Okay. I can officially say I have lost 5 years off the end of my life. A little earlier this afternoon, I was walking down to the lower part of my yard with a landscaper, to talk about getting this lower half spiffed up. I opened the gate, stepped into the back when something off to my right caught my eye. There, 2 feet from my right leg was the back half (thank GOODNESS) of an extremely large rattlesnake, making its way into a hole in my block retaining wall. I about had a stroke on the spot. The landscaper, bless his heart, grabbed our shovel, and I think managed to cut off about 12" of the tail end of the snake. Question to all you experienced western USA gardeners (or those of you with snake experience): Do you think we killed the snake? It must have had at least 3 inches of rattle on the end of it's tail, and proabably in total was about 5 or 6 feet long. It was a big, BIG rattler. And, I'm pretty rattled. Enjoying a very lovely Margarita right now, and will probably chase that down with 2 more. Still trying to get my heart rate below 100. Ugh.

You know what is even more scary? How about a cottonmouth dropping into your fishing boat or on top of you from trees? Or how about a cottonmouth climbing into your boat while frogging? This almost happened to us many years ago. There were so many cottonmouths on the ground near our boat that just walking was very dangerous especially if you did not closely watch your every foot step! The cottonmouth is not all that aggressive but they will bite if stepped on and the venom is very very potent. They are not very aggressive but they do not move out of your way in time and hard to see because they blend in well with the ground so it can be hard to avoid stepping on them.


That snake you chopped up is likely dead.

Okay, I now need another Margarita. Seriously! I could NEVER live in a place where snakes dropped out of the trees on me, OMG!!!! Thank goodness. I surely hope he's a goner. My long-suffering hubby did put out a snake sticky board, so if this guy thinks he's going hunting, he's got to cross over the sticky snake board first. So, one way or the other, he's a goner. My gosh, what a story, Tri. I'd have had a heart attack for sure.

More than likely it's dead but they are known to bite even after they are dead... Something to do with nerves and reflexes... If it's still around I be carfull handling it

I know. The rattle ratteled for quite some time after the landscaper cut the tail off. Unnerving! My husband was very careful in placing the snake board this evening. He's got a fairly good amount of rattlesnake experience as he's a rock climber. In fact, he told me he ran into a snake out on the back trails a couple of days ago. He managed to leap over it. Probably a San Diego Gopher snake by the description, and not a rattler, but still, kind of disturbing to see that you're about to come down on a snake as you're running along!

You better hope its dead, because without the rattle it will be silenced.

Believe me pagner, that's all I thought about last night!! Hope the snake board catches the snake if it's not dead! We'll know if it died because a very distinctive order will begin to eminate from that area.

come and visit Arizona some time...

Rattlesnakes swim as well. I saw a dead 6 footer that filled up the better part of a 5 gallon pail while living in Florida as a teenager. It was caught while swimming in the canal across the steet.

You get used to them. We have every kind of snake you can imagine as well as Gators in every fresh water stream, lake and pond. Just watch your step.

Well, I'll probably never get used to them. I've lived out in the hills all my life, with the exception of the 13 years I lived outside of California. So, they have been in my "yard" all growing up, and now in a pretty frequent way here in Vista. Our whole development has had at least one rattler show up uninvited into their yard, pool deck, garage or inside a house. So, looking forward to getting our snake fencing up, and then trying to "round them up" and either move them to the orchard, or dispatch with them. I know they're great rodent killers, but I prefer they do their rodent hunting outside my yard, lol!

My uncle's father in law was in a flat bottom boat fishing, when a cottonmouth dropped into it from a low hanging tree branch. He had a shotgun with him (I don't know why) and immediately without thinking shot the snake. It blew a hole in the bottom of the boat, but he was able to save the motor. He said he never even thought about what would happen to the boat.

Pit vipers like rattle snakes and cotton mouths are nocturnal and active at night. The problem is you can't see them as easily at night and risk stepping on them. This is why I carry a very bright Streamlight flashlight when working in my garden after dark. Another problem working at night is the mosquitoes and mosquito repellent is required. The mosquitoes have been very numerous here and active even during the day time! I have bites all over from working in my tomato garden a few days ago. Anyone else having problems with mosquitoes already?

I'd import my own mongoose pack (or Meerkat) just cause they are fun animals and would take care of your snake problems. You could also get some cats they don't shy away from snakes much but mongooses have the advantage of being immune to the venon.

Hah! Not sure I can have a mongoose here, and this rattler was about 10 times bigger than my housecat, lol!! The CAT would have been a meal for the snake. Plus, I never leave my cats outside here for a couple of reasons: First, in our area of S. California, we have a lot of coyotes. They patrol the orchard behind my back fence. And actually used to congregate in the lower (and cooler and wet) part of my yard until I had the gap in our cyclone fence closed up. We walked down to the bottom part of our yard one day and walked into a pack of 5 coyotes. Not sure who was more surprised! The number one favorite meal of a coyote is a domestic cat. Plus, house cats are responsible for killing more songbirds in the United States than any other predator. Love my song birds (just not on my berries or stone fruits), so for those 2 reasons, our little kitty remains a 100% house cat. So, for me, it will have to be snake fencing and a garden shovel.