how about packing a .22 with bird shot? I am glad all we have to deal with here is the elusive snow snake!
Yep. Thats my solution. They cant stand it. However, if you think "Bigger is Better", be warned. I figured if .22 rat shot was good, .44 mag would be better. Until the severed head of a cottonmouth landed on my shoulder still snappin. Kinda like ropensaddle's advice on chainsaws I guess. Thanks for the warning. I might have tried it.
ropensaddle said:
I have climbed a lot of trees in snake country and while snakes do climb I have seen personally eight or ten in 25 years in trees they are likely after baby birds and squirrels this time of year many young are in nests. I would talk to the owner to reschedule for a latter date if you are too spooked or carefully examine with bino's before climbing. It is my bet you would not see another but just my opinion.
True, and good advice, but snakes do climb trees more than you would think. Especially in spring when birds are nesting, as ropensaddle says, but I have seen a copperhead climbing a mature pine tree that had no branches for 40 feet in late summer. Someone told me they climb trees in late summer to get cicadas.
Fascinating to watch. He didn't even bother to climb around the trunk, he was climbing as streight up the tree as I could have on rope. He was able to wedge himself between the bark plates. Copperheads, like your rattler, are almost impossible to see against pine bark. When I first noticed him it was like a shimmering on the bark, like the bark was moving. I thought I was hallucinating from the heat.
Last week, I also pulled a 4 and 1/2 foot rat snake out of one of my wood duck nesting boxes. I had a 4 foot piece of PVC pipe around the base of the mounting bracket for a predator guard, thinking it would be too slick for the snakes to climb. Nope. I watched him climb it. Never even slowed him down.