Comments on: Snakes Just Hanging Around In Tennessee

By: Winston Smith

Winston Smith — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:54:49 +0000

Oops sorry wrong link.

By: Winston Smith

Winston Smith — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:52:59 +0000

Actually, they DO sometimes chase down their targets. See e.g. http://crikeymatemosaic.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/the-deadliest-snakes-in-the-world/

By: zozazumi

zozazumi — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:57:52 +0000

A former belly-dancing girlfriend used a snake in her act. It had the run of the house. It used to slither up to me and beg for gentle body massages. Or was that my girlfriend? It was so long ago.

By: Shawn Crowley

Shawn Crowley — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 07:35:57 +0000

In the US a large number of snake bites happen during attempts to hack, bludgeon etc. the offending snake. Leaving them alone is usually best. And taipan (probably Vipera russelli) won’t chase but are known to bite when disturbed. Snakes seem to engender more fear and exaggeration than any other taxa.

By: SamChevre

SamChevre — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:15:56 +0000

RAF,

If it was a decade ago, my parents were long gone. I was born in Shelbyville, but the enterprise collapsed in ?1976, and my parents moved to eastern TN. A year later they were converted and joined a Plain church (so my father looks like an Amishman; he still, however, thinks like a hippie.)

By: Winston Smith

Winston Smith — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 17:47:43 +0000

In Missouri, the hoe was the weapon of choice against all snakes…and that usually meant some poor vaguely mottled critter that had been mistaken for a copperhead.

Personally, I prefer hoes to shotguns when it comes to snakes…though I do remember dad and my uncle breaking out a shotgun the one time we had a confirmed water moccasin sighting in the creek…

Killing a Taipan with a walker is freaking amazing. They’ve apparently been known to chase people down in order to bite them…and unlike most of our wimpy American snakes, them suckers apparently will kill you.

By: Belle Waring

Belle Waring — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 07:33:54 +0000

terence, that is totally bad-ass.

By: terence

terence — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 04:44:02 +0000

sorry if I have just turned this into a who killed what snake with what competition but…

my friend’s grandfather – an Australian who fought the Japanese in World War Two – once killed a Taipan with his walker.

This always seemed pretty impressive to me but, then again, I live in a country that hasn’t had snakes since it broke away from Gondwana (sp?) Land

By: Isabel

Isabel — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 16:18:00 +0000

“red on yellow—kill a fellow…red on black…friend of Jack” sez my American Husband.

By: Belle Waring

Belle Waring — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 11:21:19 +0000

I think the dog lived as well; as ed’s comment notes, poisonous snake bites (in north america) are rarely fatal to people. a big rattlesnake could kill a dog for sure. there are also coral snakes, which are very venomous indeed. there’s a little rhyme meant to allow a person to differentiate between them and (almost identical-looking) corn snakes. red on yellow—kill a fellow…red on black…hm, can’t be “keep back” or anything. I’ve always just kept the hell away from any little bright red/black/yellow snakes, so that evolutionary strategy is really working for the corn snake.

in other waring-family snake news, my grandmother once beat a snake to death with a poker after it fell down the chimney, apologizing to it all the while. she was a very small and proper person and the image of her saying “sorry mr. snake; this is just the wrong place for you” as she bashed it on the hearth has always amused me.

By: grant

grant — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:03:08 +0000

Um…In the transcript, I think “Jock” is supposed to be “Jacques”, maybe.

By: ed

ed — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:56:25 +0000

A copperhead won’t kill you (although a venom injection is cause for concern) even if it does bite you which it doesn’t want to do, knuckleheads (also, most “copperheads” are misidentified, they’re usually the nonvenomous Northern, or “common” water snakes). Killing one probably makes one ultimately less safe, since copperheads eat vermin.

By: Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » Snakes. I Love Snakes

Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » Snakes. I Love Snakes — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:51:00 +0000

[...] So Belle Waring has a story about copperheads and beheadings and camp counselors getting bit. [...]

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:51:34 +0000

What happened to the dog?

By: Jacob Christensen

Jacob Christensen — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:49:51 +0000

I have a feeling BW’s sister has all the fun: CT: Unusual hobbies, John&Belle Have a Blog: I Know You Think You Can’t Resist Her, But I’m Telling You Mister, Don’t You Mess Around With My Little Sister.

Snakes, WWII enactments, beating the s*** out of creepy WWII enactors.

My life seems tame in comparison. But I’m not sure that I would swap places.