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Are you afraid of snakes?

#62
I don't mind snakes. I've been bitten by over a dozen of them - mostly gopher snakes, king snakes and coachwhips (racers). One time I brought a king snake home from the field when my daughter was four. I took it out of the container, and it bit me, but my daughter kept yelling, "Daddy, daddy, I want to hold him!" I said, "Sweetie, you just saw him bite me, he'll probably bite you too." "I don't care, I want to hold him." So I gave it to her and, sure enough, it didn't bite her. A friend of mine who lives out in the sticks used to give me snakes to show her. She always held them. Strangely, she'll hold any non-poisonous snake you hand her, but she's really afraid of spiders. BTW, all snakes were released back into the wild after a day or two.
 
#63
Drunk Heffalump said:
Now while buddies rattler is quite abnormal in size, I'm suspecting Photoshop, wait till some of our Australian friends pipe in on what they've got lurking in the weeds.....
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It's not the big ones you have to worry about ;)

Bassic Playing said:
To be honest, it's a snake, not a bear, or something that will run you down and eat your arms off. They're not that bad.
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Yeah, I never get the whole "Australia being filled with dangerous animals" thing. You can avoid pretty much anything deadly here by briskly walking the opposite direction. Heck, half the time all you have to do is not step on them.

I talk to friends from Canada etc. who talk about camping trips and having to bear-proof everything so you don't get eaten in the middle of the night. Sounds way more dangerous!
 
#69
Munji - did you meet your twin from this thread? JimB52?

Link Removed

Munjibunga said:
I don't mind snakes. I've been bitten by over a dozen of them - mostly gopher snakes, king snakes and coachwhips (racers). One time I brought a king snake home from the field when my daughter was four. I took it out of the container, and it bit me, but my daughter kept yelling, "Daddy, daddy, I want to hold him!" I said, "Sweetie, you just saw him bite me, he'll probably bite you too." "I don't care, I want to hold him." So I gave it to her and, sure enough, it didn't bite her. A friend of mine who lives out in the sticks used to give me snakes to show her. She always held them. Strangely, she'll hold any non-poisonous snake you hand her, but she's really afraid of spiders. BTW, all snakes were released back into the wild after a day or two.
Click to expand...
 
#71
I have a genuine, diagnosed, phobia of snakes. Not reptiles, just snakes.

I have help capture and relocate an alligator before, no problem. Small grass snake? I'm running or throwing things (true fight or flight response.)

Funny story that my daughter still remembers from when she was about 4. We were leaving to go somewhere. She said "oh look there's a snake" and my wife said "be careful, you don't know what kind it is it could be dangerous."

The next thing they saw was my 3lb mallet fly between them and smash the hell out of it. and then a concrete rabbit sculpture that's near the sidewalk.

That's how bad the phobia is, I didn't need to see it, I heard the words and went into auto-pilot and grabbed something heavy. (Note: I didn't throw it until I saw the snake, but the response was all automatic..)

It's scary sometimes. Because a lot of time you just react. There is no thought to it. Even if you later realize how dumb what you did was. That is why the definition of phobia is "an irrational fear".

Example, when I was a teenager, a friend found out I was afraid of snakes and thought it would be funny to put one on me. He came at me with one and I grabbed the first thing near me and smack him in the head and then clubbed the snake on the ground.

I felt horrible later, but that's what I meant about just reacting. You don't think, you just have a primal urge to keep it away from you, if running away is most expedient you'll do that otherwise, you will grab anything that is available to kill/drive off the snake..
 
#73
I have worked at a zoo for 16 years and have spent my time trying to educate the public that these are not bad animals - snakes, bats, birds all the animals that people seem to be afraid of. There is nothing wrong with being afaid of them, but I just hate to see them killed for no reason, they are an important part of our ecosystem and have every right to be here just like us. I am personally terrified of spiders, but when I find them in my house I collect and remove to a new location without harm, it is the intelligent and respectful thing to do. Fears can be worked with. I am also very afraid of heights, however I overcame that and worked as an arborist for years climbing to the tops of trees with chainsaws - because I feel trees are soo cool. I realize I will never change the minds of people that feel killing them is the only thing to do, but I really feel you could man up and overcome an unwarranted fear and develop a healthy respect for them, and learn to appreciate all they do for us in a very fragile and intricate ecosystem. I will bow out of this thread now and choose to miss the bunny hugger comments but wanted to share my .02. As always, YMMV :D


Addition - I respect the phobia mentioned above, there are truly some impossible things to overcome for some people. But I feel that the vast majority of people do not have a true phobia and are just overreacting.
 
#77
Simo98 said:
I talk to friends from Canada etc. who talk about camping trips and having to bear-proof everything so you don't get eaten in the middle of the night. Sounds way more dangerous!
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Camping at the Kern River last summer a friend had to walk uphill to retrieve something from his car.
All of the sudden we hear him yell "HEY GUYS", and its followed by a light thunderous rumbling.
What, pray tell, should run by our camp? A small stampede of Bulls.

Stewie26 said:
Snakes don't scare me too much. On the other hand, spiders creep me out. We have lots of Black Widows around here.
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A couple months ago I went to reset the breaker after the lights went out.
I opened up the box and right there on the switch I need to flip is a big fat black widow.
Im none too keen on having to reset the breaker anymore. Not without being armed with a shoe.
 
#78
MatticusMania said:
A couple months ago I went to reset the breaker after the lights went out.
I opened up the box and right there on the switch I need to flip is a big fat black widow.
Im none too keen on having to reset the breaker anymore. Not without being armed with a shoe.
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Years ago on a job, I opened up the breaker box in some guy's boathouse and there was a gigantic wolf spider splayed across the breakers like a brown, furry hand. I then gently closed the door to the box, so the spider wouldn't get scared and would stay put. A few minutes later, the electrician (and helper) comes along so we can assess how we wanted to wire things and I pretend I haven't located the breaker box yet. Naturally, he tells his helper to go look for the box.

I almost couldn't contain myself.

The box was mounted to one of the rail posts - but at foot level, instead of face level. All of a sudden we hear, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" coming from the poor helper as he almost does a back flip from trying to stand up and move backward so quickly. People have told me that was really mean, but I didn't have that reaction when I saw the spider, so I still think it was hilarious. :D
 
#80
My favorite Indiana Jones moment.

I was in the Rockies with a woman I had dated for about five years. We were hiking, and had stopped in a beautiful spot above Boulder Colorado, in the flatiron range; Flagstaff Mountain, to be exact. She was yammering on about something "she" said, about "her" to "someone," or "something," and she got irritated with me, and said, "you're not even listening to me."

I said, "I was thinking more about your naked ankles."

She got a funny look on her face, and said something like, "huh?"

I said, "I was thinking about your naked ankles, and how close they are to that big pile of rocks, and how all those little gaps between the rocks probably contain rattlesnakes, and just kind of mentally going through my little checklist of what I have to do when you get bit." (the correct word was "bitten," but I wasn't concerned with that at that exact moment)

I'm not afraid of snakes, but I happened to know she was, and even if I'm not afraid of them, I don't really put myself in a position to have them strike me, if I don't have to. And I'm sure you will agree, I didn't have to. I was the one wearing boots, and not tennis shoes, and I was the one who wasn't exposing myself to gaps in rocks.

And I was the one who was aware of his surroundings, while out in a beautiful, natural setting, that could easily turn deadly about a thousand different ways.

So I cracked my bullwhip and attached it to a big tree, and we swung back to the car, and drove to a five star hotel with a hot tub, and made passionate love the rest of the night.*




*Some of the things in the last paragraph may not have happened exactly as I described. I don't even have a bullwhip.
 

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