Texas Herps???

You people in Texas finding any critters yet? I have a friend in North Texas that said she found 2 bullsnakes already. She is way North, Witchita Falls. Any luck around Houston?, San Antonio?.

We

need more rain!

No worries about rain in North TX after this last weekend!!!!!


I'm here at the base in Wichita Falls if anybody wants me to take me with em Herping!

NVScouter,

I'm here at the base too...did you go to the roundup in Waurika?

I beleive you

are on the wrong forum talking about Rattlesnake Round-ups.
Those of us on this list LIKE Rattlesnakes and are environmentally conscious.

You judge too quickly...I went to catch a rattlesnake (which I did) because I love rattlesnakes, or all snakes for that matter, and after a couple weeks in captivity I'll let it go where I found it...

maxrr said:

You judge too quickly...I went to catch a rattlesnake (which I did) because I love rattlesnakes, or all snakes for that matter, and after a couple weeks in captivity I'll let it go where I found it...

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I catch rattlsnakes (just to photo), all the time. You can do it on your own without participating/condoning the barberic roundups.

I kill a few rattlers every year and cook em up. But only the ones I find in my yard or by my tent. If its a baby I'll scoop up with the shovel and let em live. But I'm not even close to being comfortable handling a venemous snake. I love having snakes around to eat all the mice around I just dont like them around my wife and pets. So does that make me not welcome here? I use the meat and skin, waste not want not.

I do agree that abusing a resource because its a snake is very ignorant. Why take several hundred to a few thousand snakes out of a couple square mile habitat? Your begging for pest problems not to mention the possibility of lasting results to the damage of the rattlesnake population. Then when the mice and other vermin destory crops or spread plague who are they going to blame? Reptiles are a resource and like it or not are fair game in my book if used right. Wheter it be photography, collecting for pets(still taking them out of that ecosystem), or eating a few. The resource just needs to be used correctly or it will go away and that micro/ecosystem will be severly unballanced.

Face it most of us on the reptile side like to watch our pets feed. As the old saying goes: "A person who eats the meat is on the same moral level as the Butcher"-RAH.

But no roundup for me. I cant see me fitting in with that crowd. I hate Pabst Blue Ribbon, not to mention the famous Redneck last words of "Hey watch this" with a rattlesnake, or a bin of em. Well I take that back maybe I should go for one and bring a video camera.

NVScouter said:

I kill a few rattlers every year and cook em up. But only the ones I find in my yard or by my tent. If its a baby I'll scoop up with the shovel and let em live. But I'm not even close to being comfortable handling a venemous snake. I love having snakes around to eat all the mice around I just dont like them around my wife and pets. So does that make me not welcome here? I use the meat and skin, waste not want not.

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Well, I can't speak for everyone, but there is nothing wrong with your actions as you state them here. I'm pretty conservative when it comes to field herping, I'm one of those "take only pictures, and leave only footprints" kind of guys, for the most part. I'm no tree hugger though, I do occassionally legally collect an animal, like in 04' I kept a Rosy Boa, as it was the first one I've found in almost 30 years of field herping. It was one of my hard luck life list animals. Taking an occassional Rattlsnake for your own personal use, to me is no different than hunting deer, or fishing IMHO. Plus you realize the benefits of a healthy herp population, even including Rattlesnsakes, so that's a good thing too.

The reason I was addressing the thread was I don't believe in Rattlsnake roundups. They are senseless, barbaric, spread false info (like they use the snakes to collect venom for antivenin, which is BS) and destroy habitat (especially the ones who still use gasoline to flush out dens), plus even though I believe hunting and fishing, is okay, there is a difference between shooting a deer or two, or catching a couple bass, than just going out and collecting as many of an animal as you can, and then doing stupid things with them.

NVScouter said:

No worries about rain in North TX after this last weekend!!!!!


I'm here at the base in Wichita Falls if anybody wants me to take me with em Herping!

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I'm ex military (founder WF Reptile Rescue). Will be herping and running roads mostly at night this summer looking for Crotalus atrox, etc. I have almost free range of Eddie Hill's property too. Also always looking for volunteers.

NVScouter said:

I kill a few rattlers every year and cook em up.

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On second thought...belay that offer. I'm a rehabber and rescuer. I see no need to kill even those snakes in your yard or outside your tent. In 25 years of handling venomous snakes, not one has ever given me a reason to kill it, and I go out intentionally getting close to them year after year. If it is a problem, it is moved and left be somewhere else. The excuse about safety is baseless in my opinion.