I thought the chickens were acting more terrified than usual this morning. Went into the big chickenhouse to feed them and collect eggs, picked up the garbage can cover I’d dropped on the ground and found I’d dropped it right on a Western Diamondback rattler.
“Whoa! Hello,” we both said in our respective languages.
Real-life guns are much louder than movie guns. No way I was blowing my eardrums out firing the Tracker in the corner of an enclosed building without better reason than this. So since the snake didn’t seem inclined to skeedaddle I went and brought a shovel from the powershed. A flat-blade shovel, which turned out to be a poor choice of weapon. The ground is so padded with straw that I could injure the snake but not behead it.
So I spent about five minutes injuring it to death, until it finally stopped trying to bite the shovel – which is now immune to venom and may actually develop super rattlesnake powers – and also stopped trying to leave whenever I lifted the shovel.
Didn’t bring my camera, but since I’d just been digging holes I did have my good tape measure. My first snake of the season was just an inch shy of three feet – not particularly large, but quite enough to upset chickens. And me.
Snakes are surprisingly tough creatures. Yes, I’ve done the shovel thing, and found it every bit as difficult as you describe.
Oh lucky you. With the exception of a snake encounter when I was still working that’s one experience I have not had the pleasure of having. I’m glad you were triumphant.
Too bad you can’t reach some sort of agreement with the snakes. It would completely solve your rodent problem.
I need to leave a comment, for the sake of an experiment I’m doing. Not really a lot I can say about snakes, except that it sounds as if your composure in the circumstance is much better than mine would be. Well, I haven’t been living in the high desert for years either. I expect there’s many things one gets used to, over time
What you need is a hoe to dispatch snakes. If what I watched my mother accomplish with one on a black snake is any indication. She cut the poor snake into 6-inch segments. Of course, an unnatural fear of snakes might have helped the power and precision of her chopping! ;>)
I prefer a hoe when dispatching snakes if a shotgun is not indicated. Hoe provides much better standoff than a flat bladed shovel. I keep a hoe in my truck and it is my companion on walks through the brush.
Them’s good eating, Joel. Tastes just like chikin. Steam it with some pastrami for a real protein jolt.
My mother swore by a snake CHAIN .
A short handle bolted to six feet or so of half-inch link chain.
You need to have some clearance over-head to swing it, but the chain will conform to the surface under the snake, and really do a number on the creature.