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When we arrived at the house this morning to work on the rock we are installing on the living room wall we found this surprise visitor...

Aaaaaw.
Hibernating, right?

SHUDDDDER!! I certainly hope that your camera has at least 1,000-to-1 zoom on it!

so where is it now?

I dread the day one of us runs into one of those things. I know it's going to happen eventually. I guess I'll have to decide what to do when the time arrives. I hate to kill it, but I'd hate even more if it came back and wasn't so easy to spot next time and nailed on of us.

I was standing about 8 feet away when I took the pic and it did appear to just be seeking refuge from the cool morning outside. One of my albañiles is really an expert at dealing with snakes. He worked in the Sonora desert catching snakes for a clinic that would extract the venom. He didn't have any of his normal gear that he would use so he simply held the head down with a board and maneuvered it into an empty cement bag to take it out a couple of hundred yards and release it. He suggested that we sprinkle ground garlic around the property perimeter to keep them away.

I'm pretty sure you use a hook to move snakes.



My neighbor called me a few months ago with one rattling under her backyard bush and her dogs going nuts.

So I improvised.

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It was a Western Diamondback like the one in Ron's photo; pretty mellow. I've read that the Reds can be aggressive.

After a little wrangling I was able to hook it with one of the tines and gently lower it into the trash can. Walked it down into the canyon with the can facing away from me, and found a nice bush for it to slither off into.

You chose a good tool Marty. Looking around quickly we couldn't find anything that came close so he just held the head down with the board and then worked it into the bag. He didn't even break a sweat. I would have liked to have taken a photo of that maneuver but he transferred the board to me while he got the bag and trapped it.

If I ever felt in real danger I wouldn't hesitate in killing one but I would much rather just move them out where we all will be much happier...

"A couple hundred yards"????? WAY TOO CLOSE! Proper live snake relocation involves at lease one full tank of gas....each way....& a different state address!!!! Did your worker tell you the snake was hear to utter "I'll shall return!" as it slithered back towards your casa?

If you saw my backyard you would figure that there are probably several dozen snakes closer to the house than where he dropped off our visitor...

Well no wonder!!!!! There is not ONE sign posted declaring the area to be a rattle snake-free zone!!

I thought garlic was to keep away these uninvited houseguests...

How were you able to determine the snake wasn't Italian?

Good question...but how much garlic and how frequently, I'll settle for a start at the Mexicanos.

We use a pretty long piece of capped PVC with two holes in the end and some parachute cord looped through it to catch 'em. The heat signature is neutral and you just cinch up the loop from the safe end and carry 'em off to wherever. I can't tell you how many dozens of them we have caught this way in two decades in Lakeside.
Or, chop their heads off with a shovel.

I like that PVC pipe device idea. Sounds safe and humane...

Yes, it works very well and we make ours about 5 feet long so you are well out of the way. Plus, if they are holed up or under a bush you can reach right in and snug 'em up.

At first I thought five feet might not be long enough but I did a bit of research to find out some interesting facts:

How close is too close? How far is far enough?

A rattlesnake’s potentially lethal bite argues strongly for remaining well beyond its reach, but just how close must a person be to place himself within range of a striking snake? As in most situations involving animals, the answer varies – and in this case depends largely on the size of the snake, how it is positioned and the slope of the terrain in which one meets it. Knowing a few basic principles about why and how rattlesnakes strike can markedly reduce the chance of being bitten.

Rattlesnakes bite for just two reasons – to capture food and defend themselves. Their venom’s primary offensive function is killing the prey these slow, heavy bodied, non-constrictor hunters could not otherwise catch. Secondarily, a venomous bite may be employed as a defense against perceived threats.

Rattlesnakes can and will bite from any position, but their fastest, most accurate strikes are unleashed from coiled or partially coiled stances. When reacting to being stepped on or grabbed, for instance, an uncoiled snake simply turns and bites, usually targeting the closest part of the offending mass. Deliberately timed and aimed strikes tend to be faster and more precisely placed.

Despite all their bad press, rattlesnakes are normally timid creatures – avoiding most animals except intended prey whenever possible. But if sufficiently disturbed or threatened these snakes can quickly become aggressively defensive, and may stand their ground with a tenacity that mistakenly leads many people to believe they are innately mean-tempered.

When threatened, a rattlesnake typically draws its body into a defensive coil, holding about the forward third of its length in a tight, roughly S-shaped loop above its remaining mass. The coil initially collects the snake’s body into a relatively small area, making it easier to defend than when stretched out, and simultaneously provides a stable platform from which to launch a strike should one be deemed necessary. The snake’s head constantly faces its adversary, its body shifting as necessary to maintain visual contact if the threat attempts to circle.

The snake will probably attempt to warn away the interloper by vigorously shaking its namesake rattle, but nothing compels it to do so. It bears noting that the rattle, which consists of interlocked segments of dry skin, is fragile and frequently broken, and may thus be too short to be easily heard. Similarly, a rattle on a small snake may be incapable of creating sufficient noise to be readily heard. Don’t assume a rattlesnake will warn you of its presence!

Strikes occur when the snake releases the S loop in an instantaneous thrust at its target. During the strike the snake’s mouth opens, positioning its fangs to stab. It may or may not inject venom, depending upon how serious it considers the threat. Twenty to forty percent of initial, defensive strikes are “dry,” meaning little or no venom is released. Subsequent strikes are less likely to be so benign.

Ordinarily, a strike can cover a distance of between about one third and one half the snake’s length. Thus, as a rule of thumb, a three foot (1 meter) snake has about an eighteen inch (0.5 meter) strike radius; a four footer (1.3 meter) might reach out about two feet (0.6 meter), and so on.

Rattlesnakes cannot jump. If striking downhill, however, gravity and the momentum generated by a strike may combine to carry the animal farther forward than would occur over flat ground. On very steep slopes, a snake could lose balance during a strike and actually fall toward its target. Thus, the effective range of a downhill strike may exceed that normally expected across a level surface.

Rattlesnakes rarely exceed lengths of five feet. Simply by keeping at least that distance – or roughly the length of whatever rattler you meet – between you and it, your chance of being bitten falls to near zero.

after the initial heart-stop....

THANKS for the follow-up information. Very useful...........

Apparently some can grow a bit larger - I found this online!