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  • From: "Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Rattlesnake encounter
  • Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 09:35:16 -0500

.On 7/2/06, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:
....... Smaller than the one that
put me out of commission for a few months about twelve years ago.
Pygmy rattlers are small but nasty poisonous. Need to get cats to
keep down the mice.

.Are bull snakes and their ilk immune to rattlesnake venom? It might
serve a person well to stock the homestead with snakes of the
non-venomous variety.

In this area we don't have much in the way of rattlesnakes though I'm
told there are some. When Dad came across a large snake of any kind,
he'd put it in the barn where it could feast on mice and rats. We were
always careful, and a little nervous, about moving hay bales in the
feeder barns, but I don't think we ever came upon any snakes.

In fact -- and I may have told this story before here, so feel free to
slap me -- the only one who ever encountered a snake up close and
personal was Dad. He was cleaning out a grain bin in the second story
of the corn crib when a bull snake eased off a rafter and dropped onto
his shoulders. At precisely the same time, my mother who was picking
green beans in the garden, had her finger opened by a kitten who was
sleeping under the shade of the beans. Of course we all thought the
world had ended as our parents never screamed like that.

I have cats, Gene, and they only go part way in removing rodents --
though they drag a fine, fat rat up to the porch from time to time, I
still have rats tunneling under the barn. I hate to use poison because
of the cats....

At least the rat population is low enough that I never see a rat these
days, which I know is not much of an indication.

Marie




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