Nothing about figs in this post--sorry--it happened under an apple tree. (Looks like I still can't get the images to go into the text where I want them.)

Hi TucsonKen,
i dont know much about snakes being from illinois, i have only seen 2 outdoors and i left area quickly and some in zoo's.
What you did was in my opinion was a great thing and i firmly believe good things happen to good people, my hats off to you and thanks for taking the time to take and  share those pictures i enjoyed seeing them and how things were done to save that snake.

Very impressed that you did not kill it. I love snakes and actually breed some as a hobby (none poisonous). I am sure most people would have fixed the problem with a shovel. You are definitely in the minority. I am sure it felt good to see it go back into the wild.

Wow, Ken!  You must be an expert at handling snakes like that with the tube and the hook and the gripper.

Great photos,

noss

Ah, our good friend crotalus atrox, ran into a lot of his cousins over the years! 

Ken, thanks for posting---very interesting. I too like to see snakes returned to the wild. My neighbor kills all snakes good or bad(mostly king snakes & garter snakes which are only beneficial). Sad!  Tim

Never seen a critter like that here thank goodness.

(and really, really hope I never do).

Best wishes.

John
Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

I've never been in a situation where I had to kill a rattlesnake, but I can't be too critical of the person who opts for the shovel when a venomous snake shows up in the yard. Trying to catch a rattlesnake and relocate it if you don't know exactly what you're doing is not a good idea--and neither is leaving it in the yard, in my opinion, unless you're out in the country and don't mind accepting the risks of having them around. As a rule, rattlesnakes aren't looking for trouble, but people get bitten anyway--reaching under something, stepping on one in the dark, and all too often, trying to catch (or harass) them. I've read that medical treatment can cost in the $100,000 range, to say nothing of the pain, and (sometimes permanent) disfigurement or loss of function.

It is sad though, when people like Tim's neighbor kill harmless species--maybe he'd rather have the rodents they might have eaten. One thing's for sure--if you see a snake in your yard, it's not there to eat your figs. It might even eat something that IS there to eat them!

Except on two occasions when my kids spotted a rattlesnake in the yard and it escaped before I could get there with the necessary gear (my youngest actually stepped on one in the gravel driveway at night while taking out the trash, and about jumped out of his skin when it rattled--fortunately, it didn't bite), I've always been able to safely relocate them to a wild area. But, if one was in a location where I couldn't capture it safely, I might well decide to dispatch it rather than wonder where I might encounter it next!

I never eaten snakes. Do they taste like chicken?

The drumsticks are a lot smaller....

The only time I see them is with tire tracks on them.

You're a better man than I, poisonous snakes freak me the heck out.....especially having small children present I'm afraid I am one of those people who would have gone for the shovel.

Even though I used to work with venomous snakes many years ago (at a zoo and in a venom research lab) and still encounter them routinely while hiking, I'll certainly admit to an adrenalin rush whenever I happen upon one unexpectedly, in close quarters! That dry buzzzzz is a real attention-getter when you aren't quite sure where it's coming from.

Man, you're giving me chills just thinking about it. Actually, this whole story reminds me of a close call I had near Monterrey, Cali back in 2005. I stopped along the PCH#1 to grab a pine cone from one of the many beautiful cypress' growing along the way, as I reached up on the slight grassy hill I slipped and was on my way to falling. I look down to the ground to see where I'm about to catch myself......with my hand only 12" off the ground I see a snake exactly where my hand was heading, I don't know how I stopped my momentum but the freak in me did, Matrix style....LOL!
I wont say it was a rattler, don't know much about brown/tan colored snakes but I didn't stay long enough to find out either. :D

Yikes! Hopefully it was just a harmless gopher snake, but it could have been a northern pacific rattlesnake. Since you managed to keep from landing on it, I guess it doesn't matter. On the other hand, it makes for a better story to go with the rattlesnake option!

I know I should stop, already, with the snake stuff on a fig forum, but the following has relevance to the recent post on scaring birds away with fake snakes (and out of courtesy to those with snake phobias, I'll post it here, where they've had fair warning about the subject matter). This good-sized (and very welcome) gopher snake showed up in the back yard and, so as not to scare it, we watched it through the window as it got a drink from a puddle left by a constantly dribbling sprinkler. Once it had drunk its fill and started cruising across the lawn, this bird quickly showed up for a closer look. It kept a safe distance, but was definitely attracted to the snake--very typical bird behavior, at least out here in the west. They will often approach closely enough to tweak the tail of a retreating snake, so I wouldn't put any faith in the effectiveness of a plastic snake on sentry duty in your fig orchard.

very cool ken.  i hate it when people kill wildlife out of ignorance.  it's great that you had such understanding. 

rather than trying to kill raccoons and possums, i'm just going to go with barriers and i'll try to grow more.  they were here long before i was, and damned if i'm going to hurt them.

Mike,

I have a big fat squirrel that's been a Thorn in my Rear!
And for that reason you just mentioned is the reason why I won't harm it. He/she needs to eat too!
You wouldn't believe how many figs that rodent destroyed. I'll just have to fine a way to keep it away from my yard.

One day when I used to live in OakPark, Mi. I was tearing down my old rotted tool shed and replace it with a new one. I got to the base and as I lifted up the platform there was a big old and ugly Possum and it made the sound Possums make and freaked me out.

Well, Being I was doing a Saturday night special ( no permit ) I couldn't call the city and I didn't want to use my gun but after about five minutes it got up and climbed the fence and went to the neighbors yard and that was the end of it.

a super cheap possum trap is to take a set of trailer steps and put them up to a garbage can with a few scraps in it.    mr possum climbs up the the steps and jumps in to eat, but then he can't get out.  put the lid on, tape it, and then you can take him somewhere that he's not going to bother you again before you release him :).

We had a family of rock squirrels in the yard one year, and they stripped every single apple long before they were even close to ripe. I bought a Havaheart trap, and though it took awhile (I'd catch one every few days) I eventually got them all, and dropped each one off in the desert on my way to work. Haven't seen one in the neighborhood since.

I tried a similar approach with pack rats, which seem to be born pregnant and deliver a new litter every other day. They chew holes through everything, eat the bark off my citrus trees, and strip insulation from car wiring. They carry off anything they can lift, and add it to their nests. They also are the favored host for kissing bugs--a type of nasty, blood-sucking parasite named for their habit of biting people on the lips as they sleep. This bug spreads Chagas' disease in Mexico, and now it's starting to appear in Arizona as well. So, living in harmony with the pack rats was not an  option.

I had been driving them two miles away to release in the closest bit of natural desert, until on #12 I thought, "I'm trapping two rats per day. Each of these little bundles of joy costs me 20 minutes and the gas for a four-mile round trip. I can't afford to run a rat taxi service." So, I informed #12, "Sorry, little guy, but you're getting a much quicker trip."

I keep a Sharpie handy to make tally marks on the trap. After about 40 rats, things tapered off to where I quit catching them, so I stopped setting the trap and we enjoyed a rat-free winter. A few weeks ago, I started seeing them again. Not as bad as last year, but #45 recently caught the Humane Express to rat heaven, and I'm guessing it will be another busy summer.