Subj : Re: Brr
To   : ROB MCCART
From : Mike Powell
Date : Wed Nov 19 2025 11:13:06

> MP>I wonder how they rectified that situation?  :O

> As I recall, the father grabbed a stick and was going to try to flip
> the snake out but as he and a few others got closer to the buggy
> the snake got nervous and climbed out on its own.

*Most* snakes will usually try to avoid confrontation if they can.

> We've discovered it's pretty hard to catch snakes unless you
> really work at it. My father hated snakes and there was a fox
> snake over 6 feet long that had taken up living under my place
> and would climb up the steps and sun itself on my front deck.
> It didn't bother me much, I'd just step over it on my way in
> or out the front door, but dad decided we should catch it and
> take it out to an island somewhere to get rid of it. We tried
> to sweep it into a full sized garbage can to hold it but when
> we got it about half way in, it just stretched out and climbed
> over the top of the can and escaped, but it did move somewhere
> else after that so I guess it accomplished the same thing..

I had a black snake that was hanging around some.  I think I might have
accidentally scared it off and wish I had not.  I wouldn't mind having a
few of those around to keep the mouse and chipmunk populations in check!

> MP>They are known for poisonous snakes and spiders.  We do have rattlers
>   >in Kentucky, but the Copperheads are much more numerous, IIRC.
>   >We also have watocs, a/k/a cottonmouths.

> I didn't know watocs and cottonmouths were the same. I assumed one
> lived on dry land and the other around the water..
> Actually, it says online they are different but often mistaken for
> each other because they look near identical. We have those here, or
> some sorts of water snakes, too but they are nonvenomous..

That was a typo.  The synchronet internal editor and I sometimes don't get
along.  That should be water mocs and, yes, they are the same as
cottonmouths.  My thinking is that if you can see their white mouths you
are too close!  :D

Some scientist don't like the term "water moc" because they believe it
confuses people into demonizing other non-venomous water snakes.  We
usually called them cottonmouths.

> I was just looking online and they say we don't have any Copperheads
> in Ontario anymore, the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake being our
> only venomous snake, but I know they used to be around. My father
> in his youth worked forest fires up north and he said it used to
> drive him up a wall (tree?) when the snakes would come crawling out
> of the fire zone by the dozens, often right over their boots, and
> there were definitely Copperheads back then he said.

As a youth, my father nearly had a misadventure with a whole nest of them
in a hollow stump.  Luckily, his father noticed the danger and stopped him
just in time.

We used to just have three venomous snake species in Kentucky but,
recently, we've had another type of rattlesnake move into the SW portion of
the state.

Mike

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