😳 🐍 SNAKE 🐍 😳

Nofrnds2pla

New Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2024
Messages
35
Reaction score
69
Location
Pennsylvania
I was going into the pool area to cut the grass and bumped into this fella! I knew it wasn’t a black snake or a rattler or a copperhead (the usual suspects) he was about 3ft long and very chubby! I googled it and found it was an Eastern Hognose and its meal of choice is frogs! That makes sense because every frog in the area thinks my pool cover is a breeding ground. They say it is fairly harmless and if it feels threatened, it will raise its head like a cobra (good thing he didn’t do that or I would have dropped over) What they do next is headbutt you and if that doesn’t work, it will play dead for up to 45 minutes. We pumped off the cover, so hopefully he’ll go find the neighbors frogs LOL! 🐸
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3175.jpeg
    IMG_3175.jpeg
    564 KB · Views: 22
  • IMG_3176.jpeg
    IMG_3176.jpeg
    549.5 KB · Views: 17
I always try to look critters up to see if they’re harmful or not. The black snakes which we have mostly up here are fairly harmless. The good thing is they catch the mice, but I have a little dog and it could hurt her if it bit her so we pretty much just transplant them.☺️ the way I look at it is it was it was their home first.🌎🌍🌏
 
must be getting plenty of frogs to eat... I'm not a huge fan of snakes, not afraid of them, but I took care of a small boa, for a buddy of mine, it was his son's, while his son went through treatment... the stupid thing continually bit the hand that fed it, while it was at my house...
 
That's a much more pleasant natured snake than we have here. Our tiger snakes have 2 moods, shy and angry. If they are feeling nice they will take off as soon as they feel something coming near them. If they are in a bad mood, they will rear up like a cobra and strike at you. If this happens you just back away and let them do what they want because they are highly venomous.

We have another venomous snake here called the Dugite, which is very pleasant natured and will always try to get away.

Then we have the Taipan, which is found around most of the country and is highly venomous and extremely aggressive. It also bites repeatedly so you take multiple loads of venom. The venom on this snake is some of the most poisonous in the world (1 drop can kill 10 men) and it pumps in several ml of venom per bite. It even chases things that annoy it or look like food.

Welcome to Australia, you either live or get killed by something here :)
 
must be getting plenty of frogs to eat... I'm not a huge fan of snakes, not afraid of them, but I took care of a small boa, for a buddy of mine, it was his son's, while his son went through treatment... the stupid thing continually bit the hand that fed it, while it was at my house...
One of the pet shops here had a few small snakes for sale. One of them was horrible and would bite anything that moved or didn't move. It was a python so wasn't venomous but it was an angry little turd. One of the staff was feeding it with tongs and it ate a couple of baby mice. The staff member was then holding the snake in front of him and the dang thing lunged forward and bit the guy on the nose. We all laughed but were trying to be serious and saying are you ok.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That's a much more pleasant natured snake than we have here. Our tiger snakes have 2 moods, shy and angry. If they are feeling nice they will take off as soon as they feel something coming near them. If they are in a bad mood, they will rear up like a cobra and strike at you. If this happens you just back away and let them do what they want because they are highly venomous.

We have another venomous snake here called the Dugite, which is very pleasant natured and will always try to get away.

Then we have the Taipan, which is found around most of the country and is highly venomous and extremely aggressive. It also bites repeatedly so you take multiple loads of venom. The venom on this snake is some of the most poisonous in the world (1 drop can kill 10 men) and it pumps in several ml of venom per bite. It even chases things that annoy it or look like food.

Welcome to Australia, you either live or get killed by something here :)
Austrailia would not be a good place for me to visit! With my ADD, I don’t pay attention to anything and that is not a good thing when visiting somewhere where everything wants to kill you! You guys have a lot of shark issues there don’t you? I love watching shark week on Discovery Channel.
 
I think I would love to walk the wild areas of Australia, every place has hazards, though Australia does seem to have a few more. It also has some very interesting plants and animals.
 
Australia would not be a good place for me to visit! With my ADD, I don’t pay attention to anything and that is not a good thing when visiting somewhere where everything wants to kill you! You guys have a lot of shark issues there don’t you? I love watching shark week on Discovery Channel.
The government and news make a big deal over shark attacks around Australia but they are rare. It happens a few times each year and most are small sharks tasting surfboards during the warmer weather. The attacks just about always occur at dawn or dusk when the light isn't as good as during the day. The sharks see a shadow on the surface that resembles a seal (surfer on a board with arms splashing about resembles a tasty seal when viewed from below) and attack it. During the day when the light is good, sharks can tell the difference between a surfboard and a seal.

Occasionally someone gets killed by a shark but it's very rare considering the coastline and how many people go to the beach. Australia is a similar size to the USA and we are completely surrounded by coastline, so there's lots of beaches and seawater. Millions of people go to the beach every day when it's summer. I think it's around 200 people that have died from shark attacks since white man came to Australia a couple of hundred years ago. More people die from car accidents every year than 10 years worth of shark attacks. More people win Lotto than that.

Unfortunately whenever there is a shark attack, the press is all over it and then people get all up in arms about it and pressure the government into killing sharks, which is completely unnecessary. But the government is stupid and even though the scientists say you can't cull sharks because they are all endangered now due to over fishing, the government pays fishermen to go and kill more.

In Australia more people die from other people than native animals. Once in a while someone might get taken by a chocodile up north. But that is generally their fault for going in the water. There are signs up everywhere saying don't go in the water because crocodiles eat you, but people still go in the water. People including tourists drown in the oceans because they swim in a rip due to it having calm water and don't swim between the flags, or they wear a heap of clothing into the water and get dragged under.

Right now it is more dangerous to be walking around the cities and suburbs in Victoria and New South Wales because teenagers are running around stabbing people during the day. And there are similar problems in parts of the Northern Territory where certain indigenous youth are out and about at night causing problems. Although the indigenous ones don't normally carry knives.

Most people that end up in an Australian hospital from "animal attacks" are usually there for spider bites, bee stings and being bitten by unfriendly pet dogs. In all fairness to Australia's animals, yes a number of them are highly venomous but the majority of them don't want anything to do with people and only attack in self defence (Taipan and Sydney funnel web spider are exceptions to this). Basically look but don't touch and you should be fine. Read warning signs about what is in the water (box jellyfish, chocodiles, sharks, etc) and don't go in if it's not safe to do so.

I spent most of my life wandering around the bush looking under plants and collecting things from the wild and have never been bitten by any critters in the wild, apart from the odd ant. I spent years in rivers, creeks and streams, and splashing about in the ocean and never got attacked by anything there except a jellyfish. I have been attacked by dogs on over 50 occasions whilst walking around the neighbourhood and I have been attacked by people too.
 
Nothing more dangerous in Australia than a drop bear. One of those is more dangerous than all the spiders, sharks, crocs and snakes combined.
Yeah I forgot about them, it's been so long since I have seen a drop bear nest. Wasn't sure if they were extinct or not.
 
South Africa has its fair share of nasty snakes... Puff Adder, Boomslang, Rinkhals, Cape Cobra and the Black Mamba (shudders 😖) ...no thanks
 
South Africa has its fair share of nasty snakes... Puff Adder, Boomslang, Rinkhals, Cape Cobra and the Black Mamba (shudders 😖) ...no thanks
Our inland Taipan kicks the hell out of most of them, and a drop bear will pick them up and use them as whips and belts :)
 
I think we can overreact a bit. When I was a kid, black widow spiders were presented as man eating killing machines. I remember a discussion in elementary school where a guy was saying he would never live in the US because of black widow spiders.
When I renovated (ie, bashed with a sledgehammer) my garden shed after I moved here, I found huge numbers of them. I'm at the very extreme northern part of an isolated group of black widows, even though they aren't common a few km north or south of here. I've made the shed. now greenhouse an inhospitable home for them, and while I won't stick my hand into places they like to live, they are of little concern. A bite would not be good, but.

Australia's drop bears are trouble, but Canadian drop grizzlies are worse. They don't claw or bite - it's just 3 tons of fur covered lard landing on your head with no warning.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top