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Post by block2 on Mar 6, 2009 0:53:06 GMT -5
Hi, Just thought you might like to see a couple of pics of snakes that I have had close encounters with, while living in Thailand. 1. This is locally known a singa. Locals reckon a bite off these is quite serious. They are always around here, after the water rats and mice, frogs etc. Unfortuantly, when you see these you have to kill them as we have small children around here playing.   2. This snake i am not sure what it is, I thought some type of cobra. But i was at the local shop top of the drive having a chat with a couple of swiss friends and i heard my dogs barking, came to the gate and could not see anything, but they just kept barking, unknown to me there was this thing on a window sill behind me, and i only knew when I heard it fall and I see it go behind a load of rubbish. Called to a Thai family member and he came over, told me to be careful, CAREFUL...I didn't want to be there, anyway it had went into a clay water pipe, he grabbed it tossed it in the air and when it broke... all hell broke loose, the thing reared right up, we both backed off, it made a swoop for my friend, and he managed to whack it with his stick then whacked it again then walked off...lol Looked this snake up on the internet and came across this website, www.mrx.no/Phuket/One_move_and_this...nd_you_die.html one bite off this beauty and your dead in 15 minutes....   I have since found out that this snake is a copperhead ratsnake which are not poisionious at all. www.ratsnakes.com/Eradiata.htmlHere's a couple of pics of a couple of snakes mating in the stream that runs along the side of the house. I'm not that clued up with snakes, so i am not certain what type they are.     Regards Jeff |
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Post by brenda on Mar 6, 2009 10:34:40 GMT -5
Wow...You seem to have a ton of snakes around there. I don't mind snakes but don't want to be near the poisonious ones.  |
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Post by corycatwoman on Mar 6, 2009 13:20:07 GMT -5
since you have plenty of snakes around is the American rule of thumb a fact? if the pupils of the eye of a snake are round its harmless but if the pupils are vertical its poisonous ?
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Post by kagome on Mar 7, 2009 2:20:33 GMT -5
since you have plenty of snakes around is the American rule of thumb a fact? if the pupils of the eye of a snake are round its harmless but if the pupils are vertical its poisonous ? A lot of the time you can't go by rule of thumb things like that and you are much better off taking the time to learn about the various snake species in your area of the world. For example, the Australian King Brown looks very similar to a North American Coachwhip snake. The coachwhip is harmless, the King Brown is one of the ten deadliest snakes in the world. You better believe that if I moved to some place like Thailand that I would do some serious research about the dangerous reptiles, insects, arachnids, and plants. I've lived in the tropics (North American) and deadly little critters are just hanging around everywhere. Even around here where it's not nearly as warm I have seen more poisonous snakes and spiders than I care to count and I can identify all of them at a glance. |
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Post by corycatwoman on Mar 7, 2009 2:22:26 GMT -5
i will look into that kagome. ill try to get a picture of the head of each one of those 2 snakes you mentiond and see if there eyes are different.
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Post by corycatwoman on Mar 7, 2009 2:31:20 GMT -5
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Post by corycatwoman on Mar 7, 2009 2:32:55 GMT -5
both pupils are round i always thought that was a good rule of thumb now ill be alot safer lol im glad only thing deadly in illinois is water moccasin and occasional rattlers.
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Post by corycatwoman on Mar 7, 2009 2:35:30 GMT -5
here is the information i found out only 4 of them in illinois i think im safe. they said cat shaped pupils are the ones to look out for. soo rule of thumb is back in play atleast for me in illinois. www.lib.niu.edu/2000/oi001202.html |
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Post by goldenpuon on Mar 7, 2009 11:16:23 GMT -5
Nice pictures of those snakes on the links you posted Corycatwomen. Luckily, here in Michigan, there is only 1 species of venomous snake, at least that I've heard. You don't see many snakes here besides the harmless gardener snake. I used to watch tons of shows on snakes when I was younger. The best thing to try to do is avoid them and rememeber that unlike some people think, they are not out to get you. Most bites happen by accident. It's good to try to keep venomous species away if possible though I'm to a big fan of killing them to get rid of them.
Beautiful snakes Block2! I wish we had more where I live. Those are some really good quality pics.
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Post by corycatwoman on Mar 7, 2009 14:28:05 GMT -5
michagan should have a few rattlers aswell. most pit vipers are all over the central time zone states and pretty spread out through the canadian area too. try to look that up and see if im wrong on that but im sure theres atleast 1 rattler in your area. possibly 2.
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Post by goldenpuon on Mar 7, 2009 16:13:31 GMT -5
I looked up rattlesnakes in Michigan and I found out there is only 1 venomous snake species in Michigan, the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake. It is found in only the lower peninsula. Here's a link to info I found on it. www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12201-32995--,00.html I believe I actually did see one of these at summer camp. The camp couselors told us to stay back and I wanted to make sure they didn't hurt it. I was about 10 years old at the time. They wouldn't tell me what they did with it and I kept asking but I eventually gave up. I heard from some of the other kids that they killed it, that was why I was so determined to find out what they had done with it. When we found it, it was in a nature preserve too so I was not too happy when I heard that. I love snakes, even venomous ones. I did back then too which is why I cared so much. |
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Post by kagome on Mar 7, 2009 23:49:09 GMT -5
Here in Florida we have Eastern Diamondback Rattlers, Pygmy Rattlers (very dangerous, small, stealthy, aggressive and don't actually rattle), Coral Snakes (relative of the cobra), Water Moccasins (aka Cottonmouth), and Copperheads. And then we have a bunch of nonvenomous species that you see all the time. Unfortunately, Florida also has a problem with introduced venomous snakes like cobras that idiots think will make cool pets and then they release when they can't handle it. Especially in south Florida those snakes can survive and breed readily, it's not a good thing at all. I've seen all of the native venomous varieties either out camping and hiking or right here on the farm, except for the Coral. Pygmy rattlers have a bad habit of trying to come in the house when the nights start to get cool in the fall. They feel the warmth from the house and figure it's a good place to spend the winter. That can be really scary. We generally try to leave all snakes alone although we do kill pygmies because they are just too dangerous to have around the property. If we have a diamond back then we call animal control, it could kill one of us or even one of the horses. We try to bring nonvenomous Yellow Rat Snakes (the same ones you see in pet shops) onto the property so that they will keep down the rodent population and therefore lessen the likelihood of a venomous snake finding our place appealing.
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Post by goldenpuon on Mar 8, 2009 10:57:33 GMT -5
Florida is famous for many snakes. I once lived there from when I was 3 1/2 to 7 1/2 years old when my parents moved there. I liked it despite the heat and luckily I had no close encounters. But my mom hates spiders and snakes and such and absolutely hated it, especially when snakes went into our garage or spiders came into our house. I think my parents kept me away from anything potentially dangerous because I was so young. I still remember Florida very clearly, just not many reptiles since by luck perhaps, I didn't run into many.
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Post by Carl on Mar 8, 2009 11:28:40 GMT -5
Where I grew up (at least from 12-18) in the Puente Hills east of LA (in Hacienda Heights), we had all sorts of snakes, many of which I captured and kept as pets.
My favorite was the California King Snake which was friendly, but also known for killing Rattlesnakes (of which we had at least to varieties, the Western, & the Western Diamond Back which grew quite large)
I also regularly would find large Gopher Snakes, Ring Neck Snakes (which were quite pretty, but they smelled bad when handled), and the occasional Garter Snake (only found near streams though).
When hiking in the hills, I would leave rattlesnakes be if they were not a threat, but if they came near our home, such as one VERY large Diamond back Rattler that my sister almost tripped over in our driveway, we would then kill them.
Many Mexican Nationals in the area would hunt rattlesnakes or look for road kill rattlers just to cut off the rattle, and most importantly the head for "dark" rituals (I know as in the same shopping center as my fish store we had a neighbor who was one of these "witch doctors" and the things he did were rather disconcerting)
I will admit when I was a teenager that I would save the skin of Rattlesnakes we did kill and "cure" it. I also kept the Rattles and placed them at the end of a coat hanger and would hide in the bushes and scare friends by wiggling it and making others think I was a rattlesnake.
Carl
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Post by corycatwoman on Mar 8, 2009 15:45:47 GMT -5
awesome i didnt mean to make this article into everyone finding out what snakes they have but atleast everyone on the site will be safer with the legless creatures that creep silently.
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