If you see a snake in the road,

[DC_DEEP]

I have never understood ophidiophobia or arachnophobia. I'm fine with snakes, and I especially love king snakes.

I know too many people who would love to see every snake and spider on the planet completely eradicated. That's so sad.

Hickboy, have you seen the "Whacking Day" episode of The Simpsons?

 

[B_Lightkeeper]

"What did snakes ever do to me?"

Scared the shit out of me for one thing. I don't even like to look at pictures of them and have been known to even turn the page in a magazine at the top corner rather than touch the photo.

Am I "queer?" Gay yes but a snake lover....hell no!

 

[Pecker]

The real tippy-top predators only shoot the snakes with really good antlers. Which is why they're now so rare - I can't remember when I last saw a snake with a worthwhile rack.

A snakealope?

 

[Dave NoCal]

I try to avoid running over them, even rattlers. They are generally reclusive to humans. The main thing is to avoid stepping on them accidently. They object.
A rattlesnake bumbled into our house a couple of weeks ago. Getting it out unharmed was a bit of drama. Also, there are LOTS of coyotes, rabbits, deer, quail, lizards, hawks, and various other critters around here. It's important to watch out for the mountain lions.

 

[B_big dirigible]

I got in trouble in second grade for bringing a scarlet king snake to school, Sister Patrick did not think snakes were people too.

Kingsnakes eat other snakes; perhaps the Sister felt threatened.

 

[DC_DEEP]

I'm curious. Those of you who are scared of snakes (especially those like videophile, and one of my brothers-in-law, who are even scared of photos of them), why? Why do even harmless snakes scare you?

 

[biguy2738]

I don't know why I'm scared of them, but scared shitless I am...I think my Mom rubbed off on me..throw spiders or anything else my way and I'm fine, just keep reptiles to yourself.

The irony is that my sister, that will scream in fear when she sees a moth or Christmas Beetle, will gladly play with snakes and other reptiles.

At the risk of you snake lovers wanting to knock my into next week, my love for snakes runs so deep that if I were to encounter one in the middle of the street, I'd most probably ride over, reverse, ride over, reverse, ride over.....

 

[DC_DEEP]

I don't know why I'm scared of them, but scared shitless I am...I think my Mom rubbed off on me..throw spiders or anything else my way and I'm fine, just keep reptiles to yourself.
<...>
At the risk of you snake lovers wanting to knock my into next week, my love for snakes runs so deep that if I were to encounter one in the middle of the street, I'd most probably ride over, reverse, ride over, reverse, ride over.....

Freudian slip?

Interesting. I don't have any phobias that I'm aware of... not in that sense, anyway. I have a great respect for poisonous animals, but not phobia-type fear. As long as I know it isn't dangerous, it doesn't bother me. Some years ago, there was a king snake that lived under my house. I was glad to have him there, because I knew that as long as I had a king snake nearby, I would have no other snakes and no rodents.

 

[rob_just_rob]

I don't know why I'm scared of them, but scared shitless I am...I think my Mom rubbed off on me..throw spiders or anything else my way and I'm fine, just keep reptiles to yourself.

The irony is that my sister, that will scream in fear when she sees a moth or Christmas Beetle, will gladly play with snakes and other reptiles.

At the risk of you snake lovers wanting to knock my into next week, my love for snakes runs so deep that if I were to encounter one in the middle of the street, I'd most probably ride over, reverse, ride over, reverse, ride over.....

Interesting that you're from JoBurg. I used to know a woman who grew up in S. Africa. One of her earliest childhood memories is spotting a pretty green snake in a tree, walking over to take a closer look, and out of nowhere, her dad running in and scooping her up and away from the tree. He gave her a very stern, angry warning to NEVER, NEVER, NEVER go near snakes again.

Not surprisingly, she had or has a pretty severe aversion to snakes. But then, I guess anyone who grows up in a tropical climate (esp. Australia, where I gather the only snakes they have are extremely poisonous ones) learns to avoid snakes from an early age.

We have rattlers in some places around here, but they're relatively harmless and inoffensive when compared with the cobras/boomslangs/mambas that people in Africa and Asia have to deal with.

That might be part of the answer to DC's question about phobias. Self-preservation instinct dating from when we lived in trees? Perhaps it's no accident that the villain in the genesis fable is a tree-dwelling snake.

 

[B_hinduboy55904]

glad to see there is another person here dedicated to protecting wildlife. killing a snake (even a cobra) is bad luck in our culture since they are the vehicles of Shiva.

 

[EagleCowboy]

When my van sees a snake on the road it raises its fender skirts and tiptoes around honking like crazy.

That's a funny mental image!!

Don't be killing the poor, defenseless snakes. We need them little critters. Hollywood has done nothing but seriously hurt the snake's image. If they're poisonous and won't leave, throw a beach towel over them, then you should be able to pick them up safely. Works for me anyway.

They're great to have around especially when you have a fat, lazy cat that aides and abets the little rodents.

 

[B_Hickboy]

I don't know why I'm scared of them, but scared shitless I am...I think my Mom rubbed off on me..throw spiders or anything else my way and I'm fine, just keep reptiles to yourself.

The irony is that my sister, that will scream in fear when she sees a moth or Christmas Beetle, will gladly play with snakes and other reptiles.

At the risk of you snake lovers wanting to knock my into next week, my love for snakes runs so deep that if I were to encounter one in the middle of the street, I'd most probably ride over, reverse, ride over, reverse, ride over.....

My father taught me that was the thing to do, but he made the mistake of letting me major in biology. Snakes are way too important to any ecosystem to kill.

Mambas, cobras, Russell's vipers, and other African/Asian/Australian snakes are not to be trifled with, but the best thing one can do for oneself and the snake is to simply give them a wide berth.

 

[B_Hickboy]

That's a funny mental image!!

Don't be killing the poor, defenseless snakes. We need them little critters. Hollywood has done nothing but seriously hurt the snake's image. If they're poisonous and won't leave, throw a beach towel over them, then you should be able to pick them up safely. Works for me anyway.

They're great to have around especially when you have a fat, lazy cat that aides and abets the little rodents.

THROW A BEACH TOWEL OVER THEM, then pick them up? Much as I love snakes, you wouldn't catch me doing that in a bazillion years.

 

[B_Think_Kink]

If you see a snake on the road....


*sing* badger badger badger bager.... mushroom mushroom .....

 

[B_Hickboy]

Ummm, have you never seen Anaconda? Or Snakes on a Plane?

Yes, I agree. Those were two shitty movies. But it wasn't the snakes' fault!

 

[SteveHd]

Yes, I agree. Those were two shitty movies. But it wasn't the snakes' fault!

Another shity movie about snake encounters: Fer-de-Lance. [pron: fair di lance]

 

[transformer_99]

What, rednecks?

No, other snakes and predators like raccoons, skunks, opossum and wildlife that preys on those animals. It is what they call a food chain ? BTW, how many rednecks do you think there are in Miami, FL ? That and ringneck snakes are indigenous to every region of the USA.

 

[EagleCowboy]

Throwing a large beach towel over one is exactly how i caught a Copperhead once. The towel was too bulky for him to move and since I knew right where his head was, I moved in fast, picked him up and put him in a very large jar. Kept him for a while until my nephews came to live with me. Then I donated him to a zoo.

A snakes mentality is: can I eat it, or can it eat me?

Those snake movies were pretty bad!! They should have fired their agent and demanded more money or mice, and a far better script with a decent plot to it.

 

[transformer_99]

Throwing a large beach towel over one is exactly how i caught a Copperhead once. The towel was too bulky for him to move and since I knew right where his head was, I moved in fast, picked him up and put him in a very large jar. Kept him for a while until my nephews came to live with me. Then I donated him to a zoo.

A snakes mentality is: can I eat it, or can it eat me?

I'd go with animal control for that. Rattlesnakes and even Copperheads for the most part don't go after people, I had a cousin get bit by one in the Texas desert, it was a matter of the boy not realizing he had put the snake in a threatened posture over territory. That's why you hear the rattle go off or whatever other alert vibration they do, because you've intruded, not because it's hungry. When it is, they are nocturnal hunters and I have yet to see any rattlesnake big enough to think it can eat an adult human being. Anaconda's, Pythons and Boa's get that big, but a Copperhead ? They'd rather be left alone and go find something to venomously poison/bite that it can eat. They do have to swallow and digest the corpse.

" http://www.desertusa.com/may96/du_rattle.html"
"http://www.oplin.org/snake/fact%20pages/copperhead/copperhead.html"

Yeah, a 3 foot long adult is hardly hunting a human being.