It was a snake.....and it did bite me.

[Rube Burrows]

You know the old saying ......"if it was a snake it would have bit me".....well this was a snake and it did bit me.


I was measuring a house for an Appraisal. I was pulling the tape along the back wall of the home when all of the sudden I felt like I stepped on a water hose. As I felt the "hose" under my foot I felt the strike on my pants leg and my heard sank. I knew at that instance it was a snake and I was almost too scared to look down. I did look down and seen one of many people's worst fears. A black snake under my shoe with a mouth full of my jeans. Again my heart sank even further but I was quickly relieved to see that it was not a cottonmouth or anything. Thank the good Lord cause I would have been a goner.

All of that happened in a split second but it seemed like much time had passed.

I shook him off my leg and he just stayed near the side of the house. I took some pictures of it and then it quickly turned around and made his way to the vacant lot next door in the tall grass.

It was about 5' long or pretty close to it.

[gamekeeper]

Wow, I would have required fresh underwear. Was it a King snake?

[Rube Burrows]

Wow, I would have required fresh underwear. Was it a King snake?

It was a black racer. That is what we have always called them down here.


http://www.uga.edu/srelherp/snakes/colcon.htm

[gamekeeper]

Just found this info. sounds like a nasty piece of work!!

The Southern Black Racer is an excellent swimmer and climber, and is aptly named because it has incredible speed and is very difficult to capture. When cornered it will fight—its tiny sharp teeth can deliver a painful but nonvenomous bite. Escape is its best defense, but the animal has been known to occasionally turn and pursue humans or other potentially threatening animals that have ceased their own pursuits. Like many other species, the Black Racer will vibrate its tail in dry leaves and grass and the resulting sound is reminiscent of the noise made by a Rattlesnake. The snake favors wooded areas, brush and thickets although it is also commonly seen in suburban yards. While hunting it can travel at good speed even with its head elevated well off the ground.[2]

[pwl44m]

I stepped over 3 Baby Rattlers once and My Wife heard Me yell from 100 yards away & She was in the House.
Close encounters with the slinky kind I don't Like.

[Rube Burrows]

Just found this info. sounds like a nasty piece of work!!

The Southern Black Racer is an excellent swimmer and climber, and is aptly named because it has incredible speed and is very difficult to capture. When cornered it will fight—its tiny sharp teeth can deliver a painful but nonvenomous bite. Escape is its best defense, but the animal has been known to occasionally turn and pursue humans or other potentially threatening animals that have ceased their own pursuits. Like many other species, the Black Racer will vibrate its tail in dry leaves and grass and the resulting sound is reminiscent of the noise made by a Rattlesnake. The snake favors wooded areas, brush and thickets although it is also commonly seen in suburban yards. While hunting it can travel at good speed even with its head elevated well off the ground.[2]

Well he didnt waste any time striking me......although I cant say that I blame him since my foot was about a foot from his head on top of him.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

We see a lot of those down here in Florida. They are surprisingly fast and will turn on you instead of hauling off at times. Of course, with your boot on his neck, he didn't really have much of a choice as to what action to take.

[Rube Burrows]

We see a lot of those down here in Florida. They are surprisingly fast and will turn on you instead of hauling off at times. Of course, with your boot on his neck, he didn't really have much of a choice as to what action to take.

Yeah, like I said.....I cant blame him since I was standing on him. lol

[pwl44m]

So did that have any affect on the Appraisal ? Add or Detract

[Rube Burrows]

So did that have any affect on the Appraisal ? Add or Detract

lol.....nope.

[bdhold]

Indigo snake and yes, they eat baby rattlers

[Bullet Bob]

Wakes a body right up, doesn't it?!?

Now the question is how long do you look carefully before forgetting to do so again! I say, maybe eight months. Just human nature.

I still prefer them to ticks though.

[olyinaz]

Last time I saw a black racer was when I was eating one somewhere out on Ft. Bragg! (They're not tasty.)

Oly

[Pitchy]

Ya can have all them dern snakes, all we have is garden snakes and not many of them, glad your ok though.

[Sixgun]

Whoa! I'm with Game Keeper on this one. There's just something about spiders and snakes that sends the heart racing. Good thing that bugger didn't decide to enter the bottom of your pants and race upward. That would be a show to see. (I've had yellow jackets do just that)

Having never been bitten by any kind of a snake, what did you do for first aid? I hear the bite can still become infected if not cleaned out properly.

Neat pics too --------------Sixgun

[FWiedner]

I picked one of those up one time and cut off it's head with my pocket knife. Kept the last 5 or 6 inches of it's tail for years.

I had no idea that they bite.

Ya learn somenting new every day...

[pharmseller]

Don't Tread on Me

P

[bdhold]

all snakes bite if you step on them - it's the only defense they have.

Some people like feral cats - I happen to like snakes and think randomly killing them - especially an indigo snake - is wrong. A rattler near my house? Yes, I would kill it.

[AJMD429]

I used to keep 'pet' copperheads in a two-compartment cage I made (so you could slip in the divider and clean or put food/water in whatever side the snakes weren't in). I did it specifically because we had so many friends and neighbors who killed every snake they saw, saying "I think it might have been a copperhead!"

Telling a copperhead from any other Indiana snake is about as 'difficult' as telling a flintlock from a belt-fed machine gun, with the only snake even halfway close in appearance being a northern water snake, which is still rather easy to tell from a copperhead. I got so tired of seeing beneficial, harmless, snakes like milk snakes, king snakes, black rat snakes, corn snakes, ribbon snakes, garter snakes, and even one time a ringneck snake smashed and cut to pieces just because folks didn't know what kind they were, so the 'exhibit' was always something we'd show visitors and new neighbors, so they'd know what copperheads actually looked like.

Even with copperheads, we just usually relocated them away from the house instead of killing them, although for those uncomfortable handling snakes, I can understand killing a venomous variety rather than relocating it.

One interesting thing about copperheads is that the mid-20th Century authority on snakes, a guy named Ditmars, who authored practically all herpetology references, said unequivocally that "unlike other snakes, copperheads never drink from stream or bowl". On numerous occassions I saw that to be clearly false, as I watched mine drink from a water bowl just like other snakes do.

[bdhold]

I just picked up a 10" black-necked garter snake in my front yard, showed it to my daughter, then we released it.

[Bullard4075]

We had them as pets when I was a kid growing up in Florida.

We just called them Black Snakes.

[Rube Burrows]

Wakes a body right up, doesn't it?!?

Now the question is how long do you look carefully before forgetting to do so again! I say, maybe eight months. Just human nature.

I still prefer them to ticks though.

It will prob. be longer than that. I am usually pretty careful. I hate things that sting or bite. I watch for and will run from a wasp like nobody's business. Im allergic and this time of year in Louisiana everything will bite or sting you.

[Rube Burrows]

Whoa! I'm with Game Keeper on this one. There's just something about spiders and snakes that sends the heart racing. Good thing that bugger didn't decide to enter the bottom of your pants and race upward. That would be a show to see. (I've had yellow jackets do just that)

Having never been bitten by any kind of a snake, what did you do for first aid? I hear the bite can still become infected if not cleaned out properly.

Neat pics too --------------Sixgun

Well in this case the snake didnt really get much if any of me. Mostly my pants leg. I felt him hit me.....pretty hard actually and that is why I was scared to look down. I knew at that point it was a snake and I was so afraid when I looked down it was going to be a moccasin or something. One of those things......"if I dont look it wont hurt" haha.

[gak]

Sorry for the startle, but if black racers are anything like our red racers in Az, they'll kill rattlers--maybe cottonmouths too in your case? Our bull and California kings are also great anti rattler medicine...and will do rodent duty too of course..so no "need" for the fanged ones at all, thanks.

[.Dirty-.Thirty]

Hey Rube, watch yer step .DT

Heard a tale of beans cooked over an open fire in the fireplace, a black snake, unskinned and not gutted is hung above the beans and allowed to drip in, supposed to be mighty tasty. If thats cowboy cuisine, it haint fer me!! .DT

[claybob86]

One of those actually chased me for a short distance once when I was a kid, but I managed to escape with my life!

[Stan in SC]

I discovered a 2 footer yesterday in one of the compartments of my bird house out back.I guess he was hunting either hatchling birds or eggs.I quickly convinced him that was no place for a self respecting reptile to be.

Stan in SC

[kimwcook]

Really glad it wasn't a venomous snake. I caught a black snake about five feet long when I was stationed at Camp Wilson in North Carolina. It had a hog type nose. I saw it crawling into a barracks on the way back to my barracks from chow. I caught it and no one could tell me what kind of snake it was. Didn't have anything like that in Washington State. Still don't know what kind of snake it was. Took it to the end of the camp and let it go.

[Rube Burrows]

This one perhaps?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hognose


or maybe

http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/ehognos.htm

[jeepnik]

My last close encounter had the potential to turn out much worse. I almost stepped on this.

[kimwcook]

Rube, I think it was the Eastern Hognose in the black phase. All I can remember, it was 35 years ago, it was all black (best I recall) and about 3-4' long. Didn't give it a chance to bite me as I didn't know if it was venomous or not. I've played with a few rattlers and I'm extremely cautious when I handle them. Quite the rush.

[Triggernosis]

Believe it or not, black racers can be rather dangerous as they can cause a fella to run into schit and hurt himself.....

[getitdone1]

Copperheads, supposedly, not drinking from a bowel reminds me of reading that groundhogs don't climb trees.

I shot one out of a tree. Small tree, groundhog was about 15 feet off the ground. Marlin model 39 Mountie.

Very few groundhogs in this area now. My guess--coyotes got'em. How the slow moving possums continue to exist, I don't know.

Don

[Ysabel Kid]

Several years back I was sitting at my desk one afternoon when the wife starts screaming about a "big snake". Now to her, anything the size of a fat earthworm is a "big snake", so I expected to go outside and find a small garter or something along those lines. We do have copperheads in the area though, so I figured I'd best investigate. For once she was spot on. It was a Black Racer, and the thing was crossing our street coming into our yard. The darn thing extended almost the full width of the road - it was the largest one I'd ever seen.

Now, I know these things eat copperheads and other poisonous snakes, so I decided I was going to relocate it to the back of our yard. Mr. snake though wasn't in a cooperative mood, and coiled up when I approached. I've handled snakes before without incident, and figured I had watched Steve Erwin handle enough of them (this was before he died), so grabed a small plastic rake, pinned the snake's head down, and then grabbed him behind the head.

Proud of myself for my ingenuity (and showing off a bit to my wife and the kids), I released the rake. Only problem was that I wasn't holding Mr. snake close enough to his head. He turned around and bit right into my hand, at the web between the thumb and pointing finger, nicking a vein. Blood spurted everywhere, and pandomium ensued. The wife is screaming, the kids are running around crying, and the darn snake was making a getaway! I caught up with him and grabbed him correctly this time, and relocated him to the back yard. Then I went to clean out the bite thoroughly. No ill effects, though my hand was pretty sore for several days.

After all that trouble, my neighbor goes and kills the snake the next day when he found it in his yard!