Bitten by Snakes or Snapping Turtles while Swimming?

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 11:11:40 -0700, jmcgill wrote:

Don Freeman wrote:
"Rodney Long" wrote in message
...
One day I was canoeing and a big Cotton Mouth was just 20 feet away on the
bank, I pulled out the trusted 22 automatic pistol to dispatch it.

Reason being?

Being out with the pistol, he was itching to shoot it at something.

"It's coming right at us!" ;-)

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 16:32:51 -0500, Rodney Long
typed furiously:

TOliver wrote:



Snakes and turtles are desperately people-shy. Most ponds can be "safed"
for routine swimming by arriving with a lot of noise,

Contrary to popular belief

Snakes "can't" hear, noise is a worthless means of trying to run them off

Look it up, they have no ears, or means of detecting sound, they can
feel vibrations, but not at the sound levels.

One day I was canoeing and a big Cotton Mouth was just 20 feet away on
the bank, I pulled out the trusted 22 automatic pistol to dispatch it.
The trouble was my wife was squirming and rocking the canoe, I missed 6
times, that snake never moved,( the sound of the 22 going off did not
even wake it up) until I finally hit it, then it moved, but just for a
couple of seconds :-)

Don't try that in Australia. All snakes are protected here.
--
Regards
David Simpson
"Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him
without an erection, make him a sandwich."
- Someone on soc.sexuality.general

David Simpson wrote:


Don't try that in Australia. All snakes are protected here.

I understand that the animals have more rights than people down there,
no law against a snake or crock, killing a man, or even a small child.

How many people a year down there die to snakes, and crocks ?

Every snake in the world is not worth the life of one of my grand children.

I also understand that a gang of thugs can beat you to death, or rape
your daughter, and they won't let you have a gun to protect yourself, or
her, if you do have one and use it to save your life, they put you in jail.

No thanks, I'll stay here, you can have all those poisonous snakes in
your yards, and let them bite your kids, instead of killing them before
it happens.

Do you protect your spiders as well ? WHy not ? How about roaches,
flies, ants, and mosquitos


--
Rodney Long,
Inventor of the Mojo SpecTastic "WIGGLE" rig, SpecTastic Thread,
Boomerang Fishing Pro. ,Stand Out Hooks ,Stand Out Lures,
Mojo's Rock Hopper & Rig Saver weights, and the EZKnot
http://www.ezknot.com

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 21:55:00 -0500, Rodney Long
typed furiously:

David Simpson wrote:


Don't try that in Australia. All snakes are protected here.

I understand that the animals have more rights than people down there,
no law against a snake or crock, killing a man, or even a small child.

We do enact a death penalty if needed. Relocation usually does the
trick.

How many people a year down there die to snakes, and crocks ?

Snakes? About one every few years in spite of the fact that we have
the deadliest species on the planet and the greatest number of
venomous species.

Crocs? Maybe one or two a year. Some people are stupid enough to swim,
or play, where the croc can get at them. Crocs are extremely fast on
land ... for a very short distance.

Every snake in the world is not worth the life of one of my grand children.

So! Keep the kids away and keep them in boots. The snakes feel the
vibrations and depart for parts unknown at great speed.

I also understand that a gang of thugs can beat you to death, or rape
your daughter, and they won't let you have a gun to protect yourself, or
her, if you do have one and use it to save your life, they put you in jail.

Never needed a gun even though I can shoot with reasonable accuracy.
My average was over 90% when I was shooting,

I know only _one_ person who was raped and another who was subjected
to an attempted home invasion. Those sorts of crimes are rare enough
to merit front page stories when they do occur and they occur weeks
apart. Unlike the US, where they merely report how many murders
occurred that day, we can go for weeks between murders, mainly because
of the lack of the coward's weapon, a gun.

Gangs of thugs, thankfully, are rare and mostly controlled by the
police. Comes from having a vibrant economy and a good social security
system, although the latter does drive up taxes.

No thanks, I'll stay here, you can have all those poisonous snakes in
your yards, and let them bite your kids, instead of killing them before
it happens.

And I'll stay here and not be worried that I'm going to be killed by a
stray bullet falling out of the clear blue sky or that my front door
is going to be kicked in by some stranger who wants money for his drug
dependency.

Do you protect your spiders as well ? WHy not ? How about roaches,
flies, ants, and mosquitos

Some spiders, yes. It depends on how rare they are and if they are
native to Australia. I don't know of anyone who has been prosecuted
for killing a spider though. That would make the front page here.
--
Regards
David Simpson
"Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him
without an erection, make him a sandwich."
- Someone on soc.sexuality.general

David Simpson wrote:

Don't try that in Australia. All snakes are protected here.

I wonder how much good that does to the average Brown Snake that
wanders into an Outback kitchen.

"Jared" wrote:

David Simpson wrote:
Don't try that in Australia. All snakes are protected here.

I wonder how much good that does to the average Brown Snake that
wanders into an Outback kitchen.

Outbacks are in the China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines,
Guam Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UK, Brazil, Venezuela,
Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, USA, Bahamas, and Dominican Republic which
are not under Australian law.

There are two in Australia also but they don't have a "Brown Snake" but
do have the Brown Tree Snake and the Slate-Brown Snake in addition to
those two snakes they have the Children's Python, spotted Python, Pygmy
Python, Stimson's Python, Black-headed Python, Woma, D'alberti's Python,
Water Python, Western Olive Python, Olive Python, Australian Scrub
Python, Centralian Carpet Python, Rough-scaled Python, Oenpelli Rock
Python, Jungle Carpet python, Southwestern Carpet Python, Coastal Carpet
Python, Inland Carpet Python, Diamond Python, Northwestern Carpet
Python, Green Tree Python, Brown Tree Snake, Bockadam, Northern Tree
Snake, Common Tree Snake, Macleay's Water Snake, White-Bellied Mangrove
Snake, Wolf Snake, Richardson's Mangrove Snake, Slate-Grey Snake,
Slate-BrownSnake, Keelback or Freshwater Snake, Children's Python,
spotted Python, Pygmy Python, Stimson's Python, Black-headed Python,
Woma, D'alberti's Python, Water Python, Western Olive Python, Olive
Python, Australian Scrub Python, Centralian Carpet Python, Rough-scaled
Python, Oenpelli Rock Python, Jungle Carpet python, Southwestern Carpet
Python, Coastal Carpet Python, Inland Carpet Python, Diamond Python,
Northwestern Carpet Python, Green Tree Python, Brown Tree Snake,
Bockadam, Northern Tree Snake, Common Tree Snake, Macleay's Water Snake,
White-Bellied Mangrove Snake, Wolf Snake, Richardson's Mangrove Snake,
Slate-Grey Snake, Slate-BrownSnake, Keelback or Freshwater Snake, Common
Death Adder, Northern Death Adder, Desert Death Adder, Pigmy Copperhead,
Highlands Copperhead, Lowlands copperhead, Northern Dwarf Crowned Snake,
White-Crowned Snake, Dwarf Crowned Snake, Golden Crowned Snake, Lesser
Black Whip Snake, Black-Necked Whipsnake, Olive Whip Snake, Greater
Black (Papuan)Whip Snake, Yellow-Faced Whipsnake, Desert Whipsnake, Grey
Whip Snake, Collared Whip Snake, De Vis Banded Snake, Ornamental Snake,
Crowned Snake, White-Lipped Snake, Masters' Snake, Mustard Bellied
Snake, Lake Cronin Snake, Bardick, Little Brown Snake, Red-naped Snake,
Orange-naped Snake, Yellow-naped Snake, Dunmall's Snake, Brown-headed
Snake, Grey Snake, Black-bellied Swamp or Marsh Snake, Pale-headed
Snake, Broad-headed Snake, Stephens' Banded Snake, Krefft's Black Tiger
Snake, Tasmanian Tiger Snake, Peninsula Black Tiger Snake, Chappel
Island Tiger Snake, Western Tiger Snake, Eastern or Mainland Tiger
Snake, Inland Taipan, Taipan, False King Brown Snake, King Brown or
Mulga Snake, Butler's Snake, Collett's Snake, Blue-bellied or Spotted
Black Snake, Red-bellied Black Snake, Dugite, Speckled Brown Snake,
Peninsula Brown Snake, Ingram's Brown Snake, Ringed Brown Snake, Western
Brown Snake or Gwarder, Common or Eastern Brown Snake, Muller's Snake,
Carpentaria Whip Snake, Eastern Small-eyed Snake, Black-striped Snake,
Nullarbor Hooded Snake, Northern (Western) Small-eyed Snake, Northern
Desert Banded Snake, North-western Shovel-nosed Snake, Australian Coral
Snake, Desert Banded Snake, Western Black-naped Snake, Western
Black-striped Snake, Narrow-banded Burrowing Snake, Unbanded
Shovel-nosed Snake, Coastal Burrowing Snake, Dampierland Burrowing
Snake, Half-girdled Snake, Northern Shovel Nosed Snake, Half-girdled
Snake, Robust Burrowing Snake, Cape York Shovel-nosed Snake, Rosen's
Snake, Little Whip Snake, Black-headed Snake, Hooded Snake, Mallee
Black-backed Snake, Ord Curl Snake, Little Spotted Snake, Spectacled
Hooded Snake, Dwyer's Snake, Myall or Curl Snake, Rough-scaled Snake,
Bandy Bandy, Northern Bandy Bandy, Small-headed Blind Snake, Southern
Blind Snake, Blind Snake, Prong-snouted Blind Snake, Flowerpot Blind
Snake, Faint-striped Blind Snake, Centralian Blind Snake, Blind Snake,
Northern Blind Snake, Interior Blind Snake, Christmas Island Blind
Snake, Long-beaked Blind Snake, Top End Blind Snake, Pale-headed Blind
Snake, Kimberly Deep-soil Blind Snake, Kimberley Shallow-soil Blind
Snake, Murchison Blind Snake, Cape York Blind Snake, Robust Blind Snake,
Buff-snouted Blind Snake, Small-eyed Blind Snake, Groote Dwarf Blind
Snake, Blackish Blind Snake, Rotund Blind Snake, North-eastern Blind
Snake, Proximus Blind Snake, Blind Snake, Darwin Blind Snake, Sandamara
Blind Snake, Claw-snouted Blind Snake, Beaked Blind Snake, Brown-snouted
Blind Snake, Yampi Blind Snake, Yirrkala Blind Snake, Horned Sea Snake,
Short-nosed Sea Snake , Reef Shallows or Dubois's Sea Snake,
Stagger-banded or Spine-tailed Sea Snake, Leaf-scaled Sea Snake, Dusky
Sea Snake, Golden or Olive Sea Snake, Brown-lined Sea Snake, Stokes's
Sea Snake, Spectacled Sea Snake, Olive-headed Sea Snake, Turtle-headed
Sea Snake, Beaked Sea Snake, North-western Mangrove Sea Snake,
Black-ringed Mangrove Sea Snake, Black-headed Sea Snake, Sea Snake,
Dwarf Sea Snake, Slender-necked Sea Snake, Fine-spined Sea Snake,
Elegant Sea Snake, Geometrical Sea Snake, Slender Sea Snake, Plain Sea
Snake, Small-headed Sea Snake, Sea Snake, Black-banded Robust Sea Snake,
Sea Snake, Large-headed Sea Snake, Sea Snake, Spine-bellied Sea Snake,
Norther Mangrove Sea Snake, Yellow-bellied Sea Snake, Wide-faced Sea
Krait, Large Scaled Sea Krait, Arafura File Snake, and Little File Snake
which are all endemic. They also have others in captivity.

When walking in a forest in Australia and being careful not to step on a
snake, it is unnerving to look up and see a snake hanging from a tree
over your head. When I was describing a snake a saw climbing a tree and
asking if it was poisonous, they told me "they all are poisonous."

I don't see why one would want to shoot one of these snakes. That might
make its friends a little mad. Nothing is worse than a mad snake.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

Jared proclaimed:

David Simpson wrote:

Don't try that in Australia. All snakes are protected here.


I wonder how much good that does to the average Brown Snake that
wanders into an Outback kitchen.

Depends on whether they already have enough sushi for the evening dinner
crowd. [1]

[1] Ob TWiaVBP... Outback is a rather generic chain of steakhouses where
at less the couple I've eaten at appear to be serving geriatric kangaroo
disguised as steak. The Bloomin Onion isn't too bad.

"TOliver" wrote in
:

Snakes and turtles are desperately people-shy. Most ponds
can be "safed" for routine swimming by arriving with a lot
of noise, carrying on and popping beer cans, the mild
screams of dates in insufficiently sized bathing wear being
groped, etc., but wise swimmers have been known to cut a
branch with which to beat the water before entering,
sending snappers and snakes a'flying.


When young, I had occasion to play in a lo cal creek and small
pond (really an old over-flow depression, slightly dammed up
to make a watering hole for larger farm animals, back when
there was a farm there) bordering several neighbors' yards and
mine, and an old 'pig waller' where we kept various carp, too
pretty to plant with the corn, caught out by a damn some miles
away. We had snappers, large-ish and small, in all three
watery places.

By the pig waller lived one old and ornery snapper, easily the
size of a volkswagon tire, which took to eating our pretty
fishies. That snapper would lurk on the edges of the waller,
looking like an old and mossy rock. Several times he was trod
upon by unwary or inattentive youths, and turned a neat trick
of lifting his backside while bending his head and neck up and
back, to catch the unsuspecting prize for supper. No matter
that the child was too large to consume - a good chunk of a
foot would have removed, enough for a good snapper snack.

In the creek bed lived another large snapper, prone to the
same trick, which we dug out one summer (my sis and I,
reminiscing about our sordid childhood while on vacation the
week before last, agreed that the official reason lay with a
neighbor's youngest child being just of an age to wander into
the creek but not understand about rocks that are really big
hungry snappers - the real reason was, well, 'cause it was
there) with some assistance from a parental unit once the
snapper was freed from its rocky and muddy embrace. I believe
the snapper was consumed for supper by the family of the
parental unit who attended the undertaking.

An old snapper, lazy and embedded in a snug mud-hole or rocky
stream bed, will not flee. It will just wait for something to
happen by, and, be it fish, stick or foot, will bite what it
can reach, in hope of a meal or morsel.

--
TeaLady (mari)

"The principle of Race is meant to embody and express the
utter negation of human freedom, the denial of equal rights, a
challenge in the face of mankind." A. Kolnai
Avast ye scurvy dogs ! Thar be no disease in this message.

An old snapper, lazy and embedded in a snug mud-hole or rocky
stream bed, will not flee. It will just wait for something to
happen by, and, be it fish, stick or foot, will bite what it
can reach, in hope of a meal or morsel.

--
And they are certainly fearless, and they are certainly not slow. Long
necks, too.

Several years ago, I came upon a rather large snapper taking a lazy stroll
across our street and decided I should help him get to the other side before
a driver less cautious than myself nailed him. It was a fairly easy process.
I just waved a stick in front of his face, and then used the stick to drag
him to safety. The neighbors still wonder why they never see me swimming in
the lake.