Because its venomous is No reason to kill an animal . They keep the rodents that eat wires in cars in check.
I found a small rattlesnake on my porch once. I put it in a metal coffee can and relocated it far away from people.
Arizona Black Rattlesnake!
- Thread starter AZjeff
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I found a small rattlesnake on my porch once. I put it in a metal coffee can and relocated it far away from people.
Only seen one copper head. Since then, my wife borders our yard (we back up to a heavily wooded area) with snake repellant stuff. Works pretty good. Get a small garter snake or rat snake once in a while, but haven't seen any poisonous ones in several years.
Agree on land clearing. In my area it is booming, so lots of land being cleared and development happening. The critters have to go somewhere.
CleanSump
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Label says to use with care. I use it to massage spouse and in Mercedes' engine.
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This guy was found on my neighbors front lawn by our dog when we lived in SC. I was able to walk right up to him and take photos. He completely ignored me for the most part and then slowly slithered away. I was recently kind of upset, my neighbor in our new home in NC found a copperhead under her garbage pail that was out on the street for collection. She had another neighbor come over and kill it.
Our new home in NC we have a number of black snakes (rat snakes) they can get quite large. Harmless.
This guy (if it's the same one) we see around quite a bit, he comes up from the creek behind our house. Surprisingly for such a large snake (this one about mid size) they are VERY alert and scramble fast when seen.
They lift their head up right away, then run and wow, they are fast when they want to be. I have a video someplace too.
Later I found him in the back yard
He actually eventually went (to my surprise) under the mulch in the yard
Another time near the creek in the back, before he started scrambling back to the creek I saw him digging into the lawn. I am 100% sure he got a big bug as I saw it go down his throat. If I see him again, Im going to see if I can find a worm quick and throw it to him.
Also at times seen in my neighbors yard.
Our old home in SC had a lot of black snakes, I assume here too since this guy is always around someplace. But in SC the small young ones would scramble at times into the bushes as I came down with the lawn mower.
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@alarmguy yes! We get a lot of those also. Some of them are pretty big, but most are little guys. Not as many as we used to as my wife uses the snake repellant, but we still get them sometimes. My wife freaks out. Only good snake to her is a dead one. I usually just leave them alone. IF the wife sees it, I chase it out of the yard.
I live about 10 miles South of Charlotte in Indian Land, SC.
I live about 10 miles South of Charlotte in Indian Land, SC.
Nice area up in Indian Land. Nice homes from older ranch types to huge homes and everything in-between. Ive been up in the area and all over Charlotte way many times when I was a security technician.
I get it, many people dont like them. It's not like they hunt down humans and eat them for breakfast.
We have a REALLY cool new piece of nature now. Quite of few of them live throughout our HUGE private community. (huge is an understatement)
SO many photos people have posted. They actually walk from pond to pond at night. So if you have a pond behind your home with no alligator, that doesnt mean tomorrow there wont be two of them! *LOL* Im surprised most residents are more tolerant of them then snakes. They can be quite comical.
I spied this photo from another nearby community gold course. They actually go up on the golf cart paths daytime and sun themselves.
This is a little blurry because I was accorded the pond using a zoom. He was a monster.
This little guy below was spotted crossing the street down the block from us.
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Residential areas are moving into wildlife areas. The herpetologists i worked with have noted a problem with rattlesnakes selectively being bred to bite instead of rattle due to so many people immediately killing anything they hear rattle. This mimics the experience I have had with the timber rattlesnakes in Kansas. There are also casualties for gopher snakes and our prairie kingsnakes that are killed for imitating the rattle.
My family lost our black lab to a timber rattlesnake but he shouldn’t have been playing with one.
Western ratsnake I caught during research
Prairie king snake I found just outside Wichita
western massasauga rattlesnake in the red hills of Kansas
4wd
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AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
Two years ago I killed a young copperhead that was right beside my front porch, and I live in a town, not a rural area. It was after a mama skink (small lizard) that was trying to protect its nest of eggs.
The risk with small venomous snakes is that they find a way into your house. If mice can get in little holes, so can small snakes.
In the wild I leave animals alone unless they pose a real risk.
By the way, the skink's eggs hatched a couple of weeks later. Should add there's no reason to harm skinks at all, and they keep bugs in check.
The risk with small venomous snakes is that they find a way into your house. If mice can get in little holes, so can small snakes.
In the wild I leave animals alone unless they pose a real risk.
By the way, the skink's eggs hatched a couple of weeks later. Should add there's no reason to harm skinks at all, and they keep bugs in check.
Rattlesnakes are not poisonous.
Right
But they are venomous.
I hike as much as I can. My rattlesnake rule is if it is in its own backyard I go around it. If it is in my backyard it dies.
Two years ago this month we had a Mohave Green Rattlesnake in our back yard. Since we are in a residential area I was pretty surprised. It died.
BTW, it is generally illegal to kill rattlesnakes in Arizona. There is an exception for rattlesnakes in your back yard.
Two years ago this month we had a Mohave Green Rattlesnake in our back yard. Since we are in a residential area I was pretty surprised. It died.
BTW, it is generally illegal to kill rattlesnakes in Arizona. There is an exception for rattlesnakes in your back yard.
In a prior life (40 years ago), I used to fly fish some remote streams in the White Mountains of Arizona. One place we would go was to a ridge where we would backpack an hour down and another hour up stream to camp and fish. Even on major holidays like Memorial or Labor Day you would usually never see another person. In fact, it was so remote that one year my brother lost his leatherman tool and I found it the following year lying in the sand on the bend of the river.
During the day, we wore shorts and tennis shoes to wade the river. We started out one morning and we were carrying our rods and walking through the ponderosa pine forest to hit some spots up stream. I was leading and as I walked I heard a rattle sound and looked down and saw a small (18") black rattle snake going from left to right between my striding feet. There was some forest plants so I didn't see its head but only the back half of it and its rattle.
I really lucked out not getting bit as it would have been bad news as remotely located as we were. I have seen more rattle snakes in that area than anywhere and they are all black.
During the day, we wore shorts and tennis shoes to wade the river. We started out one morning and we were carrying our rods and walking through the ponderosa pine forest to hit some spots up stream. I was leading and as I walked I heard a rattle sound and looked down and saw a small (18") black rattle snake going from left to right between my striding feet. There was some forest plants so I didn't see its head but only the back half of it and its rattle.
I really lucked out not getting bit as it would have been bad news as remotely located as we were. I have seen more rattle snakes in that area than anywhere and they are all black.
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From a hiking trip a while back, a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake. Feisty bugger but I was in his house, I gave him a wide berth as I passed but he still rattled and coiled into striking position despite me being ~10' away at that point. I've read that moderate sized rattlers can only strike about 1/2 their body length, but I always wonder if they read that too 
