Iād like to know how the name came about.
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I noticed the first time cutting 3-4 year old black currant canes that they were hollow in the center. It looked as though they had been invaded by an grub, rather than the pith chambers found in walnut twigs. All the black currants I grow show the same, although Belaruskaya was so spindly none of the canes got longer than a foot before collapsing, so I took that out.
A couple days ago, while covering young apples with orchard sox, I noticed this activity & took a photo for later ID. Sure enough, these clearwing moths are currant clearwings. I ran outside with a tissue & put an end to their mating ritual.
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This is my first time visiting this thread, and I was enjoying seeing the birds, butterflies, and some insects. Then, boom, there was a snakeāthe last thing I wanted to see. I would prefer if no one posted pictures of snakes here. If someone likes snakes, I wish they would keep those photos to themselves and enjoy them privately.
I think my wife would agree with you.
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Haha my grandmother was the only person I knew existed now @handsomefarmer and your wife are two I can add to the list of ācanāt stand a snake even on tv or pictureā
Not to be only antagonist but I selfishly hope people do not heed the advice for I enjoy seeing them quite a lot.
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Out of curiosity, is it a phobia or a dislike? (I am rather lucky to live somewhere where people are commonly scared only of a zig-zag pattern on our single poisonous snake.)
According to my wife, a science editor and a field biologist (retired), the designation came about because (like many other frogs and toads) it is most conspicuous (visually and aurally) only temporarily (during spring mating season), but then seems to disappear.
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Iāve noticed that some sources say it comes out later than others, but I wonder, what the reference climate was (I see it from spring until autumn) and why we donāt have temporary toads, lizards and snakes.
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My brother was bitten by a poisonous snake when he was young. There was no antidote, so he had to undergo surgery and still has several scars on his leg. Growing up in the countryside, I saw too many snakes. They were lurking everywhere: under trees, on trees, in bushes, cornfields, vegetable gardens, by the roadside, and even trying to come inside the house. I find them to be the most disgusting things in the world. People who grew up in the city may not have had the chance to see them and might have different views. Good for them.
Sorry about your brother.
I have saved the life of a snake by stopping to tie my shoe over it causing the rambunctious kids on bikes to swerve around me, or picking it up out of the street & taking it to a thick bush under which to hide. Come to think of it, both these examples were gopher snakes, a species that prefers rodents as meals; my kind of wildlife.
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Iām sorry that you had to experience that. Iāve found itās usually the opposite, and people in cities are scared of snakes while people in more rural areas are more likely to know which snakes are non-venomous. While of course fearing and respecting the danger of the venomous ones.
Iām lucky here in my area there are no venomous snakes at all. The most common snake I see is the garter snake, and my kids enjoy capturing and handling them when they find one sunning on a cool spring day. There have been many demands for a pet snake, and Iāve considered making a secured area for one in my greenhouse, but it sounded like too much work to ensure it wonāt escape.
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Sorry about your brotherās experience.
Fortunately, here in Central Europe our northern viper sticks mostly to peaks and rocks and our brains are hardwired to spot their pattern. Nevertheless,Iāve had some near misses nearly sitting or stepping on one in remote locations. However, the rest of our snakes are quite plentiful and just this Sunday evening, Iāve had the good luck of watching a group of four prime size (as long as Iām tall and 3x the size of those in our garden) aesculapian snakes in the cracks of a stone cistern/monument. I got alerted about them by a family with kids who had stood there admiring the scene and their size for a while and we all considered ourselves lucky - it looked like something from a fairytale. Those are the snakes you see on the symbol of medicine and they were an integral part of many European cultures and mythologies and are protected by the law.
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If you ever visit Kansas keep in mind we are not limited to 1 poisonous snake
Notice they say there are only 4 or 5 native poisonous snakes, but there are many more than native snakes here.
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I am also aware that my imprinted viper recognition software would be good for nothing. Iāll consider it a speckle of silver lining of my spine not allowing me to travel more than couple hours a dayā¦
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I apologize but I am going to be THAT guy but there is no such thing as a poisonous snake, they are venomous. Poisonous implies ingesting, venom implies injecting.
With that said I agree with @swincher, exposure typically reduces fear rather than increases it. So I can only assume urban dwellers are more fearful on an average than rural dwellers. From a young age my parents (mom is rather fearful still but my dad constantly catches snakes) taught me to spot a copperhead and cottonmouth. Have never seen a pygmy or canebrake rattlesnake here tho for sure canes are around. Coral snake is a pipe dream to see one as they are basically nocturnal. But I find snakes similar to firearms, if you grew up exposed and informed on them you arenāt fearful as an adult. If you were raised to be fearful, chances are your understanding will always be that. It is unfortunate to be bitten by a venomous species but deaths and even complications are very rare in the west. Spider bites are worse since there is no anti venom, simply just antibiotic your way out of them, and necrosis sucks. Iām also a big fan of spiders, just moved 3 black widows out of my stack of pots last week.
Tbh there are few animals/insects that I donāt really enjoy, squirrels (enjoy eating them but thatās it), mosquitos/gnats/noseeums, bears, big cats and sharks. The love of large predators is odd, Iād likely add wolves to the list if I lived somewhere in their range. We just have the nonsense āred wolvesā in which I do not believe truly still exist. They live among coyotes and interbreed freely. By now the 20-30 they released have certainly mostly become coyotes, and side by side good luck telling the difference between the two.
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I probably should have added that when I was ages 9 to 13 and living in rural north FL, my mom dated a guy whose nickname was āSnakeā and one of the things he did for a living was capture wild snakes for the (probably illegal) reptile trade. We always had various weird snakes in cages/tubs, including a coral snake for awhile, which he only caught so he could show us the difference between that and the scarlet kingsnake. My favorite snake of all the ones he caught was the southern hognose, it had such a cute little face and tried so hard to convince you it was venomous, lots of hissing and puffing up, but it was all bluster.
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I love a hog nose, cool how they roll on their bellies when threatened to play dead. Yeah I think positive exposure with guidance and learning at a young age is crucial to so many things. Identifying harmful snakes is no different
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I agree that it is much more likely for people that grew up countryā¦ on the farm, hunting, fishing, etcā¦ would be much more likely to be comfortable with snakesā¦ than sayā¦ a city slicker might be.
Certainly true in my case.
I have never had a loved one seriously injured by one. Have had a friend that got bit by a rattlesnake. He had a little hospital time and recovered well.
We have Rattlesnake, Copperhead, Cottonmouth water moccasin here that are venemous. One other that is rarely seenā¦ Pigmy Rattlesnakeā¦ i caught one when I was in my 20sā¦ and kept it for a whileā¦ eventually releasing it.
I find snakes to be quite interesting. Something you may not have noticedā¦ a cottonmouth water moccasinā¦ of course has two large fangs on top and when his mouth closes those fangs fold back into a little pocket in the edge of the roof of his mouth.
Wellā¦ if you open his mouth and pull those primary fangs out with something like a pocket knife bladeā¦ there are extra fangs in line behind the primary fangsā¦ some have as many as 4 or 5 extra fangs in line and ready to be used should the primary fangs be lost.
They must loose them quite frequently.
I have caught live and picked up rattlesnakesā¦
As a young manā¦ b4 collegeā¦ i worked for a timber companyā¦ in the work I did (reforestation)ā¦ we discovered and killed 8-12 copperheads a week and normally a couple rattlesnakes a week.
Instead of making me despise themā¦ it made me much more comfortable with them.
I brought many a rattlesnake home cleaned them and ate themā¦ southern fried rattlesnake is good eats. If you like bullfrog legs or gator or even calamariā¦ it is very similar. A very clean white meatā¦ that is just a little chewy.
The large majority of snakes are harmless and very beneficialā¦ and welcome in my garden.
For those of you that have never tried itā¦ but would like tooā¦
Cowboy Kent Rollins has a good vid on cooking up fried rattler.
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My mother grew up in Sweetwater Texas known for their annual rattlesnake round up. We would go out for Easter and many times it coincided with the roundup. My uncles would show up for the family Easter egg hunt with tow sacks full of rattlesnakes in the trunk of their car. I certainly go out of my way to preserve the garden friendly non venomous snakes and do not mind picking them up and moving them to a safer environment but believe me riding around in a car which contains live rattlers was a tad disconcerting!
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