Snakes on the plains

[Randy F]

Look at this big Banana Spider, she lives on the back 40 of my yard. I've seen some big bugs in her web. This thing is huge, one of the biggest one I've ever seen. LOL.

View attachment 366908

You're terrorizing me on purpose aren't you!!
Seriously though, I guess I don't mind those so much. The huge hairy spawn of satan that catch and eat small birds and rodents though, that's a different story. I know they have a purpose...but to some degree I think maybe a portion of that purpose is to keep me from entering that part of the world. I must say, it's very effective. Lol

Thanks for sharing though.

 

[Daniel Cary]

I looked up some of the more dangerous spiders overseas that I certainly would Not want to encounter .. The African Bark and the Rain Spider! .. I've encountered on a couple occasions a Wolf or a Wood Spider as they call them here that were ridiculously oversized, in Michigan. .. Long Spinnered Bark Spider. S. Africa

 

[Daniel Cary]

The African Rain Spider ... Good God!

 

[Randy F]

That is just not right
(he says, speaking from behind the couch...in the fetal position.)

 

[PARA45]

When I was station in Kalifornia back in the 80s. I played soccer for the base, and went to a soccer championship to Edwards AFB, which is located in the Mohave dessert. We were given our standard safety briefing about the local area (which was about 40 miles away), and the local residents. Two were mentioned, Rattle Snakes & Tarantulas. I was in my early 20s (21 to be precise, and stupid), that evening I found a tarantula in my room, about the size in diameter of a six inch plate. I of course being fearless (stupid), grabbed the Tarantula and allowed this thing to walk on my hand and arm. My team mates ran like school girls, and I got yelled at by my trip commander who ordered me to get rid of such creature. Looking back at my stupidity (fearless at that time), I prob wouldn't do that now. LMAO!!!!! @Randy F talk about some serious stupid sh*t! LMAO!!!!!

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

@Randy F, yeah all creatures have a purpose in life, and it was my fault for smashing her nest. I know where they like to hang out now, and now I can spot them easily. Sometimes I'll catch them, and relocate them somewhere else in the yards.

@Paul Raley, we have the same feeling towards snakes. I do not kill snakes either, something my wife doesn't quite understand. For her, a good snake is a dead snake, preferably a head less snake.

I was wondering when our friends from Australia where going to jump in. You guys have more venomous snakes than any other country in the world. LOL!!!!!

@PARA45
I'm an Australian and have 9nly come across 2 snakes in 40 years. One redbelly black and a tiger but they were more interested in going the other way.
Bob

 

[Randy F]

When I was station in Kalifornia back in the 80s. I played soccer for the base, and went to a soccer championship to Edwards AFB, which is located in the Mohave dessert. We were given our standard safety briefing about the local area (which was about 40 miles away), and the local residents. Two were mentioned, Rattle Snakes & Tarantulas. I was in my early 20s (21 to be precise, and stupid), that evening I found a tarantula in my room, about the size in diameter of a six inch plate. I of course being fearless (stupid), grabbed the Tarantula and allowed this thing to walk on my hand and arm. My team mates ran like school girls, and I got yelled at by my trip commander who ordered me to get rid of such creature. Looking back at my stupidity (fearless at that time), I prob wouldn't do that now. LMAO!!!!! @Randy F talk about some serious stupid sh*t! LMAO!!!!!

Yeeaaah.
Ya know in the cartoons where someone runs through a wall and there is this perfect cutout of them? That would be my perfect outline as I exited the building...only what they don't show in the cartoon is the brown streak on the floor leading to the wall. Which by the way is not exhaust from the turbo kicking in.

There was I time when I though maybe I was getting smarter because I began to believe it was possible that I was no longer invincible. In reality, I just wasn't doing as much because the older I got the more it hurt. The recovery period keeps getting longer as well.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

You're terrorizing me on purpose aren't you!!
Seriously though, I guess I don't mind those so much. The huge hairy spawn of satan that catch and eat small birds and rodents though, that's a different story. I know they have a purpose...but to some degree I think maybe a portion of that purpose is to keep me from entering that part of the world. I must say, it's very effective. Lol

Thanks for sharing though.

@RandyF
Your description of the spider reminds me of my first wife ha ha ha ha ha.
Bob.

 

[chonk34]

Although I love to look at snakes and spiders, I still startle appropriately when they catch me by surprise. This spring I set a new standing vertical jump record when a large Bullsnake appeared suddenly under my feet while my dad and I were out shooting.

I also vividly recall the time a large wolf spider ran up my leg and under my shirt while I was cleaning our patio. I'm pretty sure I teleported right out of my clothes, and subsequently had to explain to my wife both my state of undress and the loud squealing sound she'd heard.

One statistic I share with my soldiers before going to the desert is that men tend to be bitten on the hands/arms while women are generally bitten on the legs/feet, suggesting that a lot of bites happen when you mess with the critter after discovery. There are several studies on rattlesnake bites that find this trend, one of which I've quoted below.

"In studies that have examined snakebites incurred through intentional contact, more than 90% of victims were males and almost all were associated with upper extremity snakebites."

Of course there are plenty of times, like several encounters mentioned here, where the snake and/or person were caught by surprise and a bite occurred before distance could be put between the human and the reptile.

 

[JoanneUnderwood]

nothing can be worse for me than snakes, I don't understand why I'm so afraid, but this obsession that I will be just powerless and totally helpless if a snake bites me.

 

[Randy F]

@RandyF
Your description of the spider reminds me of my first wife ha ha ha ha ha.
Bob.

My first wife was an EXCELLENT housekeeper...she kept the house.

 

[Randy F]

nothing can be worse for me than snakes, I don't understand why I'm so afraid, but this obsession that I will be just powerless and totally helpless if a snake bites me.

That’s how I am when a spider gets near me. Lol.
My wife and I have an agreement, she takes care of any spiders and I wrestle any black bear that comes near the yard. Seems fair to me.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

My first wife was an EXCELLENT housekeeper...she kept the house.

@Randy F
Mine got the gold mine
I just got the shaft
Tom thanks said life is like a box of chocolates.
I reckon it's like a bed of roses
Ya got to watch out for all the pricks.
The second wife I found out while I was in the army loved four play, her and three others so she went.
The one I've got now is bloody great couldn't get better. Even enjoys coming hunting with me
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

My first hunt in Namibia we were all relaxing one evening when the dog started barking at the rocks below the deck. My host, Tim, hit the rocks with a flash light and there was a spitting cobra working its way on by. He dropped the light and headed indoors for the shotgun. By the time he came back out it had vacated. He didn't take to spitting cobras around the houses. A couple days later a rock python got the dogs attention. We looked it over and let it be. And on the final day, when we were all packed up in the truck leaving there was another spitting cobra in the drive. I said "cobra" as we drove right over it in between the wheels. Tim said "where?" And I replied we ran over it and it was already in the rear view mirror in it's classic pissed off pose. He slammed on the breaks, got out and started chasing the thing with a big stick. Didn't get it, but that was an interesting moment. Saw a couple different vipers on the roads in Etosha Nat'l Park on that trip. Took a picture or two, let them be. Next trip to Namibia, same place but hunting with the other owner of the farm, Wilferd. He was telling me about the hollow in a leadwood tree we weren't but a yard from often had lizard, which attracted boomslangs. Then I looked down at the base of the tree and there in that hollow was a puff adder coiled up waiting for an unsuspecting rodent to walk by. We backed up and let it be. Definitely keeps you wary.

Last trip, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, I ran into a rock monitor. Ornery thing, all hissing at us, but pretty cool. View attachment 366758View attachment 366759

@Ryan
We have a similar monitor in OZ but we call them a goanna.
I have eaten my share of them out bush and they are bloody good eating.
Bob

 

[JimP]

Around 15 years ago I was hunting javelina down in Arizona and I was tracking a small herd across a hillside. I walked around a corner and there was the biggest western diamondback that I have ever seen. He had just shed his skin and looked real nice. I saw him starting to crawl under a rock and figured that I could just reach down and grab him and pull him out from under the rock and then dispatch him and have a real nice hatband. I then decided to take a better look. Right there where I was going to grab him were two other snakes right in the mouth of the den. If I would of reached down one or both of them would of gotten me.

I got in touch with a friend who was down the hill from me and told him to come see what I had found. I then decided that I better take stock of where I was standing. I looked around and saw a couple other snakes in bushes near me but nothing where I might be in danger with. While I was waiting for him to get to me I looked inside of the den and counted 15 heads.

Since that time we have taken quite a few hikes into that site when we are hunting javelina. There have been years when it looked deserted and other years when there are snakes all over the place. One year we took a herpetologist from the University of Arizona into the site for him to check them out, the only problem with him is that he can't find it again. I can also say that in those 15 years that we have know about it and hiked into a taken pictures that none of the snakes have been killed, at least by the 3 of us that know right were it is located at.


.

 

[Professor Mawla]

I frequently take my students out on camping trips in the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Range ( I teach at the wild life conservation department in Murari Chand College ) .

In 2007 , a student decided to frighten his girlfriend by picking up a nearby snake ( which was coiled up and resting ) and threatening to throw it at her . The snake turned out to be one of our Bangladeshi Cobras ( the most poisonous snake in our country ) and it bit the young man in the palm . Our camp staff had the snake surrounded by the time I got there , and I killed it by using my Laurona 12 bore sidelock ejector ( which was loaded with Eley Alphamax 2 3/4 inch no. 4 shells ) . The young man was administered with an anti venom kit and rushed to the hospital . He survived , but he was expelled from the university by my superiors . His girlfriend also left him , based on what my other students told me .

As a young man in 1973 , I was once waiting up in a tree blind over some live bait ( a goat ) at night . I was assigned to hunt down a marauding cheetah , as part of Problem Animal Control . A viper slithered into the tree blind and I saw it . My Laurona 12 bore sidelock ejector was with me ( which was loaded with Eley Alphamax LG shells ) , but I could not fire out of concern that the sound of the gunshot might spook away the marauder . So I opened the clip point blade of my chrome vanadium Case Trapper folding knife , grabbed the viper by the head and drove the blade through it’s head . This incident is related in chapter three of my book .

 

[Randy F]

Around 15 years ago I was hunting javelina down in Arizona and I was tracking a small herd across a hillside. I walked around a corner and there was the biggest western diamondback that I have ever seen. He had just shed his skin and looked real nice. I saw him starting to crawl under a rock and figured that I could just reach down and grab him and pull him out from under the rock and then dispatch him and have a real nice hatband. I then decided to take a better look. Right there where I was going to grab him were two other snakes right in the mouth of the den. If I would of reached down one or both of them would of gotten me.

I got in touch with a friend who was down the hill from me and told him to come see what I had found. I then decided that I better take stock of where I was standing. I looked around and saw a couple other snakes in bushes near me but nothing where I might be in danger with. While I was waiting for him to get to me I looked inside of the den and counted 15 heads.

Since that time we have taken quite a few hikes into that site when we are hunting javelina. There have been years when it looked deserted and other years when there are snakes all over the place. One year we took a herpetologist from the University of Arizona into the site for him to check them out, the only problem with him is that he can't find it again. I can also say that in those 15 years that we have know about it and hiked into a taken pictures that none of the snakes have been killed, at least by the 3 of us that know right were it is located at.


.

That. Is. AWESOME!!!
I’m glad you didn’t stick your hand in like I did. I got lucky with the Prairies but Western Diamondbacks...different story.
Great story. Great photos. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Randy F]

I frequently take my students out on camping trips in the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Range ( I teach at the wild life conservation department in Murari Chand College ) .

In 2007 , a student decided to frighten his girlfriend by picking up a nearby snake ( which was coiled up and resting ) and threatening to throw it at her . The snake turned out to be one of our Bangladeshi Cobras ( the most poisonous snake in our country ) and it bit the young man in the palm . Our camp staff had the snake surrounded by the time I got there , and I killed it by using my Laurona 12 bore sidelock ejector ( which was loaded with Eley Alphamax 2 3/4 inch no. 4 shells ) . The young man was administered with an anti venom kit and rushed to the hospital . He survived , but he was expelled from the university by my superiors . His girlfriend also left him , based on what my other students told me .

As a young man in 1973 , I was once waiting up in a tree blind over some live bait ( a goat ) at night . I was assigned to hunt down a marauding cheetah , as part of Problem Animal Control . A viper slithered into the tree blind and I saw it . My Laurona 12 bore sidelock ejector was with me ( which was loaded with Eley Alphamax LG shells ) , but I could not fire out of concern that the sound of the gunshot might spook away the marauder . So I opened the clip point blade my chrome vanadium Case Trapper folding knife , grabbed the viper by the head and drove the blade through it’s head . This incident is related in chapter three of my book .
View attachment 366929

Great story, thanks!
Although some might question your sanity for using a knife to kill a viper after grabbing it by the head so as not to scare off a marauder that may or may not show up. Lol
Ballsy. Well done!

 

[Professor Mawla]

Great story, thanks!
Although some might question your sanity for using a knife to kill a viper after grabbing it by the head so as not to scare off a marauder that may or may not show up. Lol
Ballsy. Well done!

@Randy F
Thank you very much . I desperately needed the reward money which the Maulvi Bazaar Forest Guards were offering for the marauder , at the time .

 

[Bearbait1]

When a rattlesnake enters a hole while being pursued it will often stop its head just inside the hole and curl its body past its head into the hole. it does this to protect itself incase someone tries to grab its tail as it goes down!!