I'm the smartest one in the room - the non-shop, non-business sub forum chat thread

You talking smack about our vermin devouring nope ropes and water puppies??? I joke of course. In all honesty I've lived most of my life in the Florida and Georgia and never had a problem with either one. The only gator issues I've heard of are messing about near a nest and momma comes over to say high and take a foot.
 
I probably shouldn't sound so dismissive of them. The venomous snakes do tend to be more scared of people and slither away given the chance. Or they put all their faith in their camo and someone steps on them. Which go figure they then bite you. The same as any animal that gets stepped on is likely to bite you. But it all the years of trekking the woods I've managed to avoid them just fine. And the gators, thank you Hollywierd for educating everyone on how gators are the biggest man eaters. They are NOT. Do they occasionally kill people, sadly yes. But if you read up on it you find way too many times it's people messing with them in the first place. They don't look at people and think food. You can look up a steady flow of pics with people swimming in gator infested waters and they are all just fine.

If people really want something to be scared of that's all across the lower half of the US it's the wild hogs. They will mess you up. They are not scared of people, they can take some severe damage from a firearm and still charge at you, and they are EVERYWHERE. And there are complete idiots out there that feed them despite all the damage they do to the EVERYTHING. It has made my skin crawl sitting in a tree stand to have a hog sniff me out and make their teeth gnashing chomp chomp noise. Their teeth/tusks whatever they are that can cut you wide open. And they can ruin hunting dogs in a hurry. I used to camp with a .44 magnum and had a friend joke with me about being scared of the boogey man. Nope. Hogs.
 
A case for legalizing automatics right there.
 
When I was growing up in Georgia the Cottonmouths and Copperheads were thick. You could find the occasional Timber rattler or King snake, but 80-90 percent of the time it was Copperhead or Mocassin. There were times you couldn't go 20 yards in the back swamp without stumbling across one. I hated snakes back then, but I really, really hate them more now. which is strange...since they have not been near me in many decades. Like everyone fromthe South has there snake and haint stories, I too had my close calls, but never got bitten. A few years back I was mowing the lawn when I spotted a 3 fool long section of brown rope my daughter had been playing with. I jumped about three feet high and six feet out while screaming like a little girl. I was proud of my reflexes...Not too bad for what was at the time 280 pounds of me. Not so proud of the effeminates scream...

I've never had to deal with alligators where I grew up, but I do distrust them more based on sheer looks. Mighty judgmental of me, I know... Hogs were not a thing in that part of Georgia at the time, but from what I'm told they sure are now. In the meantime here in Alaska, it remains perfectly reasonable to call in to work or school and tell them you'll be late because there is a moose or bear in the yard. I have one co-worker who had her car totaled by a moose while parked in her yard. Something about her compact car apparently made the moose really, really angry...

I've had plenty of nuisance moose That's a yearly occurrence. I can usually wait them out and hope to see them in the Fall. I've only had to haze one that was trying to stomp the dogs. I was fortunate enough to have a handful of rubber slugs and buckshot. That saved me from the trouble of using lethal force, cleaning it myself, and donating the meat to someone else. I forget whether there was a list of individuals at that time, or charity...? Of course, I realize it's unreasonable to have a phobia regarding snakes, and think nothing of animals five times your size that can literally maul you to death. But...what can I say? Life is unreasonable...
 
There was a "US steels" thread and a Canadian was lamenting they (Canadians) would have to be paying more for US made steel with the proposed tariffs. I do NOT want this to come across as poking at, throwing shade, making fun, or anything else, but this is what happens when in the name of environmentalism you close down production industries. And the US has been no different with our outsourcing much of our manufacturing. I also can't help but at least mention that the majority of the countries where the manufacturing moves to either don't care or don't bother with any of the environmental impact but that's a whole different conversation. I don't know much of Canadian history but I've read about some good inventions and manufacturing used to be commonplace there. But fast forward to today and yes, it's too bad they will have to pay that much more for something they probably used to make themselves. And if the US doesn't do some coarse correction we could have the same fate. I'll get off my soapbox now.
 
I wonder why it's always rattlesnake? I mean...Copperheads have a kinda cool pattern....Coral snakes...Some folks might even like the color of water mocassin.

And that's for eating too. Lotsa people think rattlesnake is good eating, but a big fat copperhead is untried?

I did read once about some Cajuns eating water mocassin, and saying it had a muddy taste...I could believe that. But what about the others?
 
While killing some time on break I decided to check out Amazon. I realized my top three search terms are:

KNIFE
FLASHLIGHT
TARP

I don't know of anybody in my life that has disappeared under mysterious or violent circumstances, but should I have a pot of coffee ready for the investigator, just in case?
 
This is 100% guessing but I'd say you see mostly all if not all rattlesnake for boots and whatever else because I'm betting they are easy to farm. Most snakes can't be kept in any proximity to each other or eventually you will only have one snake. But I've seen piles of rattlesnakes on top of each other getting along just fine. Add to that they seem to get to a decent size while I've never seen a coral snake or milk snake near as big. Add to all that rattlesnake has that distinct texture that most snakes don't have. As in I've seen blood python leather products but their scales don't have that sort of overlapping dragon scale look that rattlesnakes have. And this is extreme guessing but of all the venomous snakes that would work I'd think copperhead and then rattlesnake would be the most desired to raise as their venom sucks but isn't the death sentence many are.
 
I was curious, so I plugged your post into Perplexity M Maximumbob54 and I learned something new today thanks to you!

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Once again putting on my not an expert hat. I had ignored the various rattlesnake roundups done but that would for sure be a major source. Every good rainfall in a more arid region means the various grasses and vegetation bloom like crazy creating a vermin breeding craze. Go figure the vermin eating machines kick into high gear breeding as well. Suddenly the rains are over for the season and the snakes eat the bulk of the vermin. Now you have that apex predator on the hunt moving to where ever they can find more vermin chow. People create garbage, vermin loves garbage, snakes lover the vermin, people have to do yet another rattlesnake round up. So they happen fairly often.

"Snakes used in leather production include spectacled caimans (THAT'S A CROCODILIAN NOT A SNAKE), reticulated pythons, oriental rat snakes, and Asian monitor lizards (WHY LIST A LIZARD IN A STATEMENT ABOUT SNAKES???)

Very correct the texture mentioned isn't unique to rattlesnakes but I don't know of another commonly farmed or collected snake that has the same scale effect. Add to that they are keeled scales which gives each scale a ridge down the center. When you see then undulating writhing on the ground the noise you hear isn't just the rattle, the keeled scales make as much or more noise as the rattle. Some non venomous snakes mimic this keeled scale noise (there's probably a word for it) but a lot of snakes will still "rattle" their tail even if it doesn't make the noise. I shouldn't find it so funny but a bull snake will put on a great display of tail shaking while making the scale rubbing noise and puffing up hissing at you. And while I super wouldn't recommend it, I've seen people just reach down and pick them up. They usually keep at it trying to scare you. I've used a snake hook because I don't like being bit even by non venomous snakes.

The usual statemen I hear is the only good snake is a dead snake which I don't care for but to each their own I guess. I prefer to think of them as free vermin eradication. If I don't want them around I think about what's drawing in the vermin they are there to eat. Do I have mice or rats living in an old wood pile or eating off some plants? Are they eating frogs because I have poor drainage around my house? Root out why the snakes are the in the first place and they will have no reason to be there. Foam fill holes or cracks, clear areas snakes or vermin would be around your house, channel rain away with gutters or whatever. Then you will likely never or hardly ever see a snake around again.

AI is weird though in what data it taps into for these answers. It's getting better but you still sometimes get nonsense like asking why the sky is blue to get the answer because that's how the human eye perceives it. That kind of answer reminds me of my ex asking for something from her purse. Where's your purse. In the living room. Where in the living room? Under the pillows on the corner of the sofa...

And yes, I'm more than a bit biased because I find them fascinating and have kept a few over the years. Far from an expert.
 
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