Venomous Snake: Friend and Foe

[KikiLeigh02]

I do my best to teach him, but 3 year olds aren't know for having excellent judgement. While that snake bite would be super inconvenient for me it, it isn't life threatening. It would be for him, and at the very least seriously painful. So glad your dog is feeling better!!!

Snakes are pretty amazing animals. Copperheads are beautiful creatures. That said, there's a source of food, and any animal wants food. There are a variety of snake repellents that can be spread on the ground, but I haven't looked into the potential secondary fallouts - what might happen if a chicken pecked some up. I would love to have more snakes on my property, to keep rodents out of the horse hay... but they are extremely sensitive to vibrations, and from my own observations, they stay away from here due to the horses moving around. Getting horses might not be a viable repelling method! Just bull snakes where I'm at - we have rattlers in the area, but in the years I've been here, the only one I've seen got dropped on my car by a hawk.

Incidentally, the vast majority of venomous snake bites to humans in the US each year are situations where people knew the snake was venomous, and willfully chose to handle it anyway. Better by far to teach the kids how to recognize danger, how to deal with it, and to appreciate the beauty while acknowledging that it's dangerous, in my (albeit biased) opinion, than to prevent them ever being exposed to it.

 

[centrarchid]

Found 1 death. I know at least half a dozen people that have been bitten by pit vipers and all survived. A couple prior to advent of antivenom. http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article22470897.html

 

[The Moonshiner]

Found 1 death. I know at least half a dozen people that have been bitten by pit vipers and all survived. A couple prior to advent of antivenom. http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article22470897.html

I found 4.
3 by copperhead and 1 by rattlesnake.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.stlt...3937b4bc-bc33-5966-8ebe-112f0dd0fe0b.amp.html
Also saw it said we get nearly 100 venomous snake bites a year in MO.

 

[Kessel23]

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article22470897.html
Won't let me link it but this website says that 2 people have died from snake bites in Missouri
http://mobikefed.org/2011/08/summar...n-injury-and-fatality-data-missouri-2000-2010
from 2000-2010 there has been 76 bike related deaths according to this website, so yes, riding your bike down the street is more dangerous than poking a Copperhead with a stick.

 

[kwhites634]

IDK
Just sent a few of them to the scrapper last week.
I'll look into it more and if they are found to be killers I'll start sending more of them to their scrap pile graves as well.

Kill two birds with one stone; cram as many as you can into the family car & leave it all at the scrap yard. Walking's good exercise and isn't crowded.

 

[centrarchid]

Same dog just got into another Copperhead. Can't tell if she got bit yet. Another dog might have been bitten as she jumped vertically about 6 feet.

 

[McChooky]

Their skin perfectly camouflages them making them hard to see.I hope your poor dog didn't get bit again.

 

[centrarchid]

Pup Pup got tagged. Bit in throat

 

[Folly's place]

happily we have nearly no pit vipers here. Hope Pup Pup will do okay.
Question: do your dogs go after those snakes again after being bitten, or do they then avoid them? I could see individuals going either way...
Mary

 

[centrarchid]

happily we have nearly no pit vipers here. Hope Pup Pup will do okay.
Question: do your dogs go after those snakes again after being bitten, or do they then avoid them? I could see individuals going either way...
Mary

Lucy the German Pointer has been bitten at least twice by Copperheads, yet she goes after them in a different manner than used for the non-venomous species. I'm pretty sure the mother English Shepherd named Honey has been bitten at least once. She shows no interest in Copperheads but goes after nonvenomous snakes with gusto. We shall see how Pup Pup responds to next encounter. I do not think Pup Pup got a full dose from the bit this time, although she did back off from the conflict. With Lucy, even when bitten, I have to pull her off or she will kill the snake. I think Lucy is half-opossum and bone headed to the core.