If you do try the mothballs you may want to put them in a plastic soda bottle, poke small holes in it and put the lid back on. That will keep anything from eating the mothball. I usually see 10+ snakes a year. We just found a small rough skin snake in the front yard last week. I have 5 cats, 2 dogs, 3 horses, 3 donkeys, 1 minature steer, 4 goats, 15 chickens, guinea fowl, 1 peacock, 2 pigs and I still find snakes. Everything thinks it can live here. Last weekend I saw a red fox by my barn (I was wondering where my chickens had gone to) in broad daylight all the other animals just stood there.
Lisa
Look what I found last weekend
When I was a kid in Idaho, my grandparents kept a fenced yard and then let a pig run outside the fenced yard. Pigs will kill and eat snakes and seem to be unaffected by snake bites.
One summer I had a rattle snake in the tree outside my office window. He was just beautiful. Just because a snake is in a tree does not guarantee that it is not poisonous. I think I read that cottonmouths will climb up into trees? I'm not sure about that one.
I'm getting older but one thing I have learned, through experience, is that it's a bad practice to kill something just because it is unfamiliar.
I can assure you that pigs are not immune to snake bites and their venom. I have lost three in the past few years, one 300+ lb sow with babies that was struck on the nose and two weanlings the next year to bites on their legs. Happened about the same time for the two small ones, within days of each other. Treated all of them with steroids and antibiotics but lost them all. I work for a vet so was able to get them treated even before I left the house once they were bitten. Pigs will eat anything, literally, chickens, dogs, cats, snakes, fish, you name it. Kinda scary, really...Kathy
Hm. I believe you that pigs aren't immune to snake bite. Perhaps the pigs we had bitten weren't invenomated (sp.) when bitten. Who knows, they did kill and eat the snakes, though.
Yeah, I know pigs are omnivores. There are many stories of people being eaten by pigs, killed and eaten or just eaten.
Snakes have a vested interest to NOT bit anything that isn't food. They will bite to save their lives though.
Hate to waste the venom on non food animals, but defensive they will be when necessary. My husband works at the local zoo and we have lots of rattlesnakes here. One of the curators are friends with the snake vaccine makers and so some of our snakes ended up being used by the vaccine makers. It is called a vaccination, albeit it does not work like vaccines do for diseases.
I've seen rattlers being milked for their venom to produce the anti-venom or "vaccine" from it. Interesting how they do it, not hard, just got to be real careful. Them snakes aren't very partial to having their jaws forced open, headed squeezed and being held in a death like grip.
In the previous articles I linked to, it said that in a majority of venomous snake bites, there is often little to no venom injected into the wound area for a variety of reasons on the snakes part. As a result, it is more routine for most hospitals to take a wait and see observation approach before a quick wholesale injection of anti-venom is undertaken.
I found this today
on our property we find copperheads, chicken snakes, rat snakes, coral snakes, ground rattlers. in the area there are rattle snakes although we have never found any on our property. there is an old pond on the property and every now and then we see water moccasins. we also have coach whips and king snakes. probably some more...just can't think of them right now.
I saw a little gulf coast ribbon snake last night. He practically leapt into the air to get away from me. lol
My daughter almost stepped on a sizable rat snake last night. Fortunately he was already dead, thanks to the backyard critter patrol dogs. :) I think he was the one living under my garden shed.
Oh, that's too bad. Rat snakes keep lots of things away.
I few years ago we put sod in our front yard and with it came toads and thus came the hog nose snakes. We were having a B-day party for my oldest son and as the kids were showing up I almost stepped on a large one. Their dad said "just leave it it's not hurting anything" but I wanted it gone because all these kids were running around. Anyway, as the parents were dropping off their kids the snake was being relocated on the end if a rake, it kept getting off and I would have to scoop it up again and go a coulple more feet and scoop it up again. I cant believe that peolpe actually left their kids with me after seeing that. It was crazy.
Lisa
That's too funny, Lisa. And you set a very good example for those kids and their parents.
:-)
Carla
I just found your snake's brother under a pallet of fencing materials we had delivered. I started the day one foot taller than I am as I type this! I swear! Did take a photo. Too busy running to get DH and gathering up new puppy....