Boondocking in S Arizona desert and Rattlesnakes

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now Aus campers have too worry about drunken feral pigs

drunken feral pig trashes camp site

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Swino is dead, hit by a car

Very few people ever get bitten and even fewer die. They are night hunters and it is best to be very careful at dusk when they are starting to come out and difficult to see.

A lot more people dying from Lyme disease than rattlesnake bites in the USA. It is the scorpions that I would want to exercise care around as people in moving into the desert areas are in these critters home territory. Scorpions though can be spotted with a UV flashlight and you can buy ones for less than $10 on Amazon.

Snake bite kits are a waste of money but I do own a couple of the UV flashlights and use them when in the desert (which includes the cities and places like Phoenix).

If you have pets don't let them out unsupervised and don't allow them to run around off lead.

I've lived in Arizona for 10 years and have only seen two rattlers. Pretty rare but you do have to be careful when hiking or walking about in the bush.

I would love too see Aus someday
But as far as gators go, they "normally" eat stray pets running loose
Nobody swims In the golf course ponds

MrWizard wrote:
Unless you camp close to the water
You have those salt water crocs, every where but maybe the middle of the outback

Same as Alligators in Florida. No they are in extreme Northern Australia

Unless you camp close to the water
You have those salt water crocs, every where but maybe the middle of the outback

Roy&Lynne wrote:
Now you guys have your fair share of the "out ta kill ya" creepies. While we have rattlesnakes you guys have about 10 varieties to watch out for. LOL

As I said, Honeybees followed by horses have killed more people in the Australian Bush than anything.
People have been bitten by snakes, spiders, but fatalities are rare, so is the incidence of bites. North America is vastly much more Dangerous than camping in Australia as you have carnivores with a brain, that can plan to kil you
We do not have bears, mountain lions , bison or territorial moose. So you can camp in Australia without much worry about your food or you being eaten

I second Desert Captain; I too am amazed how few rattlers people have seen who spend any time in the desert. I long ago lost all count of how many I’ve seen and I’ve shot a lot of them. And I don’t do that for sport, only if I think they’re in striking distance and a threat.

But my situation was somewhat unique, part of my job many years ago was developing maps and often that required surveying the country first. The old days, a chain and transit and you went in a straight line through brush or any other passable objects. Just the thing I advise people to avoid doing to avoid snakes. By far, most of the incidents I had with snakes were when I was working.

I recall stepping on one’s tail once but he wasn’t coiled, he was trying to get away and needless to say I got off his tail pretty quickly. The closest call I had was with a sidewinder who parked himself right next to an instrument I had put on the ground momentarily. I bent down and reached for it and there he was all coiled up and waiting. I saw him just in time and shot him just on general principles for not buzzing and warning me. And it’s true that rattlers do not always buzz, he wasn’t the first or the last.

I agree with Desert Captain that people are likely just not seeing snakes that are there. I still see them, even on trails in city mountain parks. But I think my senses are so highly tuned to watching for them from the old working days that I see things others may walk right by.

So, you shoot rattlesnakes when you are in striking distance - so if you're standing within a foot or two of a snake, your first instinct isn't to just take one step the other direction, but to pull out a gun and shoot it? Even if the disregard for wildlife weren't an issue, that wouldn't be the fastest way to resolve the situation. They don't chase, or jump through the air, or any of that TV stuff, as you well know from seeing so many of them.

A sidewinder is 2', tops, and that's a monster winder. You'd have to be standing on top of it with flip flops, or grabbing it. They don't always warn because of a few reasons, one of which is that that's actually the third tier of predator evasion tactics they use. The first are to hold still and hope nothing sees them; the second is to flee.

My close encounter with Mr Snake scared the bits out of me, but I would never ever think to shoot it. I was in his space and if he felt threatened, he would bite and I would have deserved it. We can't just go killing snakes or bears or wolves just because they are dangerous. They are part of Mother Natures checks and balances and if one check goes, there goes the balance.

greenrvgreen wrote:
Shooting rattlesnakes? On "principle"? Although I'm convinced that most snakes are shot by fantasy roll-players who watch too much television, the following is worth mentioning (IMO):

Every snake that is killed increases the virility of the rabies vector in that area. A rattlesnake bite is easy enough to recover from if you're healthy, even without treatment. The Hanta virus (mice that snakes eat carry this) has a 50% mortality rate, while only one person in history has survived a case of rabies.

Most snake bites are on the noses of curious dogs or the hands of drunk men who try to pick them up, as said. And I would caution anyone who saw somebody on TV shoot a snake: If you're close enough to shoot a snake you're close enough to get hit by a fragment from your own bullet, even if you're sober.

No offense, greenrvgreen, but it strikes me you’re talking from the standpoint of someone who has little if any experience with the subject. If you’re talking about shooting snakes en masse I agree with your Hanta Virus comment. But we’re not talking about trying to exterminate snakes.

As far as an easy recovery from a snakebite, have you ever seen someone who has been bitten. A very nasty experience and some people don’t recover. And they’re not old and infirm. I doubt very much they would agree with your comment. Conventional advice is to sit and stay calm if you’re bit and wait for help. What help? You’re miles out in the boonies and you’re only option is to walk out and really get the venom coursing through your body. And this was decades before cell phones so you don’t have the option of merely calling for a helicopter to come and lift you out of there.

Your last comment about being struck by a fragment of your own bullet really stretches credibility into outer space. I wouldn’t say it never happens, but some idiots drive their cars through Circle K windows, too. I think one is far more likely to be hit by lightening. I target shot for years and ran about 3000 rounds a year. Plus I shot a lot otherwise. I started at 15 and I’m 75 so I think I’ve easily shot over 100,000 rounds and not once have I been struck by a bullet fragment.