It is summer here in Oz and they had snake stories on the radio today. A lady told how, about 40 years ago she was a young girl having a nap on her bed. She woke up to find a brown snake curled up on her stomach getting warmth from the sun shining there. She gently called out to her father who came into the room. He was an old bushie and just said "There's not much we can do about that then."
He pulled up a chair and proceeded to give her a spelling test. Eventually the sun moved and the snake slithered down her leg to the floor and her father shot it. The coolness of an experienced bushie under pressure and the trust of his daughter.

I remember when I was 21 riding trail bikes with friends along a sandy road. I was doing about 30kph and just spotted a 6 foot brown snake across the road. I couldn't avoid it and had to pull my feet up near the handlebars to avoid it whipping up and biting my legs. In the deep sand with my legs in the air I felt for sure I was going to slip over right on top of it. With balance like a terrified tightrope walker I made it through. One of the hairiest moments of my life.

After harvesting a crop of wheat, the stubble is burned. When I was about 14, I was doing the burning off, and was following the fire across the paddock. There was a snake in the path of the fire, and it went straight over the top of it. He was rather miffed, and reared up to about a metre high.

I had my 'snake-killer' with me (four strands of 12-guage fencing wire plaited together, about a metre long), and managed to get a good shot at it- took his head off about 6 inches behind his eyes.

I took it hame, skun it, fried him in butter and ate it- tasty, but zillions of tiny bones.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/bre...e-1226541136977
That story is so scary in more ways than one. That little tacker is lucky the snakes didn't bite him.

I know someone who was out horse riding with a mate. A tiger snake slithers up the leg of the farmer's horse, heading for Lord knows what. The person who told me that story was starting to panic thinking that they were in the middle of nowhere, there were no mobile phones in those days, and there was no way she could have got him back to help in time to save his life. She needn't have worries. Cool as a cucumber, he pulled out his whip and snapped the snake's head off. That's grace under fire!

Well we do get a few here, only one or two are dangerous. of course this one was!
My little cat went out through the bedroom (ground floor) window and returned a few minutes later and it occurred to me that she had not been wearing a long thin Genghis Khan type of moustache when she went out. Now she was, and it was wriggling and it was green. I screamed very loudly (the wrong thing entirely, I know, but wouldn't you?) This frightened her enough for her to jump out of the window again and return my gift to the wild. Bamboo snake here

I have a million stories .. old time members will have heard this one before

My best (worst?) was when my son was a toddler and we were outside. It was lovely and warm and I started feeling sleepy so i laid on the cement, on my stomach with my arms above my head. I felt something touch my hand and expecting it to be my son I lazily lifted my head to be eye to eye with a brown snake. We both froze for a few seconds (which felt like a lifetime) and then it took off one way and I took off the other squealing like a girl.

In the dim and distant past I hankered after visiting Australia, but no longer what with snakes and spiders, ewk.

My dad wanted to emigrate from the UK to Australia in the 50s, what with all the cheap incentive fares being offered. My mother would have none of it...too many snakes and bugs for my liking, she said. It seems she was right! Which is why we're freezing our backsides off on the prairies at the moment. Good one Mum!

Edited to fix the dang smiley...

Yet somehow we seem to survive. Copago.. you were so lucky! I hope you bought a lottery ticket or something while your luck was running. I've put my foot about about 8 inches from a brown snake while bush walking but that's the closest I've got. To have one run over your hand like that is terrifying. No wonder you ran screaming like a girl. Most men would too!

OUr kelpie killed one yesterday. A brown snake. It's the first time she's ever done it and I hope the last. That is surely a quick way to boot hill.

In our local town last summer there was a snake at the hospital front doors and someone killed and removed it but someone else complained to the National Parks officer since the snake was a protected species. *sigh* Yes they are protected but even the NP mob were okay with one being killed in this situation.

I think we are up to ten around the house here for this season. Away from the house we're quite happy to leave them be but around the house I don't even hestitate to ... yell for Jack to go and get rid of it. I'm too much of a wuss.

Last year we had one up the end of the verandah and since I didn't want to worry the boy about a snake being soooo close to being inside I happily called out to Jack to come out on the verandah. He is a bit hard of hearing and yelled back "What?"
so I said again "Come out here " ...
"What for? I'm doing something " ...
"Can you just come and look at this? " ..
"What is it???? :madder:"
"Oh for God's sake, just come and get the bloody snake!"
That made him run

Like I said .. I have a heap of snake stoies lol

We have snakes, spiders, sharks, crocodiles, jellyfish and octupi trying to kill us and some idiot made up as story about the drop bear to frighten tourists. It is supposed to be a bear that drops out of trees onto your head. Compared to the other nasties I don't think that rates.

The only snakes we have around where I live are little non poisonous ones. It may get to minus 40 in the winter, but at least nothing's coming out of the long grass to kill you.

When I was in Australia many years ago the friend I was staying with drove a little Mini Moke, which is a bit like a small jeep, very low down, and with no roof or sides. We went out for the day, T-shirts, shorts, flipflops, and there we were on our way home, tootling through the outskirts of town, when suddenly she stepped on the brake so hard the whiplash nearly broke my neck and then she threw the car into reverse so fast the whiplash from that put all my vertebrae back where they'd been before. When she eventually stopped the car she sat there shaking - "brown snake," she said, "reared up and ready to strike, it would have come straight in here, we'd no chance." Except we did have that one chance, that she'd have the presence of mind to almost kill me rather than let the snake do it for sure. She got rid of the car after that and bought herself one with proper doors. Can't imagine why.

The drop bear isn't real? Santa is though, right?

Your part of the world was sounding really good agony until you mentioned -40 in winter. My parents had to deal with those sorts of temps but they moved to Australia instead


We used to tell a joke that went "What's brown and green, and if it falls out of a tree on top of you, will kill you?" Answer: A billiard table.
Santa is real and lives in Finland, not the North Pole. There's no land at the North Pole so how can he build a house, toy factory, house and feed the reindeer? No, he lives in northern Finland. That's where mail addressed to Santa goes
http://www.santaclausvillage.info/santa-claus/santa-claus-main-post-office/

I like snakes. We don't have a pet store in my town anymore, but when we did, the people who owned it had a reptile license allowing them to sell turtles, snakes and lizards. I asked if they would let me do some work experience with them and they said they'd be happy to have me. My jobs included buying fresh fruit for the birds, providing the mice, rats, puppies, kittens and rabbits with clean water, feeding the lizards, packing rabbit food and testing PH levels in the fish tanks, but, out of all the things I did, my favourite job was being the store's resident snake handler. Once I'd done all my other jobs for the day, I'd be allowed to get the store's most expensive snake, a $1200 male Black-Headed Python, out of his tank, and I'd wander around with him. This was the time when customers were coming in and, unfortunately, most of them avoided me once they realized the snake I was carrying was real.

I like snakes too. But I don't think anyone should keep them as "pets" since they can never be "domesticated" in the way that dogs and cats can be. Pythons, especially royal/ball ones, are fairly docile, but all snakes can bite. Pythons in particular are interesting because although their method of killing is by constriction, when they bite, they don't let go (they have backward curving fangs, so you'll do more damage trying to pull them off). All snakes get cranky when they're a) hungry or b) shedding their skins (they're half blind during this time and will strike at pretty much anything) or c) feel cornered/threatened. And like most reptiles (not just the little turtles that used to be sold in pet shops when I was a kid) snakes can carry salmonella.

Anyway, like Agony said, the part of Alberta we live in doesn't have wild poisonous snakes, but drive a coupla hours south and you'll find plenty of rattlers. And according to our Fish and Game laws, it's illegal to (intentionally) kill them.

In grade 4, I brought home a little green/yellow garter snake that I found in a ditch. I named her Melissa daHissa (never mind that she didn't actually hiss lol). At the time, I didn't know that my mother had had several encounters with snakes that traumatised her as a child (even today, she has to leave the room if National Geographic or whatever is on tv and they show snakes) so I got into MAJOR trouble. My mother packed a suitcase with my stuff in it, put it out on the porch step and said "either the snake leaves, or you do, make your choice".

Here's a link to a pic of me holding a very lovely ball python:

BallPython
Despite her relatively small size (for a python), she was surprisingly heavy lol

We have snakes - some good and some bad - where I live in Georgia, USA. On our family farm, we love to see rat snakes, king snakes, gopher snakes, etc. because they eat rodents. King snakes will also keep poisonous snakes away. If I can't determine whether one is poisonous or not, I stay out of its way until it is gone. I've never been threatened by one, but can't say that I would ever buy a snake for a pet!

Don't be afraid to visit us Sue - the reports about our spiders and snakes are greatly exaggerated. I saw more snakes during the five years I lived in California than in the 50 years I've lived here.

My snake story. We were visiting Singapore and did a day trip to the Singapore Zoo. I was picked out of the audience to participate in the Snake Show. I went down onto the stage where the zoo-keeper proceeded to drape pythons all over me. I was amazed at how heavy they were. So there I am, sitting on a stool with half a dozen snakes draped over me when one of them decided to start wrapping himself around my neck. Meanwhile the keeper is giving the audience a talk about the snakes. I wasn't overly concerned as I was sure that the keeper would have everything under control. After all, they do this every day, don't they?

When things got a bit tight, I whispered to him, "Um...excuse me...this one's choking me", and without missing a beat (and not even turning to look), he said "Yes ma'am, that's how they kill their prey" and went right on talking. He did eventually rescue me but not before one of the pythons decided to relieve himself all over me. At that point, all the tourists in the first few rows grabbed their video cameras and started filming. I just know that one day I will turn on the television and see myself on "Funniest Home Videos" being pooped on by a python.

These stories are hard to read! Especially Mother Goose with a python around her throat.

Oh I had to check and see if I'd already told a snake story or two. Apparently not.
I grew up in California with lots of mountaineering in my childhood and respect for nature. I'd seen a nest of rattlers once and shown them to the camp counselors. They were just sunning and though it was scary, we just left them alone. It's their home up there, not mine!

One day in France however, my son came to greet me with the remote control for the garage. He had to take the stairs instead of the elevator as the rules were strict about children taking the lift unaccompanied. We lived on a clifftop overlooking the Mediterranean with a subterranean garage three floors down. He was white and I said, 'What's wrong?' and he said "Mom, there was a really big snake in the stairwell when I was walking down." and I knew he wasn't trying to frighten me. We took the lift up and his father got a broom and the snake escaped into a hole. We told everyone in our building to beware. Even the little French lady who said 'Oh dear, I'm not frightened of snakes. I lived in Australia when I was young and we saw them all the time.' So our duty was done but we avoided the stairwell.

About a week later, the young couple with a five year old said, 'I've got to tell you what happened. I got up and there was a snake on the floor in front of the fridge. We spoke English the whole time so as not to frighten our daughter. She knew something was up though.' They called the fire dept to come help them get the snake out. he showed me a picture of the long striped snake. We showed it to Julian and I'd seen the tail of the other one because, it wasn't the same snake!

That meant there were two. The firemen said it wasn't a native snake, thank god, so they'd probably escaped from a cage and were living in the building.

So a month later, the younger man had our kids over to a birthday party and the kids found a third one! he wasn't afraid of them nor were the kids. And to our relief, it was a native.

One theory was that the snakes we saw were looking for food and on their way upstairs to see what the parrot was up to. One neighbor had a parrot who spoke quite well and imitated radio signals and danced. Good thing the snake didn't make it up there and eat the bird.