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Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
Most of us have sharks in the back of our minds whenever we swim in
salt water but as attacks are rare we ignore it unless we actually see sharks. I have often seen sharks in the water after I have gotten out. The best I can suggest is to not swim if you see em and not to swim after dark or dusk when they supposedly feed most. Do not swim near bloody bait either. Fear of gators is very similar to fear of sharks. The dang lizards are just too common being in every puddle in these parts. When I was a kid they were much more rare and we would not hesitate in any body of water but these days their population has exploded and I would not go near some bodies of water I used to swim in. Some places are just too "gatorish". You do not swim near the edges of lakes with thick weeds and look out for gators and gator signs. You know they are there but you gotta figure they are scared. If you go out on the water at night and use a light, you can see their eyes glowing red and you'll be amazed how many there are. My brother could "grunt up gators" meaning he could make a noise deep in his throat to call them. Snakes oughta be more worrisome than gators or sharks cuz there's so many of em. Every palmetto thicket probably has at least one rattlesnake but as long as you dont walk through the palmettos, you seem almost safe. Its the Cottonmouth Moccasins that scare me the most. Ugly, evil looking and aggressive, they'll fight you for a fish you catch and they are all over the place. My neighbor has em in his yard and they crawl into his garage from the creek behind his house. All the trompin in the woods near bodies of water we do nobody in my family has been bitten but our dog got bit on her face. She swelled up like a balloon and died within 15 minutes. My earliest remembered boating experience (I was 4) was in a canoe with my mother behind me. A Moccasin charged the boat and tried to climb in and she swung that paddle like an axe decapitating the snake right beside me, sorta made an impression. Sting rays are not normally fatal when they hit you but seriously painful and likely to get infected. My brother in law got hit on his ankle and we had to haul him 20 miles to the hospital to get the barb pulled out. People always say "Shuffle your feet" when you walk in shallow bay water to scare em off and maybe that works. When we were kids, we walked barefoot all over the bays and never got hit but as an adult I wear "water shoes" as a half assed safety measure but I doubt thye'd help. Mostly, I just try to avoid em and swim as much as I can instead of walking. I figure that if you dwell on these things you'll never ahve fun but you should take a few precautions. |
Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
"Frogwatch" wrote in message
... Most of us have sharks in the back of our minds whenever we swim in salt water but as attacks are rare we ignore it unless we actually see sharks. I have often seen sharks in the water after I have gotten out. The best I can suggest is to not swim if you see em and not to swim after dark or dusk when they supposedly feed most. Do not swim near bloody bait either. Fear of gators is very similar to fear of sharks. The dang lizards are just too common being in every puddle in these parts. When I was a kid they were much more rare and we would not hesitate in any body of water but these days their population has exploded and I would not go near some bodies of water I used to swim in. Some places are just too "gatorish". You do not swim near the edges of lakes with thick weeds and look out for gators and gator signs. You know they are there but you gotta figure they are scared. If you go out on the water at night and use a light, you can see their eyes glowing red and you'll be amazed how many there are. My brother could "grunt up gators" meaning he could make a noise deep in his throat to call them. Snakes oughta be more worrisome than gators or sharks cuz there's so many of em. Every palmetto thicket probably has at least one rattlesnake but as long as you dont walk through the palmettos, you seem almost safe. Its the Cottonmouth Moccasins that scare me the most. Ugly, evil looking and aggressive, they'll fight you for a fish you catch and they are all over the place. My neighbor has em in his yard and they crawl into his garage from the creek behind his house. All the trompin in the woods near bodies of water we do nobody in my family has been bitten but our dog got bit on her face. She swelled up like a balloon and died within 15 minutes. My earliest remembered boating experience (I was 4) was in a canoe with my mother behind me. A Moccasin charged the boat and tried to climb in and she swung that paddle like an axe decapitating the snake right beside me, sorta made an impression. Sting rays are not normally fatal when they hit you but seriously painful and likely to get infected. My brother in law got hit on his ankle and we had to haul him 20 miles to the hospital to get the barb pulled out. People always say "Shuffle your feet" when you walk in shallow bay water to scare em off and maybe that works. When we were kids, we walked barefoot all over the bays and never got hit but as an adult I wear "water shoes" as a half assed safety measure but I doubt thye'd help. Mostly, I just try to avoid em and swim as much as I can instead of walking. I figure that if you dwell on these things you'll never ahve fun but you should take a few precautions. A long time ago, I was surfing with some friends. We weren't really doing much, as it was sunset time and we were just hanging out past the breakers. My friends had drifted off to another part of the water and I was just sitting on my board just drinking in the swells, the sunset that was in process, and using my feet to keep the board in the right orientation. Out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement in the water, and when I turned to look, I saw a fin, then it was gone. Then, a second later a splash on the other sid, and a fin. Turns out it was a small pod of porpoise. They were just out of arms reach... maybe an inch further away than I could reach every time I tried. They stayed with me for what seemed like an hour, but it was really just 10 minutes. They were big and if they wanted to do damage.... -- Nom=de=Plume |
Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
"Frogwatch" wrote in message ... Most of us have sharks in the back of our minds whenever we swim in salt water but as attacks are rare we ignore it unless we actually see sharks. I have often seen sharks in the water after I have gotten out. The best I can suggest is to not swim if you see em and not to swim after dark or dusk when they supposedly feed most. Do not swim near bloody bait either. Fear of gators is very similar to fear of sharks. The dang lizards are just too common being in every puddle in these parts. When I was a kid they were much more rare and we would not hesitate in any body of water but these days their population has exploded and I would not go near some bodies of water I used to swim in. Some places are just too "gatorish". You do not swim near the edges of lakes with thick weeds and look out for gators and gator signs. You know they are there but you gotta figure they are scared. If you go out on the water at night and use a light, you can see their eyes glowing red and you'll be amazed how many there are. My brother could "grunt up gators" meaning he could make a noise deep in his throat to call them. Snakes oughta be more worrisome than gators or sharks cuz there's so many of em. Every palmetto thicket probably has at least one rattlesnake but as long as you dont walk through the palmettos, you seem almost safe. Its the Cottonmouth Moccasins that scare me the most. Ugly, evil looking and aggressive, they'll fight you for a fish you catch and they are all over the place. My neighbor has em in his yard and they crawl into his garage from the creek behind his house. All the trompin in the woods near bodies of water we do nobody in my family has been bitten but our dog got bit on her face. She swelled up like a balloon and died within 15 minutes. My earliest remembered boating experience (I was 4) was in a canoe with my mother behind me. A Moccasin charged the boat and tried to climb in and she swung that paddle like an axe decapitating the snake right beside me, sorta made an impression. Sting rays are not normally fatal when they hit you but seriously painful and likely to get infected. My brother in law got hit on his ankle and we had to haul him 20 miles to the hospital to get the barb pulled out. People always say "Shuffle your feet" when you walk in shallow bay water to scare em off and maybe that works. When we were kids, we walked barefoot all over the bays and never got hit but as an adult I wear "water shoes" as a half assed safety measure but I doubt thye'd help. Mostly, I just try to avoid em and swim as much as I can instead of walking. I figure that if you dwell on these things you'll never ahve fun but you should take a few precautions. Good lord...that's some Paradise you live in! All we have to worry about is the cool water. http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44258 Wow! It's up to 60F today...I gotta go for a dunkin'. |
Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:33:47 -0400, gfretwell wrote:
I am not as sure about the snakes. I am out in the scrub park near the house quite a bit and I have never seen a rattlesnake. There are plenty of black snakes and a few coachwhips there. This may be why http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake1.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake2.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake3.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake4.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake5.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake6.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake7.jpg Great shots. That rattler seemed as long as the racer. I wonder if they ever kill something that won't fit? After that meal, I'm surprised he could move. I took a stingray barb in the foot once on the beach on Sanibel but it wasn't a bad shot. He poked up the barb to say "I'm sleeping here" and I was walking carefully so it only went in about 1/2" I picked open the wound with a fruit pick from the barmaid at the Hilton (now the Sanibel Inn) beach bar and flushed it out with vodka. That's the way John Wayne would have done it. ;-) |
Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
On Sep 21, 2:17*pm, thunder wrote:
On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:33:47 -0400, gfretwell wrote: I am not as sure about the snakes. I am out in the scrub park near the house quite a bit and I have never seen a rattlesnake. There are plenty of black snakes and a few coachwhips there. This may be why http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake1.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake2.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake3.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake4.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake5.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake6.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake7.jpg Great shots. *That rattler seemed as long as the racer. *I wonder if they ever kill something that won't fit? *After that meal, I'm surprised he could move. I took a stingray barb in the foot once on the beach on Sanibel but it wasn't a bad shot. He poked up the barb to say "I'm sleeping here" and I was walking carefully so it only went in about 1/2" I picked open the wound with a fruit pick from the barmaid at the Hilton (now the Sanibel Inn) beach bar and flushed it out with vodka. That's the way John Wayne would have done it. *;-) Great pics. |
Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
wrote in message
... On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:10:43 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch wrote: Most of us have sharks in the back of our minds whenever we swim in salt water but as attacks are rare we ignore it unless we actually see sharks. I have often seen sharks in the water after I have gotten out. The best I can suggest is to not swim if you see em and not to swim after dark or dusk when they supposedly feed most. Do not swim near bloody bait either. Fear of gators is very similar to fear of sharks. The dang lizards are just too common being in every puddle in these parts. When I was a kid they were much more rare and we would not hesitate in any body of water but these days their population has exploded and I would not go near some bodies of water I used to swim in. Some places are just too "gatorish". You do not swim near the edges of lakes with thick weeds and look out for gators and gator signs. You know they are there but you gotta figure they are scared. If you go out on the water at night and use a light, you can see their eyes glowing red and you'll be amazed how many there are. My brother could "grunt up gators" meaning he could make a noise deep in his throat to call them. Snakes oughta be more worrisome than gators or sharks cuz there's so many of em. Every palmetto thicket probably has at least one rattlesnake but as long as you dont walk through the palmettos, you seem almost safe. Its the Cottonmouth Moccasins that scare me the most. Ugly, evil looking and aggressive, they'll fight you for a fish you catch and they are all over the place. My neighbor has em in his yard and they crawl into his garage from the creek behind his house. All the trompin in the woods near bodies of water we do nobody in my family has been bitten but our dog got bit on her face. She swelled up like a balloon and died within 15 minutes. My earliest remembered boating experience (I was 4) was in a canoe with my mother behind me. A Moccasin charged the boat and tried to climb in and she swung that paddle like an axe decapitating the snake right beside me, sorta made an impression. Sting rays are not normally fatal when they hit you but seriously painful and likely to get infected. My brother in law got hit on his ankle and we had to haul him 20 miles to the hospital to get the barb pulled out. People always say "Shuffle your feet" when you walk in shallow bay water to scare em off and maybe that works. When we were kids, we walked barefoot all over the bays and never got hit but as an adult I wear "water shoes" as a half assed safety measure but I doubt thye'd help. Mostly, I just try to avoid em and swim as much as I can instead of walking. I figure that if you dwell on these things you'll never ahve fun but you should take a few precautions. I was thinking about gators when you were telling the Tolman in fresh water story. One was coming after my dog last week. I managed to scare him off before he got to the dog. I saw him crawling along the bottom from the boat, jumped in the water next to the dog and off he went. I am not as sure about the snakes. I am out in the scrub park near the house quite a bit and I have never seen a rattlesnake. There are plenty of black snakes and a few coachwhips there. This may be why http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake1.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake2.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake3.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake4.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake5.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake6.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake7.jpg I took a stingray barb in the foot once on the beach on Sanibel but it wasn't a bad shot. He poked up the barb to say "I'm sleeping here" and I was walking carefully so it only went in about 1/2" I picked open the wound with a fruit pick from the barmaid at the Hilton (now the Sanibel Inn) beach bar and flushed it out with vodka. I was fine. I have stepped on sand burrs that hurt longer but they are harder to get out. Are the black snakes poisonous? -- Nom=de=Plume |
Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:33:47 -0400, wrote:
I am not as sure about the snakes. I am out in the scrub park near the house quite a bit and I have never seen a rattlesnake. There are plenty of black snakes and a few coachwhips there. This may be why http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake1.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake2.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake3.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake4.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake5.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake6.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Blacksnake7.jpg I took a stingray barb in the foot once on the beach on Sanibel but it wasn't a bad shot. He poked up the barb to say "I'm sleeping here" and I was walking carefully so it only went in about 1/2" I picked open the wound with a fruit pick from the barmaid at the Hilton (now the Sanibel Inn) beach bar and flushed it out with vodka. I was fine. I have stepped on sand burrs that hurt longer but they are harder to get out. Very cool. It's sure increased my respect for black snakes. -- John H |
Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:21:34 -0400, gfretwell wrote:
Did you see the picture of the python that ate a gator so big that it exploded? Yeah, that was also impressive. http://criticalmiami.com/index.php?id=236 |
Gators, sharks, snakes and rays
In article ,
says... On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:06:54 -0700, "nom=de=plume" wrote: Are the black snakes poisonous? No they are really quite harmless to anything they can't swallow. They have tiny teeth that barely break the skin on a soft spot like the inside of your arm and don't hurt my fingers at all. I had one living in my screen cage for a couple weeks and they are always around the yard. I still get one in now and then. It sure did a good job on the bugs, lizards and tree frogs.That's how I know I have one. Nothing is alive in there. http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Black%20racer.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Black%20racer2.jpg http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/Black%20racer3.jpg I am the local snake wrangler and I go get them out of other's peoples pool cages and garages a lot. I toss them in my yard if I can't talk them into keeping them at in their yard. I suppose it takes them about an hour to make their way back but I tried ;-) I also like the yellow rat snakes around the house. http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/yellow%20rat%20snake.jpg Cool snake... http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/baby%20rat%20snake.jpg The operative word there is "rat". (rattus rattus AKA Palmetto squirrel) http://gfretwell.com/wildlife/rattus%20rattus.jpg -- Dad loves his family, and he was a soldier. He wanted us all to remember that... |
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