Rattlesnakes!!

Just got the word this a.m. that yesterday my neighbor found a nest of rattlers in her garage....her garage is NOT that far away from our house. They killed 2, rest got away. I DON'T like this!! I know I'll be putting the stink eye out for rattlers for quite awhile now until I become complacent again and forget about it.....

keep up anything that will attract rodents(pet food) etc. No buffet --then they should keep on going

Uh-oh, it's that time of year again. We've been lucky here. I did see a baby rattler once - he didn't have a rattle but tried to shake his little bud. Had a BIG gopher snake - love those guys, and DH found a little snake under a rock once. Trying to leave him in peace, he carefully lowered the rock again, but evidently the snake had moved and he got squished. Poor thing. However, we do see rattlers dead in the road now and again.

Keep your eyes peeled, Sherry, and make lots of noise walking around. I know you, you'll be out in sandals soon. I wear boots and stomp a lot!

Yikes!

On a good note, I did also see a humungous King snake on the property yesterday. I hope he's on a search and destroy for the rattlers. The rattlers were found in the garage that we're (neighbors) holding a garage sale in in a couple of weeks. I do love the King snakes! We had one rattler on the property a year ago and I thought that was a fluke...hope this is not a new trend.

Oh my gosh, that's so scary! The summer before last, our dog Sadie, got bit on the nose. I had no idea we even had rattlers that would come into the backyard, and we never did find the snake that bit her. She almost died, so it was a real wake-up call - I rattle the bushes like nobody's business these days!

karen

Yes, I have friends here whose dogs get bitten..one has been bitten twice and apparently it gets worse the more they're bitten. Expensive also, I think it cost one neighbor $800 to save his dog.
I live in my crocs in the garden...don't want to have to think of living in boots. I wonder what the range of a snake is...say if one were to buy a bunch of King snakes...I wonder if they would stick around to patrol against rattlers......

One of my ds's lives in Newbury Park across the street from Point Magu (sp?) state park and she gets rattlers all the time in her garage...and tarantulas, and turkey buzzards, and bats, and coyotes...
Her washer and dryer are in the garage and one day she found a rattler in the dryer, sleeping on the warm towels.

I'm content with just the basic possums, raccoons and alligator lizards.

Huh! I wouldn't think there would be rattlers there....I also think that I would have to move. It's like my relatives in Texas with snakes in the toilet....WHY would you live there?!!! lol....I do not want to encounter snakes on a daily basis....you get coonies at your place, JD?

Oh yeah...big ones, too. Whole families of them. They're very brazen...will walk right in my house and eat the cat food...and the cats just VERY CALMLY walk away and let them have their fill.

We put up a bat house, but haven't seen any. Coyotes, yes. Never seen a tarantula, though I understand they are in San Diego and I saw one of the bugs that eat them in our garden (tarantula wasp?). Possum, yes. Turkey vultures in the front yard. Lots of lizards. Haven't seen a raccoon. Couldn't take the daily rattlesnakes - nor would DH! In the dryer! My word. Heard a cat fight outside this morning that surprised me. Cats don't survive outdoors here for very long. Our neighbor lost two shepard-sized dogs to coyotes.

I've wondered the same thing about gopher snakes, Sherry. Would they stay around? I've only seen the one in four years.

I'll have to find some snake knowledgeable people to ask.....maybe some parsetongues, hmmm? Do we have a 'snakes' forum? lol.....We've only seen one coonie here in all of the years we've been here...he found the fish in my whiskey barrel water garden. Though coming home one night I saw 3 together running across the road. I love racoons. Maybe wouldn't if they were eating my veggies every night as is a problem elsewhere. I want a bat box,DH hsn't gotten into making one for me yet. At My friend's house out in De Luz, the bats hang under their second story eaves.

My vet's monthly newsletter for this month mentioned something about a rattlesnake vaccine that you can get if your pets are frequently in areas where they could run into them. Apparently it's been around for a couple years but I'm not sure how widely used it is. Here's an article about it from their website http://www.webvets.com/cms/spaw/upload/pdf_upload/rattlesnake_vaccines.pdf

thanks, will pass it on.....

You should identify the rattler. I was afraid of rattlers near my aunt's cottage on Lake Huron. They have since moved into the Detroit area. Acording to the newspaper "If you are bitten, you SHOULD see a doctor."

Some of the desert Rattlers, an untreated bite, and there is 50% chance of death.
This id due to deadlier toxin and a much larger quantity.

Interesting...people we know in the Ca Gold Rush areas when bitten have typically just finished up whatever they were doing for the day and went to the dr later...That would NOT be my behavior...I'm afraid I'd be beating on my doc's door immediately...lol....I don't feel kindly toward any rattler...snakes are good,poisonous snakes are not.

Well, as long as we're talking about it - here's a good site with info. I was interested to read the advice about not taking aspirin, etc.

911 seems to be the answer.

http://lomalindahealth.org/services/emergency/services/venom-er/resources/articles/when-snakes-strike.html

Yup, here in the foothills, we've got all of the above pests. As far as the snakes go, they do make a spray repelent. Don't know if it works or not, never tried it. It's from the same people who make Liquid Fence for deer and rabbits, and that's a good product.
We also get our dog the rattlesnake vaccine. They're pretty inexpensive, well, at least compared to what you'd pay for the vet bill IF you dog did get bit. Oh, and the vet says they STILL want to see your dog if it gets bit.

Oh, the good ol gold country where we have so many critters, and snakes, and BUGS, OMG...but it's still a beautiful place to live... :o)

Hi, I am new here, still getting used to the place. I am a snake fanatic, though, and wanted to try to help with a few questions people had...

While the range of adult snakes, particularly females, is pretty small (if you got them to 'establish' in your yard they'd stick around your neighborhood), if you were to go to the pet store and buy some juveniles they would be much more nomadic.The ones that proved adaptable to release (and even captive-bred animals released into their own naturally occurring habitat have a pretty slim chance of adapting) would want to flee your area as soon as possible. If you see the occasional large adult snake out cruising, it is pretty safe to say your area is already well-patrolled by a kingsnake population. These adult kingsnakes would find young kingsnakes a much more delectable and easily obtained source of food than a nest of rattlers.

Any that acclimated in your area would soon tax the populations of frogs, toads, lizards, birds, and all other snakes in addition to rattlers as well. Nature is pretty good at creating a balance, and adding additional predators is a good way to upset it really quickly. But again, this would only be until the kings in overlapping territories had opportunities to start consuming the interlopers.

And last but not least, in many (if not all) places in California releasing any captive-bred reptile is illegal.

Interesting, Morelia, thanks for posting and welcome.

Good info,morelia, thanks. Didn't know that King snakes eat the young of their own kind or that you cannot release captive breds of any kind. We have lots of lizards (those that the roadrunners don't get, and they seem to eat plenty) and the snakes haven't put much of a dent in the rabbit population. Don't find much in the way of toads. I think we're probably pretty balanced.....I just don't need rattlers to be part of that balance...I'm not into wearing boots.

Have you thought about putting up an "Owl Box"? I've been told they eat 1500 varmints a year! We are considering putting up one in each corner of the property.

That's what we're going to do, Lisa! Hope we are all successful. We have enough squirrels here right now to keep them fat and happy. I love hearing them hoot at night. :-)

I've thought about doing that too, but my neighbors have 3 free-roaming cats so I was worried it might not be safe for the owls. But I could sure use their help with my gophers!

Our neighbors have an owl box and it's cool to be out at night and, if lucky, see one come swooping in silently. We benefit from their owls.

This message was edited May 19, 2008 7:15 AM

Isn't it eerie how quiet they are when they fly? I just checked one of the web sites and apparently they don't go after squirrels, darn it.

Liz, I checked a couple of web sites for info on owl boxes and they say that cats are really not in danger from them.

Here's one: http://members.tripod.com/~Tommy51/aboutbarnowls.html

If people leave their cats to roam outside at night, don't they know they might become someone's dinner?

Oh, I was more worried about the cats bothering the owls! LOL

LOL! We were on different wavelengths, Liz.

I honestly hadn't thought about the owls being able to eat the cats--I was thinking more just having kitties in the area might discourage owls from making a home there because they'd be afraid of the cats eating the baby owls. I should think more about the cats' welfare too, after all I do see them in my yard stalking gophers every now and then which I very much appreciate! My neighbors usually call the cats in once it gets dark so there's probably not too much to worry about either way. So now I think I'll look into getting an owl box. I've got a nice field behind me so they should be able to find all sorts of little things to eat besides my gophers.

An owl box is an awesome idea. I didn't even think of that.

On our evening news it was mentioned that egrets and blue herons are great gopher catchers! Who knew?! I thought they were just good for eating all of the fish in your pond, but apparently catch gophers AND snakes.

Well, that explains why the egrets stalk around our place. I thought they were going after lizards. If they didn't scare our parrots so much, they would be welcome. :-(

If they eat gophers and snakes, I'll bet they eat lizards too. We have a roadrunner who comes by the workshop at least twice a day with a lizard in this mouth. It always seems as though he stops to show us what he got.

Our evening news today featured a segment on rattlers and the fact that their venom has become so much more potent....bottom line, if you're bitten, get yourself in to a doctor right away. One of their reporters was bitten recently and spent 2-3 weeks in the hospital and they were recommending several more weeks there to deal with the effects of the bite.

This message was edited May 27, 2008 10:07 PM

That's interesting, I hadn't heard that. I know that the babies can cause more damage than the adults because they don't know how to control their venom appropriately, my vet always sends out a warning about baby rattlers in their monthly newsletter about this time of year. I didn't know the adults were getting worse though.

I'd always heard that about babies, too, Liz, but then I read an article that said they still weren't as dangerous, because there was less venom and it wasn't as potent.

I found that report on the web, Sherry - that's scary. One theory is that we're just coming in contact with another type of venom, that has more neurotoxic effects that the plain vanilla venom.

Well, we got our owl box up. Just barely managed over 12 feet up the tree - the recommended height - and need to trim a couple of branches off so predators can't use them. We're going to try one in another location, too, and see if we have any takers. Check out this condo!

Baby rattlers tend to have more neurotoxins, whereas adults tend to have hemotoxins. Instead of just breaking down the tissue around the bite, it messes with your nervous system functions. Also, infants cannot rattle to warn you.

Adult rattlesnakes are also more likely to deliver a 'dry bite'... they know you aren't food, so they don't waste any venom on you.

Baby snakes in general are of a much more nervous, defensive disposition and are more likely to bite to because they feel under attack, where an adult rattler might rely on rattling or camoflouge only.

The Mojave rattlesnake is one of the most dangerous rattlers because it retains the 'juvenile' venom.

The increasing neurotoxicity in adult rattlers is nothing new, there are a lot of good theories. Several are covered here : http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/0700_feature.html


Your odds of dying from a rattlesnake bite are still under 4%. You are much more likely to be killed by a dog or a bee.

Thanks for that info, Morelia! That clears up the baby rattler stories somewhat. Excellent article.

lol, sorry... I am a newbie to gardening other than keeping a little orchard and vegetable patch with my family as a kid, so I am tending to prattle too much here since it is the first spot I actually have to volunteer info. Everywhere else I am too busy learning and listening like mad to be able to jump in.