Timber rattlers

[kathyp]

And don't go bashing "bunny huggers". If Hef would ever let me in his place I'd be huggin' every bunny I saw!

you'd be huggin' one and then probably be huggin' the ground!     i have seen the muscle he had hired.

[kingbee]

WELL MISS kathyp, all this talk bout' hugging or getting hugged by tender hearted 'Bunnies' and them hugging snakes made me think bout' this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ZBqpEUbik&feature=related

Enjoy the song.

[kingbee]

... Start a Timber Rattler rescue effort and collect funds... keep a few (around) to show... and donors and ship the rest off to zoos. 

Why not cut to the chase like PETA when they KILL every puppy dog and kitty cat turned in to them.  That will leave more money for you to enjoy and fewer pesky snakes on your property to make things hard on the old Fruit of the Looms.   

Hey, that reminds me of a new government grant paying for a robotic squirrel so scientists can study the reaction between robotic rodents and rattle snakes, or maybe it is vicey-vercy?  Anyway it is unimportant, the money is still green. You could get a grant to build a robotic rattle snake to study the interaction between a robotic squirrel and a robotic rattle snake, how cool is that?
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-03/video-robot-squirrel-confuses-snake-study-predator-prey-behavior

[don2]

Here in Ga. the Rattle snakes are adapting to not rattle. Due to the increase in " wild Hog" population. Hogs eat snakes, alive and raw. If they hear a rattle, the snake is easier to find. dd2

[Intheswamp]

I've heard folks say that they're starting to quit rattling.  I wonder if it's a genetic thing happening.  I'm sure some individual snakes are more prone to rattle than others are....the ones that rattle the most are eaten by the hogs.  Thus the "silent" rattlers are left to breed and raise young that reflect their quieter nature.  Kinda like treating for viruses or pests...you treatment kills the weak, but the strong survive and breed and create a stronger breed that is more resistant to the treatment.

Ed

[Vance G]

I set my colonies directly on the ground and I ALWAYS tip hives toward me not away because Mr. Rattlesnake loves being out of the sun here on the prairie.  You do the same when throwing hay bales.  I just get little ones because not usually enough room under the bottom boards for a big one.  It always gets the heart beating.  Depends on where the hives are in whether the snake lives or not.  If the yard is out in the lonesome, I let em be.  If it is close to building, the snake has a bad day. 

[BMAC]

i grew up on southern CA.  rattlesnakes and black widow spiders were just a fact of life.  we learned young where to step and where to put our hands!

but...years ago, in an effort to pacify the loons in CA, Camp Pendleton became a nature preserve.  nothing could be killed except the mice unless there was no other choice.  military even assigned snake wranglers to be called in to relocate snakes that were a problem.  pretty soon, snakes were a problem everywhere.  i don't know that anything has changed there.
 it did become a distraction.  we were more concerned about the constant rattling in the brush, than with the big gunny that was going to stomp on us if we messed up the exercise.

so...live and let live....up to a point....

It was a pain.  It seemed like every other day on the range we had to stop firing because a deer was down range past the burms.  Of course the deer never slowed down some of my mortarman buds. 

[sawdstmakr]

BMAC,
Mortors make terible hunting rifles. There's nothing left to eat. 
Jim

[Intheswamp]

...they're probably good for fishing, though!!!