Why don't you kill king snakes?

Grew up in Arkansas...King snakes are great. A good way to tell venomous snakes are by the shape of their head. Triangular shaped heads are for holding the venomous fangs in the back of their mouth. Another snake to watch out for is the pilot snake. Crossed between copperhead and rattler....Been around water maccasins, coral, rattlers,
copperheads and just about any other. still hate them. we would mow the lawns and run over them, they were so thick.....

Kingsnakes actually eat other snakes (and mice and frogs etc)...including toxic snakes like Rattlers. Those who don't like any snakes will often like the Kings because they keep toxic snake populations under control. It's all part of a natural balance of Nature!

This is a link.

Growing up....I loved the KING SNAKE because it killed othe snakes ;) *2U

Thanks ladies, I needed a good laugh today!...Barb

PS. I hate snakes, too!!!!!

1 comment

by silver 29 Aug 2008

Snakes have a helpful place in the balance of Nature...unlike like us harmful and destructive humans! lol

Here in New England we don't have to deal with snakes much.
Every once in a while, garden snakes. (Sorry, I don't like ANY snakes.) My husband knows that I don't like snakes, so he was removing one from near my flowers, using the end of a stick. He told me to walk away. Well, wouldn't you know, when he flicked the snake with the end of the stick, it landed just about at my heels. I in turn, (probably shrieked!), started running, crying and wetting my pants at about the same time. We still laugh about it. (well, sorta - - -)

I left California and rattlesnakes. Moved to Canada and find that they have rattlers up here too. They are way south of me (makes me happy). Now I find out we have snakes here where I live. Green things that are supposed to eat the rodents. Must have moved elsewhere cause the field mice have been multiplying like rabbits. I don't do snakes (no legs) or spiders (too many legs). Give me a lizard any day. Nice pic. but please keep him in your yard.

Smiled reading all the post...I can't even stand worms. I garden all the time but I hate worms, Even though "they are good for the soil". If I see a snake ..I'm moving :-)

Jrob, you didn't tell us if you took this photo or borrowed it. Are you going to keep us wondering?

1 images:[1]

1 comment

by jrob 26 Aug 2008

my 1st cousin took it in South Ga.I'm in N. Ga. but have rattle snakes, too.

Did you all know that the Coral Snake is the only venomous snake in our beautiful US of A, that has tiny little teeth, instead of fangs? Interesting! There is also a King Snake that looks like it. So the little "rhyme" of "Red and black friend of jack, and red on yellow killer fellow is actually true. The stripes tell if its a King Snake, or a Coral Snake!

5 comments

by jrob 26 Aug 2008

ummm, we have rattle snakes and water moccasins that are venomous in the US

by jrob 26 Aug 2008

oh, yes and copperheads.

by katydid 26 Aug 2008

Where I grew up in Tn.,we had all three, rattlesnakes ,copperheads and water Moccasins. My mother stepped on one running down the mountain when she was a child and she still talks about it. In fact she would not let her great granddaughters go near my childhood play house because rattlesnakes had been spotted by the man who mows. She has a terrible fear of snakes ans I guess she instilled it in me.

by stitchship 26 Aug 2008

Coral Snakes are found in Florida. I will add some links with info on them.

by silver 29 Aug 2008

Coral snakes are neuro-toxic (rare in the US), affecting the nerves... the rest are hemotoxic affecting the blood systems... Coral snakes are rear 'fanged' (very small), the rest are front fanged. You would have to put your finger in a Coral snakes mouth and let him chew on ya like a Gila Monster to get a good dose of poison unlike the Rattlers etc you mentioned. Though toxic all of these snakes are incredibly helpful in reducing the amount of rats and mice in the wild. If snakes were eliminated we would be knee deep in wild (disease carrying) rodents within a year... eek!

I don't like snakes, but I love king snakes. They are my "friends". I was once bitten by a snake, and it is not fun! For years I still had the black little scars from holes where the fangs went it. I wish we had had several king snakes living close by at the time, and maybe they would have eaten the one that bit me. We found one about a year later, in the same area. The only bad thing about them is that they will eat the baby birds out of their nests. But they get rid of a lot of rodents, and that is good :) I specially love the picture! You made my day!

Beautiful snake! I love snakes, although they do startle me sometimes. Luckily I don't live in an area with poisonous snakes, because I'm always in the woods in my sandals & shorts, I would have been dead long ago in rattler country. Not sure why people are afraid of snakes, it's not like it could eat you, unless it's one of those Anacondas in the Amazon. I had the privilege of meeting a Python once, about 80 lbs and a head the size of my hand. When it raised up and looked me in the eye, I was in love. Can't abide that they have to eat live prey, however, ikkk. And their skin feels like a string of warm pearls. Oh, well, now everybody will be sick, I suppose, LOL. Wake up with a snake in your sleeping bag once, it's good shock therapy, especially when you're a kid, hee hee hee. Don't ban me from the forum now, gals, just because I don't mind snakes, hee hee hee. Marji

4 comments

by stitchship 26 Aug 2008

It is not just the Rattlers, but the Copperheads, and the Water Moccasins (aka: Cottonmouths), that you have to be careful of when you live in venemous snake areas (in the USA). In Fla, the Coral Snake are ones to watch for.

by katydid 26 Aug 2008

You are sick, but we love you any way!!!

by jrob 26 Aug 2008

My daughter brought home a boa from college that lived with me for a year. I don't mind them at all, better to have a snake than mice, but I refused to feed it a live mouse.

by silver 29 Aug 2008

Actually 'pet' snakes can thrive on food that is Not alive.. Even Pet Smart sells 'Arctic Mice' (frozen ones) for that reason

The next time I see a snake I'll email you so that you can come here and take a picture. lol *4a

2 comments

by jrob 26 Aug 2008

I'd love to.;)

by silver 29 Aug 2008

me too....... :)

Unless it's a rattlesnake, I say leave it alone...keeps the mice population down too. :o) Dont kwow if I would have gotten that close to snap that picture tho'. lol

Cos you'll make the Queen snake mad! LOL!

1 comment

by jrob 26 Aug 2008

EXACTLY!!!!!!

I believe in what the Bible says in Genesis 3:15..."I will put enmity between thee & the woman and between thy seed & her seed..." Yeah, I'm taking it out of context, but I still hate snakes! We don't kill the black snakes, but I sure hope they stay away from me! Guess the picture of it eating the rattler proves they are "good" snakes?

Hope he enjoyed his meal, we have brown, tiger & red bellied black snakes here, which are all very scary, tiger killed my blue healer dog so do not like snakes.

1 comment

by katydid 25 Aug 2008

Me either!!

oh my was that in your yard?

Because they kill the bad snakes, Kings r not poisonous. they get pretty big & any snake is scary to me, but I grew up respecting them . Diamond backs, moccasins we had to watch for when we went Black berry & plum picking, but if we saw a King we knew we were ok. *

2 comments

by mariahail 25 Aug 2008

Oh, honey if I ever go to a place like that I will be wearing a full armor,from head to toe, I do not like snakes at all, my grandson had a pet snake, and let me tell you I was glad the day that ugly thing died. My GD likes snakes also....

by katydid 25 Aug 2008

Amen!!

jrob, I run to the house when a gardner snake comes in our yard! hee hee

1 comment

by silver 29 Aug 2008

Did ya know... in human beings fear of snakes is a taught thing...it is not instinctual..

Um cuz they eat the bad snakes? I know when we lived in GA you never killed the black snakes cuz they could kill the rattlers.

That is the last of a RattleSnake he is eating!;)

1 images:[1]

6 comments

by katydid 25 Aug 2008

I have a compost pile that I refuse to lift up and turn over because of snakes. did you make this photo? My knees get week just looking at it.

by grannyo 26 Aug 2008

Seeing him devour my enemy doesn't make him my friend. I have to be around someone that knows snakes before I can feel at ease. I do like the slick feeling of a snake. So, I'm not totally against them. I just don't trust them without someone I trust to tell me, "It's OK." :-)

by stitchship 26 Aug 2008

Hurray! Go for it! I hope it finds a lot more! I feel like saying Bon appétit!

by celticlady1031 26 Aug 2008

Oh geeze! Katy I never thought of the compost bin!

by silver 29 Aug 2008

You are very smart GrannyO...No One should ever touch a snake you cannot identify.... Many people get bit when they assume a snake is safe and also people often kill snakes they think are dangerous (like poor harmless Gopher Snakes)... Kudos for you! :)

by stitchship 29 Aug 2008

That happened to someone's daughter back in Georgia. She had been taught to pick up garter snakes and any nonvenomous ones, and one day she picked up a rattler. She got stung, and was very sick. She was just a little girl back then.