# I caught the snapping turtle. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 10, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520 "2009-07-10T02:32:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/1 "2009-07-10T02:32:17Z")
I took the flashlight out to the lotus pool and there the bastard was, in the corner. I scooped him up with the pool net and into a plastic tub with holes drilled into the lid. He has an inch of water, and at 7:00 AM I will take him to the pond at the golf course on the way to work. My fish, lotus and Euryale ferox are safe. Now for the red eared slider… ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/2 "2009-07-10T02:35:58Z")
Don’t let him snap onto you, because he won’t let loose until he hears thunder. I mean, everyone knows that about snapping turtles, right? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/3 "2009-07-10T02:37:42Z")
I still have all my fingers. He has met the Big Net. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/4 "2009-07-10T02:41:23Z")
Why not cook him up and have some friends over? This would allow one of your dinner guests to actually get a real-life usage of the line: “I’d like some turtle soup. And make it snappy.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/5 "2009-07-10T02:46:36Z")
If you were from neighboring Mississippi, I’d believe you. 🙂 How old is a foot long snapper? Eating my lotus and goldfish is just making a living for him. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/6 "2009-07-10T03:03:11Z")
[This](http://www.pestcontrolrx.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/30/giant_snapping_turtle.jpg)is a big snapper. I’ll guestimate 80+ years, I’ve never seen one of those personally the ones here in RI are half that size but still huge. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/7 "2009-07-10T03:10:51Z")
An idiot at work once described capturing one and putting it in the back of his truck. Alchol was involved. It bit a fence post in the back of the truck in half. Releasing it the next morning was…difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/8 "2009-07-10T04:16:41Z")
I picked one up that was crossing the road (it involved chickens, don’t ask) and the sucker almost got me. I couldn’t believe how fast the turtle’s head could swing around. Next time I’ll just punt. Seriously, be careful. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/9 "2009-07-10T06:06:54Z")
I accidentally walked up to one in the creek behind my parents’ house in suburban Lexington Ky when I was a teenager. It stared at me, I stared at it, and then I just walked away wondering what it was doing there in the first place as in all the years I’d lived there (14) I’d never seen one before. ---
**Author:** ![conurepete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@conurepete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conurepete)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/10 "2009-07-10T10:21:50Z")
Even if he is only hard-hat sized, don’t hold him like the Phlosphr’s photo-they have long necks and could easily bite anyone holding the front shell.( I am wondering why the photo turtle has not) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/11 "2009-07-10T12:23:58Z")
I poured him from the tub into Golf Pond this morning. We are both safe. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/12 "2009-07-10T12:38:13Z")
This is the first time that I’ve heard of a carnivorous plant catching something as big as a turtle. Although I have seen the effect of a snapper on a flotilla of ducks. ---
**Author:** ![schnuckiputzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@schnuckiputzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schnuckiputzi)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/13 "2009-07-10T12:47:43Z")
On the other side, Alley Oop, my alligator snapping turtle, is the size of a half-dollar, knows his name, and comes to be fed, opening his mouth like a baby bird. I haven’t been bit yet, but I’m careful with my fingers. He’s just a widdle bittie baby toitle, he is.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/14 "2009-07-10T13:07:41Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I picked one up that was crossing the road (it involved chickens, don’t ask) and the sucker almost got me. I had the same near-miss experience years ago (from a misguided charitable impulse to save the creature from being squashed by traffic). You have to be careful about things that hang out in ornamental ponds. One night in Texas I decided to clear algae out of an above-ground water feature that housed plants and a mysteriously disappearing population of goldfish. After I’d repeatedly hauled out handfuls of green gook from the bottom, there was a sudden boiling up of water a couple feet away and a biiiig snake reared out of the water and left in a huff. :eek: O.K. **Magiver** , we need the rest of the story about the snapping turtle and the chickens. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/15 "2009-07-10T13:27:00Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > [This](http://www.pestcontrolrx.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/30/giant_snapping_turtle.jpg)is a big snapper. I’ll guestimate 80+ years, I’ve never seen one of those personally the ones here in RI are half that size but still huge. lol snapper does _not_ look happy in that picture … though he does look delicious 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/16 "2009-07-10T13:28:28Z")
One had gotten his nose run over by a vehicle on the road in front of my old house, and appeared to have a fractured jaw. Was surprisingly calm as I picked him up, put him into a box, and brought him to the local wildlife rehabber. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/17 "2009-07-10T13:33:10Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > [This](http://www.pestcontrolrx.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/30/giant_snapping_turtle.jpg)is a big snapper. I’ll guestimate 80+ years, I’ve never seen one of those personally the ones here in RI are half that size but still huge. You realize, of course, that there are considerable difference between alligator and common snappers? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/18 "2009-07-10T13:46:42Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > You realize, of course, that there are considerable difference between alligator and common snappers? Oh my, that _is_ Macrochelys temminckii. I’m surprised he didn’t have their hands off. 🙂 My guy was a very calm Chelydra serpentina. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/19 "2009-07-10T13:48:03Z")
Once my golf ball landed where six or seven of those little bastards were sunning themselves. I figured it was no problem, walked over there, ran back. My boyfriend thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520/20 "2009-07-10T13:57:05Z")
Does the golf course know that you deposited a vicious critter in their pond? Might want to warn the groundskeepers! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-caught-the-snapping-turtle/502520.md?page=2)