Corpusfishing.com

FlakMan · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:58 pm Post subject: Snake Warning

Our dalmation was hit on the nose my a posionous snake of unknown type this past Sunday. She got hit by one fang in the nose. She survived after a few hours near death and is now starting to heal. We live in Northshore in Portland near the bay. Recently developers have cleared brush and mowed a field next door that runs all the way to the bay prior to starting construction.

One problem they did not cut down the high weeds directly behind our fences that back to this field. Looks like to was the best remaining habitatant for small animals and the larger snakes that feed on them.

We arranged for our yard guy to mow the weeds down from behind our fence and asked our neigbhors if they wanted it done too and found some troubling information yesterday. In past week, one lab has died when it was hit twice in the chest and one golden hit in the nose survived. One child had a near miss with a "large snake" that slipped under the fence before any adult got a good look. No rattling has been heard, I'm think we are dealing with displaced water moccsins or large copperheads .

Tomorrow, we are cutting down the weeds and killing some snakes!

Tyler · Site Admin Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 12865

Yikes sorry to hear about Miss Abby! Thanks for the update. You might not want to put that snake info on your flyer to sell the house Laughing

Bennett_Taz · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 1:17 pm Post subject:

yes i also live in northshore, i normally wade fish back in the bay out there, but i have seen too many snake heads floating above the water surface, now i wade at bird island quite often but i think it is water moccsins coming from the sherwin alumina plant since that water is getting very warm this time of year. all i can say is always watch where you step, and keep you kids under close supervision while they are outside.

mastergunner · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 1:32 pm Post subject:

I have had people tell me they have seen rattlesnakes on the trail by Sunset Lake in the evening on the warm pavement. We wade over by northshore sometimes but I have never seen any snakes in the water.
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Bennett_Taz · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 1:37 pm Post subject:

if you wade fish off of sabine dr. in northshore there are either snakes or turtles but that is one thing i have never seen in our bay is a turtle. but i always do very well wadeing out of bird island.

mastergunner · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:06 pm Post subject:

where is bird island??
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mastergunner · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:10 pm Post subject:

I just spent about 40 minutes researching water moccasins. If what you saw in the water was just the head then it probably was something else. On all the sites I looked at they stated that the water moccasin looks almost like it is floating on the water and will hold its head up out of the water as it swims. I have never worried about water snakes along the edge of saltwater as I assumed they didn't like it. Am I wrong? I could find nothing on line regarding if they swimmed in saltwater or not.
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Bennett_Taz · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:11 pm Post subject:

on the opposite side of big shell. you go all the way through padre island. when you get to the ranger station you pay either $10 for the weekend or $20 for the year and it is the first road to the right it is called bird island drive.

The Trash Heap · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:46 pm Post subject: Snakes & Terrapins

In Portland the only large poisonous snakes are likely to be rattlesnakes and water mocassins/cottonmouths. Haven't heard of copperheads that far south, but small poisonous snakes in the vicinity would include the young of the cottonmouths, which have skin color patterns much like copperheads, the yound and adults of several species of rattlesnakes, and coral snakes.

A mocassin may swim on the surface, show only its head, or swim completely submerged, and, contrary to folklore, can bite underwater.

Although often found around the edges of bays, mocassins don't seem to like to swim in the saltwater, but one local species of non-poisonous watersnake gets along fine in it. And we also have an increasingly rare terrapin that likes the Nueces Bay area, especially up around the delta.

Don't get too carried away about killing snakes unless you are immediately threatened by them. You can get bitten in the process. Clear the area so their food goes away, and so will the snakes.
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Texmaps · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:47 pm Post subject:

Last summer, I was wadefishing with my friend Jack near Mud Island. He yelled over to me that he saw a snake swimming toward him. I never saw it very well because I was about 20 yards away but it swam straight toward him. He was freaking out and when it was about 15 feet away, he threw one of his wading boots at it. That seemed to deter it and it swam around him and toward the shore.

Not sure what kind of snake it was but it swam on top of the water with its head a couple of inches above the water and every once and awhile, it would stop, raise its head up about a foot, look around and then continue.

Big John · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 2647

Just recently when they cleared all the land behind my Mothers house in Annaville to build a new neighborhood by the new elementary school, we killed literally dozens of rattlers from little bity 1 footer to several over 5 feet, and one copperhead. There was also an invasion of big tarantulas at the same time. Some of them were more than 6 inches across the legs! Shocked

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Rooster · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 6:30 pm Post subject:

Thats some scary stuff

My grandpa killed this one up at our ranch a few months ago.

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JerryB · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 6:56 pm Post subject:

I have seen rattlers swiming from one island to another jsut move out of there way and they will swim by.

Bluffer · Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 8:48 pm Post subject:

Could have been a coral also.
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Carlos · Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:12 am Post subject:

Not a coral almost sure. I would guess a big cottonmouth or rattler. Corals have a very small mouth and very small fangs. About the only place they can bite humans is the web of the fingers. That is one snake you don't want to get tagged by.

Coral venom is a nuerotoxin, where rattlers, cottonmouth and copperheads are hemotoxin. Big difference here. Hemo causes narcosis, meaning it kills tissue. Nuerotoxin affects the nervus system causing parallisis, many times it stops the heart.

When looking for them don't overlook close to home like flower beds and such. Also, if you know it is not a poisonus snake you really should let it live, they keep the mice and rats down. Best to have a rat snake then a rattlersnake a month later.

Peace
Carlos