Snakes Alive! Are you afraid of snakes?

[veraborges]

I m actually living in a place that means “viper´s place”. Despite the fact it is a gated residential area, there are quite some of them. I try to avoid lifting big stones and do not go too far away off the road with the kids though, even close to the buildings,
you can see them pretty much often.

[Jackmannii]

@gytalf2000

I have always liked snakes, even as a wee child. They are fascinating critters! Once, during the late 1980s, my cousin and I posed with a fourteen-foot Burmese python named “Satan” at one of the local malls.

At least it wasn’t named “Snuggles”. :eek:

[Ulfreida]

@kayaker

There are snakes that take to trees to reproduce. I was kayaking with my son in Keystone Power Lake, and he was ten yards away from me, near the shoreline in a shallow area. I urgently asked him to paddle toward me.

There were two huge black snakes mating in the tree he had just been under. Although not afraid of snakes, he was pretty gobsmacked.

I didn’t get a pic, but this is pretty much what was happening.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SR0oUCCKtG0/T7UECK10ZwI/AAAAAAAACLc/ta6vbiKyj5M/s1600/Black+Snake+1.jpg

Cool! What a great thing to see!

[Ulfreida]

@Honey

I cannot even imagine living somewhere where the snakes are dripping from the trees. ::shudder::

You know, there are proven methods for ridding yourself of irrational phobias. Google “exposure therapy”.

Oddly, most people have no interest in getting over them, no matter how debilitating or foolish.

[Kovitlac]

I don’t particularly like them, but I don’t hate them either. They don’t freak me out. I walked into a pet store once only to have an employee shoved a small snake into my hands, no doubt trying to get me to freak out. I stood there confused, and he remarked, “Hey, you’re not afraid of it!” Uh, no, it’s a harmless little thing.

I wouldn’t want one as a pet, though. Feeding them crickets or other bugs is one thing, but the bigger ones that consume rats or mice, FUCK no. I used to keep hamsters, and I’d love to do so again someday. I’d keep picturing a snake swallowing my cute little guys whole and it makes me a little sick. Knowing how snakes kill their prey (crushing them or swallowing them alive) really freaks me out. I know they can’t help it. but I’ll never get a snake as a pet.

[GrizzRich]

Afraid?.. no. They do tend to surprise me with fair regularity, though.

Why I saw two just today on my bike ride. A Black Racer (nonvenomous) was on the narrow dirt-path leading from the paved path to my truck, and I nearly (accidentally) ran it over.
Also saw a cottonmouth (highly venomous) crossing the paved path and I rode past it, giving a wide berth; then decided to turn around to get a photo. I got just a touch too close for it’s comfort and it scooted off into the underbrush beside the path.

[Sangahyando]

@Ulfreida

You know, there are proven methods for ridding yourself of irrational phobias. Google “exposure therapy”.

Oddly, most people have no interest in getting over them, no matter how debilitating or foolish.

I have thought of taking this route, concerning spiders and my feelings about them; but it hasn’t felt urgent enough for me to follow through – this business being nowhere near “debilitating” for me, and being nothing like life-blighting: just, I’m less than happy about unexpected encounters with large spiders – for me, a rare occurrence. (Little spiders, I find rather charming.) And I live in a country with no spiders which can physically harm you – pretty much, anyway: I understand that we have in Britain something called a “woodlouse spider” – an acquaintance of mine says that he was once bitten by one of these: the experience was of course not pleasant.