common-so stay in the boat,don't leave cabin after dark and be sure and beat your bed with a stick before entering.Or was that Tennessee?12 gauge shotgun no.2 shot should be enough.They will let you carry on if you tell them it's your snake gun.
plenty of them out there-

 

[Fishidiot]

JayL,
I agree - anyone packing heat for "snakes" is nuts. I have seen this (not in PA) - guys shooting at anything that slithers. I suppose this was common 50 years ago but folks ought to be more enlightened today (plus it isn't legal anymore).

Pete,
Where did you hear about a Prairie Rattlesnake caused death in the Lewis and Clark expedition? To my knowledge, only one member of the expedition died and that was from a probable appendicitis.

 

[pete41]

There was a story about the exp.-it said one man died from a rattlesnake bite-I assumed it was true but L J was there so I will check with him.lol
I really don't know but having lived in Montana where the rattlers are very numerous i sorta grin at the blase attitude.
I knew guys who worked on ranches who hated haying because rattlers were always being thrown up by the bailers.
I knew they were an almost sure bet in the rip rap along rivers out there.
Saw many-
Funny thing is some areas had none-others loaded-all depended on the nature of the rocks.
Gallatin canyon no fear,Madison river north of Quake lake,they were very numerous.
None around Bozeman-thirty miles west in horseshoe hills crawling with them.Be the first down a dirt road on warm mornings you could see many out there trying to get residual heat.
We were always killing them at the gun range.With sticks-shooting down range was a no-no.

 

[FlySwatter]

Pete41,

Montana is different from PA in many ways. Apparently one of them is rattlesnake population density. That's why I was trying to differentiate snake bite worry by species. Am I correct in assuming Montana has western diamondback rattlers?

I don't mean to have a cavalier attitude about timber rattlers & copperheads. I have a good deal of respect for them but I don't fear them. My attitude towards rattlers (and bears for that matter) might be a little different if I lived and fished in Montana. I think I might carry a gun if I was in grizzly country, but that might just be my ignorance since I have no experience with them.

Mike

 

[Fishidiot]

Swatter,
Pete is correct about the rattlesnakes in MT being Prairie rattlers. The Western Diamondback is found in the southwest (TX, NM etc). I agree that, compared to diamondbacks and even Prairie rattlers, our Timber Rattlesnakes and copperheads have a mild disposition and their bites are much less serious. I suppose I can understand packing heat in some areas of the West although I still think it's ridiculous here in PA.
As for the Lewis and Clark travels, they were certainly in Prairie rattlesnake country. One of the members of the expedition was bitten by a venomous snake (almost certainly a Praire Rattlesnake) and I think Sacajewea treated him with a folk remedy and he survived. I think this was what Pete remembered.

 

[pete41]

I am glad to here he survived-those dudes were tough.
Rumor has it L J griped all the way-whining about thud and Fudd and a lot of other people no one ever heard of.Kept saying things were much better when he ran the commissary on the Mayflower.

 

[pete41]

Carrying a gun for snakes is silly as damned few are good enough shot to hit one with a handgun[unless .22 birdshot] and long gun is bulky for trout fishing-lol
Won't go into detail but rocks and sticks are where the buzzers are.
They come out of a den a lot earlier then people would believe on really warm spring days.

 

[PaulG]

Will( a poster here) told me his Father was bitten by a Rattler while fishing. If I remember the story, it was a dry bite!

PaulG

 

[tomgamber]

Here is some basic rattlesnake advice. Prairie Rattlers are also known as western rattlers or Hopi rattlers. Like most things it depends on where you live, what they call them.

http://www.idahogeocachers.org/rattlesnakes.htm

 

[MKern]

I'm way more worried about spiders than snakes. I was just fishing with a friend and mentioned to him that I never (or rarely) touch anything with my hands when fishing brookie stream; i.e. rock walls or ledges, or old dead trees. Many spiders lay silk strand around their burrow and anything that touches them sparks interest. Some spiders are aggressive and some are not, it all depends on the individual.

I've fished a lot of "back country" and have never seen a snake near a stream. Only when I venture away have I seen them. I'm under the belief that they see or fell you first and get out of the way.

 

[pete41]

I saw a rattler on slate in Pa. and the upper rapidan in Va.
Out west they love the rip rap along rivers as that's where the mice are in hot weather.

 

[FlySwatter]

Tom,

Good link! It pretty much corroborates what I've been saying. Respect, not fear (fear makes people do stupid things). Knowledge over ignorance.

MKern,

I don't thing there are any serious threats from spiders in PA. Having said that, I'm a little weired out by them, too. I lived in central South Carolina for 8 years and saw MANY black widows and brown recluses....nasty!

The reason I started this thread was in response to the thread on the snake chaps/gators. I think they are overkill and probably give the user a false sense of security. It's possible to be bitten on the hand or on another body part if there is a shelf or rise near your path (see Tom's link).

 

[pete41]

snake chaps-no
string ray boots-you betcha
wait until you retire to Florida and do wade fishing-when the rays spawn the reds follow-on some flats you would not believe the number-of both-lol
killed a coral right out side our house in mulch,saw a diamond back swimming up in the barrens-

 

[MattBoyer]

pete41 wrote:
snake chaps-no
string ray boots-you betcha
wait until you retire to Florida and do wade fishing-when the rays spawn the reds follow-on some flats you would not believe the number-of both-lol
killed a coral right out side our house in mulch,saw a diamond back swimming up in the barrens-

Pete, I was snorkeling off the beach in Captiva a few years back and you wouldn't believe how many rays I saw. The beach was crowded as heck and they were just weaving in and out of groups of people. I saw two the first time I ducked my head under water, and almost grabbed one while harvesting sand dollars for my nephews. I've never walked in saltwater without doing the shuffle since then. As far as snake attacks go, I know a few people who were bitten and let's just say the stats posted earlier are right on the money. One of the guys caught a copperhead that he wanted to keep for a pet. He ended up meeting a friend on the way home and going bar hopping with the snake in a bag in the back of his buddies pickup. Every bar they would stop at he would go outside and get it out to show people. Let's just say he went to one too many bars that day.

Boyer

 

[Padraic]

pete41 wrote:
JayL-word to the wise
Prairie rattlers are not endangered and people do die from their bite[Lewis and Clark exp.]

I read about the Lewis & Clark expedition and don't recall anything about that. The only member of the corp of discovery to die had appendicitis.

The danger in PA is vastly overstated for what it really is. Should people be careful? Absolutely! But as the statistics posted above show, the number of incidents is minimal. Chewing pen caps sounds far more dangerous than rattlesnakes.

 

[pete41]

well it was on the telly-said shortly after leaving St.Louis but if not the case-sorry.

 

[MKern]

Fly Swatter,

I don't think people would die from spider bites, but I do think that there are more of them and they are more aggressive, especially along streams.
I do think bitten by one 3 miles away from the car could be quite discomforting.

 

[DGC]

The pay for play businessmen must be getting desperate. Having lost court battles on the Lehigh and Little J, and with dedicated opposition near Benton, their shady tactics for denying accesss are not working. Hence, they have charmed some rattlers to do their dirty work for them. These snakes like to stick together, apparently.



This rattler warned me against trespass on a northern MD stream on July 4. However, I am much more gruesome looking than anything else he is likely to have seen, and so he high tailed it back up the streambank. (note: water temperature was 59F).

He wasn't going to keep me away from a spot like this:

 

[BrookieBuster101]

FlySwattter,
i think also peoples "unreasonabe fears" as you put it are fed by the media. On nat geo they have cases of the most extreme of the extreme cases and they make it seem like it could happen to anyone, in short they freak people out into thinking the world is alot more dangerous then it is...