MrWizard wrote:
rattle snakes are a protected species here in Calif
that said, i would not tolerate one on my step or in my garage
the young children, the elderly (and i'm getting there)and pets , are at the most risk
RS bites are very painful, but rarely deadly to a healthy adult
anybody from late teens to 45 , will usully survive a bite
but i wont take any chances at home
in the woods they usually go the other way, away from the noise i'm making
You will have to show me where the law states rattlers are a protect species in California; I don' think they are.
4 days after we moved to our new house, a rattler killed our German Shepard/ Chow mix dog. We were gone for about an hour. Found the dog on the back deck with it's front leg swelled up. Fang marks were 1 1/2" apart. Found the snake in a wood pile after I covered the pile with a tarp and tossed a smoke bomb under there. Hit it with the hoe when it poked it's head out.
My son stepped on one along the path from the house to the garage. It bit him. He was 12 years old and said it felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to his shin, it hit him so hard. He was rushed to the emergency room where tests show he was allergic to the anti venom. He spend a miserable week in the hospital. Thank God the snake did not inject all it's venom or else he probably wouldn't have survived.
My current dog was given an immunization shot for rattle snake bite last year. He swelled up. Seems he allergic to the immunization. It took 3 months for him to heal up from the open wound the shot caused.
We have lost several cats to rattlers, but since the cats were stupid enough to even bring them into the garage, I don't feel bad about them. Cats are my early warning for rattlers. They will bother them into rattling and giving away their location so I can whack them with the hoe!!
Snakes are almost always bad where people are. Even if not venomous, they carry enough bacteria in their mouths to cause serious infection. They are quiet, and don't run. They will bite if you get close and since you usually don't see or hear them, you won't stand a chance. Same with spiders. Nasty bastards and if they are dumb enough to be anywhere around where I'm living, they will be killed. I look at it this way; I'm helping their gene pool by killing off snakes too stupid to avoid humans by nature.
