The Natural Heritage Unit of the Michigan DNR is looking for reports of the massassauga rattlesnake this spring. As the temperatures rise and winter losses its icy grip, these native snakes move from their winter hibernation areas to open grass areas where they can sun themselves. Get out your snake book for positive identification.
I remember a siteing last christmas or perhaps the one before. Remember hearing it on the news. It was in a christmas tree and brought into a house. I thought then what would a snake be doing in a tree in winter in Michigan?
Here is a great link to learn about the Massasauga rattlesnake
Click Here (http://www.enature.com/guides/show_species_fg.asp?beautyID=8875&recsFound=1&curPos=1&curGroup=Reptiles_and_Amphibians&screenType=normal&guideID=ng&recNum=AR0203&searchType=&color=&size=&shape=&leafShape=&fruit=&habitat=&range=&useFreeText=true&freeText=Massasauga)
Michigan appears to be the stronghold in the United States for this species with scattered and remnant populations existing across southern Lower Michigan and extending as far north as Bois Blanc Island in the Straits of Mackinac.
Michigan will be cooperating with several other Midwest states in assessing and managing for the Massasauga through funding for development of a Candidate Conservation Agreement between the states and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
I've lived here my whole life and never have seen one. When my Grandmother was a little girl she spent summers on Bois Blanc. She and her sister killed one while there one summer. I'm perfectly happy having never seen one and would just as soon never see one in the wild. That's one thing I really like about where I live. The poisonous critters are few and far between 8)
I HATE dem slimy sum a guns
Those look just like the ones we have. Ours only get to be a foot long or a little longer. They are called ground rattlers here. Seems like I've heard them called pigmy rattlers too. These might be three different species?
I killed one earlier this week weed-eating.
Noble
Here's two pictures that came from enature.
Pigmy rattler---------------------------------------------Massassauga
(https://forestryforum.com/images/04_01_03/AR0132_1m.jpg) (https://forestryforum.com/images/04_01_03/AR0203_1m.jpg)
Check out www.enature.com
As far as i'm concearned the only good snake is a dead one. We haven't got rattlers right here but a couple miles up the road you run into the blue mountains Thats were the snakes.are in the rocks.
I've got timber rattlers and copperheads in my woods. I have seen a 6 foot rattler out sunning itself. They don't bother me none so I don't bother them. The only time I kill a snake is if it makes a habit of hanging out around the house. In my experience if you give a snake an escape route they will take it, unless of course it is molting and then they will strike at anything that comes near. When I am working around brush piles and tops I wear high top boots.
Snakes are good for keeping the mice and moles at a reasonable level.
I agree, I never kill a snake unless I am going to eat it. Rattle snake tastes great, fried in a pan with a little oil, salt and pepper.
My brother threw a black snake in the chicken coop once figuring that the chickens would scatter. Wrong! They tore that snake to shreds and ATE it! Who would have thought.
Hmmm prime rib roast of snake :o Naaa I don,t think so :-/ help yourself !
For the most part that Yankee Pigmy rattler just looks a bit frost bitten. Now we have a Cane rattler her that is as big as your arm and as long as you are tall. Them's rattlers!
I have been bitten twice by rattlers and once by a copper and the one thing you need most is a set of car keys. Pack the area with ice if you have it and don't get hyper and keep you wits. Unless it bites you in the neck you should make it just fine.
Around here we have a blue racer snake and it will chase you. It is harmless and quite pretty. My chickens eat snakes and my rooster will take one on.
If more of you had more snakes you would have less mice in your mills eating your wires..
ARKANSAWYER
Yea, but whats it taste like?
You had to ask probably tastes like chicken ::)
ILL take the mice thats what cats are for
jimbo
Rattlesnake tastes like chicken if you fry it. Grilled, it's more like alligator, which is reminiscent of ostrich. Ostrich, of course, tastes like Spotted Owl. ;D
Ain't it great we got chickens - how else would we know how to describe how everything else tastes? :P
Forty years ago... I attended a one room brick schoolhouse, K-6 grades. We went to a local deer park for an outing with the teacher and some moms.
My best friend had a bone disease which neccesitated him being on crutches, but that only made him slightly faster than me. Well, we came up on a 2 and 1/2 footer all coiled up and rattlin'. Mark took his crutch and smashed his head. Well, bein' a bunch of "mischevious" boys, ( They actually added that to the report cards during our era. Right about the time we crawled up over the girls restroom and watched the teacher :o) well sir, we grabbed that rattler and threw it into one of the mom's car to take home for supper.
Only thing is, Mark hadn't killed it, just stunned it and well, it came too about halfway home. Stood right up on its tail feathers on the center hump next to the driver. She screamed real loud ( I still have the ringing in my ears ;D) and swerved into the ditch and bailed out. The snake calmly slithered out into the road and off to the other side.
We paid dearly with our bottoms that night :-[
Haven't seen to many since, but did see a whole family of them once up by the covered bridge at Lowell, MI. Probably 12-15 of them. I didn't get any for dinner. ;D
hawby
:D :D Them kind of things can get you into a peck of trouble. My little brother killed a big Diamondback one time. Now, he knew that his boss was askeert of snakes, but he didn't know how bad. ??? He took the dead snake to said boss's truck and placed it in the passenger floorboard. He tied a piece of fishing line around it's neck (or whatever serves for a neck on a snake), ran it through the steering wheel and tied it to the window winder handle. Boss comes out and snatches the door open, thereby launching the snake across the truck, right at his face. What ensued was not a pretty scene, but it involved a call to 911, as well as a termination of employment. :o Boss regained his color in about 6 weeks, and li'l Bro got his job back, but things weren't never the same, after that. :D :D