Do you kill snakes you find in your yard?

[djansen]

i doubt it. BOYS WILL BE BOYS....and i know i'd definately go to where snakes were to see them. the problem is, if a dangerous snake was in my yard, and my kid came across and was to young to differenciate between my pet, and a harmful one..... ....and no more dangerous snake. sorry to say but my child's safety is far more important

I can agree with that, who knows what kinda trouble I would have got in if I was around dangerous snakes growing up lol.

Uh.... the area where the snakes hide would be the entire yard, and every other neighbors yard too. My boys have been very well educated what to do / not to do when they come a cross a wild snake. However, considering most "attacks" come from accidentilly stepping on them, their knowing what to do when they see one would not prevent most of the problem situations.

true, I do agree that people are more important than animals so if you dont want to relocate them its your call.

[nixer]

i have never killed one snake at work home on the farm or any of that.
when i was little my mom did all the time and they were just garters.
she still doesnt like them and i was informed in the fall they killed a bullsnake at our cottage it was in our golf cart. and i asked them why they eat rodents leave them alone.

at work ppl have found snakes and asked me about them or ive caught them and showed ppl what they do is pretty much just defense. around here your not going to see much in hots. usually its just a brown snake or garters ive even showed them that those snakes are good for us to have and they dont hurt when they bite.

as for other herps i have had turtle soup, alligator, rattlesnake, and frog legs.
personally if your going to kill it you better be willing to eat it, but some animals get into places where there is nothing more to do but to kill them.

[nybp]

No, I would not kill them.

I dont live in a area that has dangerous snakes nor do I have kids but wouldnt a better Idea be to keep the areas where snakes hide off limits or teach your kids what to do if they see one?

I can agree with that, who knows what kinda trouble I would have got in if I was around dangerous snakes growing up lol.



true, I do agree that people are more important than animals so if you dont want to relocate them its your call.

THIS IS THE PERFECT DISCUSSION, ONE MEMBER CAN SEE THE OTHERS POINT. if i came across the snake and it was not a threat to me, and i had no kids...leave it be. but my kids will come first.

[DutchHerp]

Just remember it's venomous, not poisonous...

[nixer]

it should also be noted that some animals will come back if they are relocated like rattlesnakes going back to the same den.

[azpythons]

yea ive killed rattlers

[anatess]

Just remember it's venomous, not poisonous...

Hah hah! YEP! My son has a tall pile of reptile books and one of them - a kid one - says Poisonous Snakes in the book cover - and my son complained that I got him a stupid book. It has really nice pictures though, so he still spent a good time reading it over and over.

Anyway, I'm in NE Florida too. Retention pond in the backyard that occasionally coughs up a water moccasin. We also have a family of racer snakes hiding somewhere between our house and the hedge next to it. We see them race across our yard once in a while. The kids would sometimes come home with a racer among other things like lizards, tree frogs, caterpillars, butterflies, and the like - we have a rule they can only keep them until dinner time and then they have to let them go.

One time we had a hurricane, the water went half-way up the backyard of my friend's house (also on a retention pond). When the water receded, it left a water mocassin on the yard. They had a 3-year-old and she was running towards the pond and was about to run towards the snake but their dog rushed ahead and attacked the snake - the snake bit the dog on the face and it made his head swell up like a balloon. My friend killed the snake, rushed the dog to the vet and spent $1200 on medication. But, hey, that could have been the daughter.

Another time, my next-door neighbor had a children's party in their backyard and one of the racer snakes - he was about 6 feet long - crossed my backyard and crawled under the fence to my neighbor's yard. My husband caught his tail before he got all the way across the fence, and yelled at the other parents to stay back. But, the racer was hissing and trying to bite my husband through the fence. The kids at the party and the parents were panicking and my husband couldn't pull the racer back under the fence so he made a snap decision and chopped the racer up with the hoe.

When I lived in the Philippines, my mom would line our house with garlic to ward off snakes. We had 2 snakes go inside our house, both got chopped up. We had 1 that the doberman chewed up. I didn't know anything about snakes then, so I don't know what kind of snakes they are. My dad shot a 14-foot reticulated python one time that got tangled across the tennis court net. My family there will kill a snake if they see it - unless it's in a zoo! They still think I should kill my snakes before they kill my children. Sigh.

Anyway, I guess the short answer is - venomous or not, we let it be, unless it poses a danger to the kids.

[mainbutter]

NO WAI I take poisonous snakes and grab them and bite them on my arm to increase my poison resistance I'm hardcore like that.





But seriously, I used to live in the south(Live in MN now), and I have never killed a snake in my life. I can't count the number of cottonmouths and copperheads I've had to deal with being in the outdoors in Louisiana and southeast texas. If we ever found any snake in our yard/pool, we'd relocate it a few miles away simply to get it further away from roads.

If you kill a handful venomous snakes, you're deluding yourself that it makes you or your children safer. The ones you have to worry about are the ones you don't see.

[TheReptileEnthusiast]

I came across venomous snakes(rattlesnakes)as a kid and since I have been a herp nut from the get go, I knew to just keep my distance. I know my two boys are smart enough to do the same. That being said, I would not just leave a venomous snake in my yard in South Florida, since boys tend to run around without looking where they are going, and my kids aren't the only ones who frequent my backyard either. I would not kill a snake though, I'd simply grab my trusty snake hook and trade it with one the many venomous keepers here for cash or a nice ball python morph!

[icygirl]

There should be a poll option for "I love my gartersnakes!" That's all we have around here..