Snakes

[SeniorCitizen]

Not only electrical , it could be wise in some areas to be careful around machinery and equipment .
My HVAC man sent this pic to me of a rattle snake in a unit . Why in there ? Most likely looking for mice .

 

[StarTech]

I done ran into two luckily non poisonous snakes working mowers in the last 16 yrs. Both had me scared. The first one was in the operator tower and I knew as soon as I touched it what it was was. The second one I touched but it came out and went up my pants leg. I came out of the pants quickly and was lucky that put a pair of briefs that morning. That one nearly caused a heart attack. At least I saw some it as it entered my pant's leg so knew it was non poisonous but still scared the heck out me.

So yes we got to look good before reaching into places that these critters can get it and hide.

 

[GearHead36]

I'm not a professional. I only work on my own equipment, so I don't have near the opportunity to encounter surprises that you guys do, but I DO hate snakes. I also have a barn cat. I don't really expect him to kill snakes, but he SHOULD kill everything a snake would want to eat. He's quite the hunter. In fact, he was my daughter's cat, but she couldn't keep him (apartment), and a friend who was keeping him didn't like that he was killing everything in sight. Just what I wanted, though. Even though I don't expect him to kill snakes, he killed one this week. It was non-venomous, but that's ok. I have Fluffy (not his name) for pest control. If I had a small engine shop, I'd seriously consider having a shop cat. It would keep the mice out of the equipment too.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Trick with barn ( shed ) cats is only feed them in the morning so they are hungry all night
I have black, brown, tiger & whip snakes here, all venomous
So you learn to look before you put your hands anywhere Always stand behind anything you want to lift so the opening is on the other side of you
Same story with doors , stand behind then as they open.
You are bigger than snakes so most will run away as you could eat them and you are too big for them to eat .
Then we have green tree snakes and about a dozen different pythons
I have about 14' of diamond python that lives in the ceiling and eats the indian Mynahs that nest in there which saves me the effort of tossing their nests out .

 

[GearHead36]

Trick with barn ( shed ) cats is only feed them in the morning so they are hungry all night
I have black, brown, tiger & whip snakes here, all venomous
So you learn to look before you put your hands anywhere Always stand behind anything you want to lift so the opening is on the other side of you
Same story with doors , stand behind then as they open.
You are bigger than snakes so most will run away as you could eat them and you are too big for them to eat .
Then we have green tree snakes and about a dozen different pythons
I have about 14' of diamond python that lives in the ceiling and eats the indian Mynahs that nest in there which saves me the effort of tossing their nests out .

Geez! If I had all those snakes around here, I'd have several barn cats.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Like everything is is just a case of knowing your enemy
Snakes are all basically cowards and you are a threat to them.
Most will not give you a big venom dose because you are too big for them to eat and venom takes a lot of energy so inject 3 or 4 things with a full dose & the snake will starve .
Best "protection" is to wear loose baggy clothing because most will strike once then vamoose .
Browns are the big problem because they will often be 2 to 4 of them
So if they strike your trouser leg you just slip them off and dump them into a bucket of cold water the do a cold wash.

We actually had our fists snake death down here a week ago and it was the same story
Mr Hero decided he would "save the children" by catching the snake with a grabbing tool
Snakes can flatten out to near paper thickness which is why you use a crook to catch them
So of course the snake slid out of the thing that was trying to "eat it" run strait up the handle and gave Mr idiot a nice big bite .
Then Mr Idiot drove home and got his wife to wash & dress the wound in place of going to the nearest hospital, doctor or vet clinic .
You get about a 10 to 20 minute window for antivenin if you move slowly and put a tight tourniquet on.
Needless to say Mr Idiot died waiting for the ambulance after he started convulsing.
There was a vet less than 1 minute away
Snake antivenin is one of the very few things vets are legally allowed to treat humans with and they love doing it because the National Health supplies them with a nice fresh bottle to replace the one they used on your which could be almost about to expire .