Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: bjrogg on August 11, 2018, 02:47:14 pm
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A couple nights ago my lovely wife suddenly became extremely excited and started screaming for me. Usually not a good thing. I have seen this reaction from her before. This is the third time in the 26 years I've been living here that a bat accidentally found its way into the house. Now I'd prefer to catch and release them but my wife just wants them out immediately and I've found a window screen works really well. I tried not to hit it to hard but it doesn't take much to kill them and he didn't survive.
This morning my beautiful wife once again became extremely excited. I've seen this reaction to. For the fourth time in my 26 years living here a garter snake was in the house. Three of them I've managed to successfully catch and release. One wasn't as lucky. I wasn't home and my wife chopped it up with the garden hoe. They really are beautiful. I showed my grandson a picture and he said I was holding a rainbow.lol I'd say he's right. Here's one I relocated last year.
Bjrogg
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About twenty years ago my wife called me while I was at work and told me there was a huge snake in the chicken house. We had monster rattle snakes there, so I told her to get a gun and shoot it, but she has never been willing to touch a gun. She told me it looked like it might not leave. When I got home I found a huge chicken snake with a broken back. She had approached a hen nest to check it for eggs and met this snake as it was coming out. The poor snake was no match for that eight lb. sledge hammer.
WA
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Had to do away with this one the other day...next time I’ll split him down the side, wasn’t thinking about saving the belly. Next time.
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Nice pics.Seems some years are just that way.There just trying to make a living that's all.Robin told me of one just this morning she saw from under a round bale while feeding her pony.She's got a crazy cousin she stays in touch with in the Lousianna/Texas/Arkansas corner of the states who loves reptiles and especially snakes.It seems to have rubbed off on her too.She got a nice little box turtle from him the other day.She'll have pets of turtles/snakes/and even tarantulas around here.
She will let me know if she sees a big snake though....lol.
One thing I've noticed seeing them from under wood piles and bales of hay etc. is the high concentration of crickets in there I think their feeding on.
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I'm kinda like Robins strange cousin Ed. When I was single I had a pet bull snake and a tarantula. I really enjoyed the tarantula. It really was beautiful. Now I just have my daughter's chihuahua. She's a pretty sweet little dog though and much more affectionate than either the snake or tarantula.
Bjrogg
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Yup chip the eight pound sledgehammer is going to be the winner.
Nice snake Steve what kind is it. Please tell me it was in your house . My wife doesn't believe that everyone has snakes in their house from time to time. Actually I really don't know anyone else who's had them in their house.
Bjrogg
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Don't care much for spiders and snakes, never have! Came real close to getting bit by a rattlesnake when I was a kid! But I did get "kissed" by a hummingbird once on a camping/lodge pole gathering trip in the higher part of the county. Carry snake charmer loads in my .44 or .41 during the hot months, we have a number of them on the ranch where our black powder range is. Haven't seen or heard or any on the archery range yet.
Hawkdancer
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Me and snakes don't get along much as I have a phobia about them.I do my best to avoid them. I even have a hard time using the skins for cresting my arrows. FYI: great article in the new PA magazine Brian.
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Jerry I'm not say I wouldn't have a uncomfortable feeling with ones that could bite me and do great harm to me. I probably would. The garters we caught as kids and at first detection were as they slither away they do make my natural instinct kick in. They are beneficial predators though so I respect their beauty and their role. My mom actually thought us they were good snakes.
I once got in our old escavtor and a hummingbird was inside. The door was open and it could have flown right out but it was hovering right at the top of the cab which had a four inch lip all the way around. It was frantically trying to find a way out. I took my hand and put it over top it as it hovered and I could make it lower it altitude. I got it low enough and directed it towards the door and away it flew. That was pretty cool.
Jeb I saw a very interesting show once. They showed how our brain detected snakes and seemed to give us a natural instinct to avoid them. It was kinda like those old subliminal advertisements at the movies where they slipped one frame of a picture of popcorn in and everyone went and got popcorn. This one they slipped one frame of a snake and observed the reaction. It wasn't going up to buy popcorn but it was emediate and even present in small children that hadn't encountered snakes. I found that quite interesting.
Glad you liked the article. It's not your normal hunting story but I'm still learning and it is hunting.
Bjrogg
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I have no problem with snakes unless one startles me. In that case I can't be responsible for what happens. :o I only kill poisonous snakes if they are near our house. These are mostly copperheads and every dog we've oned in the last 40 years have been bitten, some hot bites, some not...and never during office hours of our vet. Closes emergency vet is over an hour away and by the time we could get there, if the bite were deadly it would be too late. Our vet told us to give the dog Benedryl, watch the dog closely and bring it in the next morning for antibiotic shot. None have dies, all have gotten sick for a few days but all have come through without permanent damage. Our 2 1/2 year old, Maggie, warned me about a copperhead in the yard 2 weeks ago and as far as I know she's never seen one.
When we lived in Bluffton, SC on the southern coast, we were remodeling our kitchen. I came home from work and my wife said their was a surprise for me under the bucket in the kitchen; a 3' copperhead. A few weeks later I found 4 very small copperheads in the hall going to our bedroom. I dispatched them and never told my wife or daughter about them.
We've lived in rural areas for our 40 years together so we are both used to encounters with wildlife, friendly or threatening and dealt with the situations accordingly.
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Thanks Pat, now I can honestly say that other people have snakes in their houses to. I'm sure that'll put my wife at ease. I told her to make sure she told me if she found another one in there.lol She really didn't think that was funny but she's better now.
Bjrogg
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Way much better than having a nest of copperheads :o ::)
Zuma
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Way much better than having a nest of copperheads :o ::)
Zuma
That's exactly what I'm going to tell her Zuma. That's gotta make her feel better.
Bjrogg ;)
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Like Pat B my coon hunting friends I went with in central Arkansas were more worried about what they did to our dogs more so than themselves.It can matter where the dog gets bit.Up by the face and throat is a lot more dangerous because of the swelling that occurs.The dog can strangulate from it.Like Pat said a dry bite can happen too.While crossing shoal creeks in the mountains following dogs we killed quite a few cottonmouths just tossing a rock on them as they got too close.You have to be aware where your hands go while climbing steep banks.In june the musky scent of them could be smelt from the truck down in the bottoms where the creeks ran.The same is said for my coon hunting friends in Alabama I hunted with.Thready a friend of mine there swore of a cure by taking a small bottle of kerosene with him to put on the bite.
Henry another coon hunter friend in Dixon ,Missouri[central Missouri] got rid of his wood piles by the house for firewood because of the copperheads in them while his grandkids were visiting playing in the yard also.Awful painful scary experience for a little kid.
Luckily up north the frequency of poisonous snakes is'nt much but to me it's just something to deal with if living down south and would'nt change any amount of time in the woods for me.Just gotta be aware that's all.
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Our three cats had a 4 to 4 1/2 foot timber rattler pointed, in the driveway, as we drove in from church last night.
A H & R single barrel 20 gauge took care of it. This is the 5th or 6th, large rattler, that we have found" In The Yard" in 26 years.
Two of them were 6' long and as big around as a quart canning jar.
I think our yard might be on a rattler trail. If there is such a thing???
I also think that it is possible that far more rattler cross through that we ever see.
Makes a man want to mow the grass or something. :o
David
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Thready who lives by Montgomery City in the country lets his cattle graze right up to his house but does'nt mow his yard to keep the grass short to be able to see the snakes.
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I grew up in an unfinished house. We had several snakes get in there. One ended up in the washing machine somehow. Another time a good sized black rat snake was hanging out of an opening in the wall. Dad made me and my sister go upstairs while he took care of it. We were both peeking around the corner to watch. He put on a heavy leather welding glove and grabbed the snake. He took off running through the house swinging that snake all around and hitting it into stuff so it wouldn't swing up and bite him. He slammed it hard against the front door and left a some blood splatter. He got it outside and finished it off.
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Yup I'm sure my wife is going to feel better now. I going with what Zuma said.
Ed we got a neighbor like that. In fact he has three houses and two of them he lets the cattle in the garage.
Clint I'm sure you and your sister will always remember that. Probably already knew your dad was bad a$$ but just in case that probably reinforced it.
Yes the first two times I had bat in house was when I was doing a extensive do it yourself remodeling job on my old farm house. I had all the plaster knocked off the walls. I changed the floor plan and had two stairways. A new one I just built and the old one I was planning on converting into a closet. I had the kitchen and one new bedroom I'd just put in my attic. I was in the bedroom when a bat came flying in and then back out. It was flying up one stairway and down the other. Through all the open stud walls and making a hard target to catch. That's when I found out a window screen works real good. I stood in the one staircase and when he flew over my head I knocked him to the floor. That was before I was married and I didn't tell my wife about that one till many years later. When I met her she had a serious bat problem in the house she was renting. She doesn't like bats in the house. Outside is ok but not in the house.
Bjrogg
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I use a fishing net for catching bats in the house. I like the ones with a long handle.lol
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I grew up in an unfinished house. We had several snakes get in there. One ended up in the washing machine somehow. Another time a good sized black rat snake was hanging out of an opening in the wall. Dad made me and my sister go upstairs while he took care of it. We were both peeking around the corner to watch. He put on a heavy leather welding glove and grabbed the snake. He took off running through the house swinging that snake all around and hitting it into stuff so it wouldn't swing up and bite him. He slammed it hard against the front door and left a some blood splatter. He got it outside and finished it off.
(lol)
I could picture that mayhem crystal clear while I was reading this. Hilarious. Thanks OO
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Early in the spring around february towards the first part of March one year here I was helping a fella calve out 350 of his cows.Long 16 hour days and every day no breaks for weeks.So coming home was a matter to just get the house warm/cleaned up/fed/and to bed for the next day as soon as possible to get rested for the next day.
One time I come home in the dark seeing my damper on my wood stove was turned or disturbed.I suspected something had gotten in there from the top side through the rain cap and into the stove pipe.Probably a bird I thought.Knowing it was in the wood stove already I got ready with a bat minten racket to swat whatever was going to come out of there when I opened the stove door.I opened the front door first so whatever it was could get out the door easily.
I opened the door and out flew a darn old starling.Flying all around the room from corner to corner from what seemed more than a few times.From him being in the stove pipe he had a fair amount of black soot all over himself and left quite a few black streaks all over my nice clean white walls.He finally seen the door hole and got outside.
Next morning before leaving early I put a strip of 1"by2" welded wire around the opening of the rain cap to stop that from happening any more.
PS...As a side note while I was a bachelor I raised many wild critters in the house.Baby crows/owls/squirrels/ferrets/numerous pups thinking from the top of my head.I'm sure I'm forgetting some other critters too,but no snakes yet.....lol.