Northern Water Snake

[toadbriar]

With all due respect... the snake was there first and lives there full-time.

He'll be too big for a snake to think about within like two weeks.

 

[destinduck]

Quote:
Dogfish, bass, pike, walleye, muskies, channel cats, and even carp all will take ducklings if they have the opportunity.

I used to have a dogfish in my pond that would lurk just under the reeds and take sparrows as they came to drink. It got them almost daily when I was watching, so who knows how many it got when I wasn't watching. It was like a scene from 'Jaws'.

What is another name for dogfish ? I must admit I never heard of that.

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
shoot it....

 

[Calea]

Well, for now I'll just keep going down there with my duck and keep watch with my hoe. I don't think the snake was here before I was, and he certainly didn't pay for a house! lol He's scared of me so far. I have to say, if I can hit him, I'm going to.

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
Dogfish, bass, pike, walleye, muskies, channel cats, and even carp all will take ducklings if they have the opportunity.

I used to have a dogfish in my pond that would lurk just under the reeds and take sparrows as they came to drink. It got them almost daily when I was watching, so who knows how many it got when I wasn't watching. It was like a scene from 'Jaws'.

What is another name for dogfish ? I must admit I never heard of that.

Bowfin. I think that is probably the correct/proper name. But, for some reason, they are commonly called "dogfish" here in Michigan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowfin

 

[FenDruadin]

I really don't understand this. Why would you kill the snake? Because he's scary and hungry and happens to eat small animals for dinner... Because he can't get a job and earn a salary to purchase a home... He's not a danger to you or to any human or animal larger than a large frog. The duckling won't actually be safe in the lake even without him (and might actually be less safe due to other predators that may take his place, or unhealthful conditions caused by decaying matter he might otherwise clean up, etc...) so I fail to see how killing him helps anyone. And it's pretty near certain it's going to ruin the poor snake's afternoon.

Now I'll get off my soap box and say we each have to make decisions that make sense to us. Killing snakes (except venomous snakes in my backyard because they pose a real danger to my children and livestock) doesn't make sense to me. But then, cockroaches never hurt anyone either and I kill them without a second thought, which maybe someone else would find difficult to understand (I don't kill spiders, however, except the venomous sort, or house centipedes because they are useful predators of other sorts of household pests). So I suppose it all falls along a spectrum. I just like to think that when we kill things it's for a better reason than aesthetics, but I suppose my killing of cockroaches is really purely aesthetic too...

Anyway, I still say, don't kill the snake. But that's all I'll say on it and I'll get out it now because it's not my place to judge.

 

[Calea]

Honestly, I'm not much of a killer so there isn't much worry about. I won't even fish! lol However, I will continue to run him off because I like my little ducky more than Mr. Snake.

 

[FenDruadin]

Absolutely. I like my duckies more than the local foxes and raccoons, so although I don't kill them, I certainly don't offer them any free lunches either!

Good luck. I hope the snake starts just leaving you alone. I'd be pretty unhappy if we had a resident cockroach who wanted to come visit every time I walked into a room, lol, so I feel for you.

 

[destinduck]

Quote:
What is another name for dogfish ? I must admit I never heard of that.

Bowfin. I think that is probably the correct/proper name. But, for some reason, they are commonly called "dogfish" here in Michigan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowfin

We call them mudfish here in fl. Shoepic in La. and called grinnle in miss sometimes. Thats what I thought you were talking about. I love local fish names and trivia.

 

[redhen]

Can you catch it and re-home it to another lake??