Any herp fans/breeders here?

I like snakes but don't like venomous snakes on my property.  After a few bourbons I came up with an idea of stocking the properly with eastern king snakes so that they can hopefully get rid of the not so cool snakes.  GRM knows all so should I just put the bourbon down or good idea?

In reply to Stampie :

I think you just need to work harder on befriending & training the venomous ones until you can walk around your property shirtless, with them draped around your neck. 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

While the picture you paint is a very sexy one I think the learning curve is steeper than I want.

Just gotta have faith. Isn't that what the brand J snake handlers say? 

In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) :

So now you bring up one of my childhood stories.  I spent a lot of my childhood in the Upstate of SC.  On the weekends I would go to my grandparents to what I thought was a break from my parents but as I'm older now I realize it was a break for my parents from me.  For a bit there my grandparents attended a Pentecostal Holiness church.  Now my Granddaddy was a full blown alcoholic until I was 3 or so so I can't blame him for going to the other extreme once he stopped drinking but yes I've seen snake handling in church.  I ain't got that much faith.

I used to mess around with snakes up in Ohio. I was good friends with the brother of Gordon Schuett. He had a basement full of hot snakes when he was working on his Phd. He mainly had copperheads, but there was a bunch of others from diamondbacks and pygmy rattlers to Burmese and Indian pythons.

I stuck with pythons (Burmese, Indian and Reticulated)and boas, a few rat snakes, and melanistic garters.

I don't think  king snake presence would keep the hot snakes out of your yard. I'm thinking cottonmouths and eastern diamondbacks are your main concern? Kind of far south for copperheads, those berkeleyers are scary. No warning at all.

I could see if I can get ahold of Gordy if you want to get an expert opinion.

Eastern diamondbacks for sure. This picture is from the local state park where I mountain bike! Not my encounter luckily.

And, for good measure, from the same state park!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1044048913667574?fs=e&s=9RfQYY&mibextid=3JVGtE

I have a handful of resident black racers, garters and scarlet king. They keep the food sources in check i guess and we dont get much for hot stuff. Im in the woods, on a huge area of nature. We have bears, deer, turkey, coyote, etc.  i have had pygmy rattlers and coral snakes, but not many.

we have dogs too but they have never messed with the danger noodles. 
 

In the woods nearby though... 

This lucky one got relocated to the woods. 

this one got its head relocated. 

 

Ringnecks are fun. Of course it was put right back in the yard. 
 

I misidentified this guy at first as non venomous, so i let it be instead of bifurcating or relocating. . Its at my deck, back door, right were we go by all the time. I was sitting next to it. 

 

lil buddy got put back in the yard too. 

Despite its attitude, this toughsnëk stayed in the yard to keep eating little critters. 

 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Stampie :

I think you just need to work harder on befriending & training the venomous ones until you can walk around your property shirtless, with them draped around your neck. 

I thought that was just an innate skill that all Floridamen had.

Stampie said:

I like snakes but don't like venomous snakes on my property.  After a few bourbons I came up with an idea of stocking the properly with eastern king snakes so that they can hopefully get rid of the not so cool snakes.  GRM knows all so should I just put the bourbon down or good idea?

This sounds like a most excellent idea.  The only foreseeable problem is after the Eastern Kingsnakes clear the property of poisonous species, they will move on in search of food.  In order to prevent this from occurring, you will need to employ the help of friends and neighbors to bring poisonous snakes to your property to keep the Kingsnakes properly fed.  This scenario kind of puts you back to "square one."

We have a ton of little ringnecks in our yard, never seen anything else though. I catch them while I'm mowing the grass, then redeploy them in the garden later for safety. Every one is named "Ssssssteve" while in captivity for mowing time. The kids love it.

Do you want rats and mice? Not having snakes around is how you get rats and mice.

 

Dude, buy a Road Runner family.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

Do you want rats and mice? Not having snakes around is how you get rats and mice.

 

I have snakes, rats, and mice. I keep hearing the snakes keep the mice away, and they sure are big and aggressive enough, but I still have berkeleying mice. 

1988RedT2 said:

Stampie said:

I like snakes but don't like venomous snakes on my property.  After a few bourbons I came up with an idea of stocking the properly with eastern king snakes so that they can hopefully get rid of the not so cool snakes.  GRM knows all so should I just put the bourbon down or good idea?

This sounds like a most excellent idea.  The only foreseeable problem is after the Eastern Kingsnakes clear the property of poisonous species, they will move on in search of food.  In order to prevent this from occurring, you will need to employ the help of friends and neighbors to bring poisonous snakes to your property to keep the Kingsnakes properly fed.  This scenario kind of puts you back to "square one."

Interesting point.  I assumed they would just move on to other food sources.  I guess I could do a breeding pair and just release the babies onto the property yearly.