Huge dead snake

[south central hoon]

How did that guy get in there!!!!!??????

[iggys-amsoil]

Its not so much how, as to, it felt the warmth and thought it a good place to hang out.

Thats why I told the story above, refrigerators are warm outside and so was the oven.

[roost251]

I have seen several mohave greens here on my property, I just let them be :-) I always like to stop to and see them suning on the road. I have wanted to learn to skin them, I dont want to kill them myself but to take "roadkill" this time of the season I see them almost daily. Saw one today, still alive when I found it about 3 & 1/2 feet long, mohave green. I have a few photos and some video of one.

[lewisclan]

I can tell you how to skin them and they turn out bitchen

[MICK]

Please be extremely carefull if you're going to kill / capture these animals. 99% of snake bites occure in this fashion. And half, yes HALF of envenomations a year are caused by dead snakes. Folks accidentally envenomate themselves while playing with or skinning the dead animal. You are not faster than the snake is. It will strike you before you've realized you were in danger. I suggest you call the local hospital and make darn sure they have copius amounts of the antivenin (also called antivenom) "Crofab" code # SAmPRO01 readily available. Antivenin is the only effective treatment. A dose of Crofab costs $3,000 and treatment often requires several vials! All bites should be regarded as potentially lethal and a victim has to keep in mind that time is extremely sensitive. Minutes lead to hours...time ellapsed without proper treatment will cause severe systemic failure and necrosis.

Here's a familiar story. A man gets tagged on the palm by a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake. Goes to the hospital and finds out they can't treat him!

This is a procedure called Fasciotomy. It's performed to relieve the pressure built up in the arm from swelling. The snake didn't actually do this.


All the dark flesh you see is dead. It has to be surgically removed.


This is a skin graft taken from the patients back.


All better now.


This man lost consciousness in one hour and was flown to one hospital then another for 24 hours without receiving effective treatment. He required 30 vials of antivenin and 13 surgeries. Total cost to him was $700,000.

Call and make sure your local health care provider has the antivenin Crofab! If they don't find out who does and how long it will take you to get there. Immediate antivenin treatment could have prevented all of that above.

My suggestion is just leaving the damn snakes alone.

[iggys-amsoil]

Please be extremely carefull if you're going to kill / capture these animals. 99% of snake bites occure in this fashion. And half, yes HALF of envenomations a year are caused by dead snakes.

Total cost to him was $700,000.

That is so true. Just because you think its dead.... now I see why people cut there heads off. Years ago I rode by a baby rattler out by Steiners place, cut its head off rode back to camp with it, that was friday evening. When we left Sunday after noon the body was still moving.

Also in early may this year when we left Glen Helen someone already run one over out on the road going out. I stopped to have a look mostly to get it off the road if it was still alive. Nope, this one didn't move at all. So I picked it up bear handed, and dropped in the bush. That could have been a dumb move,

Thanks for the reminder Mick.

Total cost.....

[roost251]

thanks guys for the advice,

interesting story: I have lived in the city pretty much all my life before moving to Az, but it seems like someone has been watching out for me. on three different occasions i have been out working in the yard or doing stuff and have stopped dead in my tracks, why, I dunno. what i mean is, i had been working or walking and felt that I should immediately stop and not move, I felt stupid because i am telling myself dont move yet i did not know why!! I figured it must be for a reason so I would pause and just chill. I felt really silly, but each time, sure enough there was a rattlesnake within 3-10 feet. Now I dont mind feeling stupid, becuase in this case it has saved my butt.

the hospitail is 30 min away they do carry anti venom, thanks for the advice, good thing is one of the dr's is really into it and collects all species here to help in his treatment in snakebites.

when I first saw the kx500f, for me I thought that the bike should be called the mohave green.

Hey mick what do you know about "red racers" i saw my first one the other day crossing the street, a baby, about 12" long, but man he had the "dont mess w/ me attitude" of a full grown mohave green.

[MICK]

What most outdoor people don't realize is how often you brush past snakes and never know it. A snake's first and foremost instinct is to freeze. They'll wait several moments for you to pass and then go about their marry way. It is not in their best interest to make themselves known to their surroundings, especially in the South West were many birds prey on them. In most cases a person will step on them and never know it. But when a female snake is brooding all bets are off, you just need to stay as far away from them as you can. And don't think too deep about your sudden urges to stop in your tracks. It's natural, just as an Elk will somehow always turn away from an arrow mid flight. It's like a mercy gene among all living things, it's just that ours is...umm...dull.

Racers are an aggressive species of snake. They are non venomous but will hiss and strike when approached. It's a good bluff at best, but none the less effective 90% of the time. And if you haven't noticed they are extremely fast. 3.5mph is pretty much cruising speed for them, at full throttle they cover the ground at 8mph, and I've read that on afterburners they can travel 12mph! But I've never seen this for myself so I have my doubts. They eat small birds, eggs, small mammals, and maybe most importantly for a friendly neighborhood is they also prey on other snakes, including venomous species. Cool snake, worth having around the house for sure.

I brought home a Bull Snake I found tonight at work. He's a good size so he'll be a good eater. I'm going to video him on the web cam tomorrow after I get him some mice and rats from the pet store. I'll show you guys how loud they hiss and you can see him bite me...allot. Think I'll call him "The General"

[JBaze]

Hey Mick, you need to have Bob give you a sticky for snake advice! I have a question, I told you about almost stepping on a cotton mouth, but right after we got to Florida, we lived near Lake Whales, in Babson Park. When I got home from work one evening, I stepped out of the truck and something caught my eye, and when I looked over I saw what looked like a cobra, a gleeming black snake about 20 feet from me and when it saw me, it sat up like a cobra would, well before anything I jumped back in the truck and called my wife on the cell and told her to bring the 12 gauge and shoot the S.O.B! By the time she got to the railing, it was gone. She didn't see it, but she thought it might be one called an Indigo. I don't know, I just know I almost needed new droors after that one too! In the posts where you were talking about "handleing" the snakes, In that same house, it was a stilt house on Crooked Lake, I shot a 4.5 foot Eastern Diamond Back at the foot of my stairs. That wasn't too scary cause I was ready for him! But I stretched him out with a long handle rake, and then traumatically amputated his head with a shovel and put him in a box, but I have heard of people thinking there dead and there really not. We moved out of that house after one night when we were sleeping and my wife felt something in her hair, when I looked, come to find out it was 2 scorpions for christ's sake! That was it we slept on the floor until we moved. I respect your job, but I absolutly hate snakes, and scorpions! LOL

[MICK]

I hear ya...snakes and things aren't my "JOB". I had an oportunity to join a once in a lifetime team so I jumped at it. We're a small team of Rangers who do this on our personal time so I guess there is some passion for it. In return for spending our hard earned free time with these reptiles we get some excellent training by professionals, i.e. Steve Irwin before his death.

Florida and scorpions: They're everywhere and I know that I have a mild anaphylactic reaction to them. Much worse than a simple fire ant sting. To include slight difficulty breathing. Given the nature of our job, I get stung probably every week...it's pathetic.

Your Cobra incident: The Eastern Hognose has some peculiar mannerisms. Although it is non venemous and completely harmless it hoods up and hisses just like a Cobra. It's also got very similar colors and markings. When threatened it immidiately begins standing vertical, hooding up and hissing (sound familiar?). When contact becomes immanent it begins it's death throws. It wiggles upside down in a very ridiculous manner to make itself appear unappetizing to predators. When this fails it vomits and shits all over itself before laying still with it's tongue hanging clear out of it's mouth. Pretty hilarious actually. Funny that a species of snake would learn to do all of this...
Did you see a Cobra?? Probably not. But I couldn't say for curtain you didn't find somebody's escaped Cobra pet! As Cobra's aren't indiginous to North America, the state of Florida has a terrible problem regulating exotic animals (reptiles in particular). Many of you have probably seen the 14' Python found having eaten an alligator, one ate a woman's pet pig etc. etc. Thus Florida has the most strict rules regarding this class of animal. Someplace in this thread I posted a list of amimals we care for. EVERY ONE OF THEM WAS CAUGHT LOCALLY

Oops but I did lie about one thing...I didn't bring a Bull Snake home. It's a relatively rare Florida Pine Snake. Even better!

[nmdesertrider]

I have run over a bunch of rattlesnakes in the arroyos.
One time I went over one and it threw it up in the air and it bit the guy behind me in the boot.
It's that season now.

[iggys-amsoil]

I have an old pic of me in Pheonix from 1978 shortly after I bought Schmedder. I should try and find it and scan it in. I took both of the them Burmesses' to a park, all rocks and hiking trails in the desert. Schmedder use to sit up like a Cobra all the time where turned loose. Its a cool pic cause I'm standing in the background while she's sitting up. She was 8' at the time. Its just something they do because of all the tall grass thats native to there home land. It wouldn't surpise me that some speices in FL would do that.

Out here I have seen Kings, Gophers snakes and Red racers, who are in contact with Rattlers that try to mimick rattlers by rattling their tail in leaves to scare people off. I just laugh and say sorry guy not me.

[MICK]

I have an old pic of me in Pheonix from 1978 shortly after I bought Schmedder. I should try and find it and scan it in.

Heck yeah scan that sucker! You had some great looking animals Iggy!

...Out here I have seen Kings, Gophers snakes and Red racers, who are in contact with Rattlers that try to mimick rattlers by rattling their tail in leaves to scare people off. I just laugh and say sorry guy not me.

I'm as guilty of it as anyone, but before I knew how to identify snakes I killed just about every one I found because I thought they were dangerous. Looking back now I'm not sure if I'd ever even seen a venemous snake until I moved down here. The truth is all snakes do a huge favor to us all, and the non venemous species are a great animal to have around the house. There is a direct correlation between pest populations and snakes. If you've ever had mice or rat problems, ever had those damn rabbits eating your garden, it's because poeple are thinning out those pests top predator...snakes. The Gopher snake as Iggy mentioned is among the same family as my Pine Snake. And they are directly responsible for managing Pocket Gopher populations. Without the Gopher snakes, many of your yards would look like shit. And to be honest, if you've got pest problems a snake is a good predator to introduce to your yard. It will eagerly hunt and kill all your problems and leave for someplace else when the job is finished.

[iggys-amsoil]

Ya it use to crack me up. People would have rodent problems, and I'd say "should of called me mines for rent."

I'll have to do some diggin for that pic, I'm sure its around somewhere.

[iggys-amsoil]

Ok here they are;

Ya thats me in Pheonix 1978 going to automotive school at the time.
Schmedder is the lighter colored one. She turned much darker as the years went on.


A couple more at a place we called Deep Creek. But for Hellbear and Steiner its about a mile or two from the ranch. July 1980.


Then Pismo 1987 ? My 85 250 and her 83 185s.
Notice the same old ice chest. Cynthias been buggin me about getting a new one.
"But honey, the new ones don't have beer openers."


Ya 3 wheelers do fly.