RobK - The pond is located on Hwy. 72 between Cuero and Yorktown in Dewitt County. I took some pictures of the pond tonight and will upload them tomorrow (very slow connection here at the ranch). I'm between 4 and 5 miles west of the Guadalupe River. I killed two snakes tonight - both were Diamondback Water Snakes. I didn't see any water moccasins tonight, which is a good thing, but I hate all snakes and will continue to shoot them all. Like I described earlier, the pond is about 1 acre; a little less now with the lack of rainfall recently. The vegetation extends from the banks about 8-10 feet. It is a natural pond, and I began restocking it with bass about 6 weeks ago (I put the minnows and perch in and in late October/early September will put the bass in).

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Shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out...

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+1

Get a couple of the minnow traps and submerge them at half depth over night or a couple of days. Be sure to bait the traps, the basturds will follow the fish in the trap.

Throw the trap in the water to drown the effers for a couple of hours.

Good luck old lady.

My folks bought a big flock of guineas and put em out on the farm, and after about a month we haven't seen ANY more snakes. They are VERY aggressive toward snakes.

Nope, don't even need to see the pics, where you are and that amount of vegetation is perfect for Cottonmouths. Clearing the vegetation would be your only hope to cut down on them. I will say that where you are, that killing them is useless biologically. The recruitment in that area would be rather fast. Kill one and another will fill it's spot in no time. As far as trapping snakes, if it happens by accident well so be it, but you might want to check on the legality. I know I am not allowed to set up drift fences and pitfall traps. You are just in an area with a large population and your pond with the vegetation is going to attract them, your pond is going to support x number of snakes, and that x number of snakes are there to stay. Try the guineas though, of course that might just make them bigger. Make sure not to kill any of Kingsnakes, Indigos and Whipsnakes in the area, as they will be your best biological control.

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I've been bit by two snakes in my life... a copperhead that I stepped on accidently, and a cottonmouth that I kicked on purpose... because he was chasing me.

Not as bad as I pictured it from your description. Pull up all the brush around the pond. It looks pretty isolated in the field, and cannot support that many cottonmouths. Pulling out the brush and removing any nearby cover (boards, tin, trash, etc) will deprive the snakes of the cover they need. Still being where you are, you will never be able to eradicate them but removing the cover will help.

I wish my tanks had water.

This may be a dumb question, but do water snakes put off the same "musk" that a cottonmout puts off? Nothin is worse for me to smell them without being able to see them.

I bet you guys scream like girls when you step too close to a snake without seeing it, and it moves suddenly.

Bear Grylls at least has more stones than that. He eats the damn things alive! Don't be such 'fraidy cats. It's a scaly meat tube with a mouth. Big deal. Keep your distance from the venomous ones, and drive on. Besides, for every one you do see, there are a dozen you don't.

The only think that pisses me off about snakes is when they bite you when you're just trying to move them out of the road or someone's flowerbed. Those teeth are freakin sharp, but the bites are pretty painless. It's just hard to get the teeth loose because colubrid snakes mostly have inward angled teeth.

[This message has been edited by MouthBQ98 (edited 8/28/2009 9:36a).]

Also, FYI, ursa is right about telling them apart while swimming. A moccasin holds it's head well clear of the water at about a 30 degree angle up, neck straight. A water snake will have it's head almost at water level, though it may crane it's head up and sink it's body to look around.

Yes all snakes have musk, Most aquatic snakes are worse then others. Mouth be careful it is ILLEGAL to move a snake off the road, Class 2 Misdemeanor. I doubt you would be given a ticket for it however anywhere east of Del Rio though.

I've had luck trapping them in a wire perch trap. I narrowed the entry (about 1" and baited the center wire cylinder with goldfish. The trap was about 18 inches tall and I only submerged about half of it. Tie a string on it so you can lift it out of the water without getting near the snake. Make sure you release them from the trap with the exit hatch pointing away from you.

>>Class 2 Misdemeanor<<

Misdemeanors are graded A, B, and C in Texas.

and I'd like to know where that is codified.

Anyone ever had the crap scared out of them by having a cottonmouth drop down out of a tree/bush or low hanging branch near the edge of the water! Sweet, Mary, mother of ****** that is enough to stop your heart. Heard stories about them dropping down into little boats from guys paddling around the edges of an overgrown stock-tank while fishing the edges.

never had one drop out of a tree on me, but was steering while a buddy lifted one into the boat on a trot line late one night and it got loose in the boat. THAT was exciting.

I lifted a window up once to yell at a buddy outside and dislodged about a 5' long snake from on top of the eaves and around my neck. Sumbi***.

I'm pretty comfortable around snakes and it still scared the s*** out of me.

Sorry I believe Class B

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife
No person may hunt (capture, trap, take, or kill) any wild animal or wild bird on a public road or the right-of-way of a public road.
THIS DOES INCLUDE MOVING ANIMALS OFF THE ROAD, AND TICKETS CAN/HAVE BEEN WRITTEN

Hunting reptiles

Another bill would let Texans hunt, trap or capture insects, reptiles or amphibians from a public road or right of way.

Supporters, such as Herp Conservation Unlimited, say the bill is needed to restore herpetology rights stripped by past legislators. Critics say it would make it hard for game wardens to ticket Texans for hunting in the wrong areas, such as roads, because they can say they were searching for insects, reptiles or amphibians. The bill has been approved by a House committee.

This bill "would reverse the ban on road hunting (stopping on public roads, getting out of the car, and walking road-cuts or otherwise picking up herps seen on the road or right of way)," according to a blog post by the DFW Herpetological Society. "This prohibition on road hunting was pushed through the legislature in 2007.

"Representative Tracy King (D-Batesville) tried to exempt reptiles and amphibians in an early version of the bill, but ultimately the road hunting ban was attached to a larger bill and passed," the post said. "Now Rep. King is once again riding to the rescue by filing this bill."


Sec. 62.0031. HUNTING FROM PUBLIC ROAD OR RIGHT-OF-WAY
PROHIBITED. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person may
not hunt a wild animal or bird when the person is on a public road or
right-of-way.
(b) This section does not apply to the trapping of a raptor
for educational or sporting purposes as provided by Chapter 49.


[This message has been edited by Robk (edited 8/28/2009 2:09p).]

I stop all the time to move box turtles off the road. If I get a ticket for doing it I assure you the officer that issues the ticket will rue the day.

Sean, Yep I know of one case in court now. Would a warden write a ticket if your moving a turtle off the road, most likely not. Would he search your vehicle, again most likely not. However he would be within the law to do so. It is an idiotic and almost unenforceable law, BUT it is a law on the books.

Well I'll be a...something comes to mind about respect/love...law/sausage...I forget the rest.

I’ve heard of using one of those wire fish baskets, rig it were the top is just below the surface of the water. Bait it with some fish, they’ll swim into it and get trapped and drown. I think putting a rock in the bottom or securing it down helps. I vaguely remember my dad talking about doing something like this growing up.

Dammit! I rescue critters from getting squished on the road all the time. I'm potentially breaking a law doing it?? Talk about a call for jury nullification...

FWIW, I TRY to nudge or guide them off the road, but if that doesn't work, I catch em and move em well off the roadside.

Robk, good information. The ins and outs of the legislation is annoying as all get out. One of the other aspects (and general positive if there is one) was it's relation to commercial collecting related to some species.---I realize in the end, it drives my herper buddies nuts.

--Just an fyi--You can not have in your possession more than 10 any nongame species (snakes, turtles etc.)

Personally, I still move stuff off the road if my stopping isn't going to cause a traffic issue. Then again, I have the ability to simply pull my scientific collector permit.

Ursus - you people with those collecting permits suck!!! wanna add me .
Yes, I do not keep any snakes myself, but do know about the limit before you have to have your collectors permit. I did learn today about needing a permit to keep non-native hots. Don't know when that one passed.

Anyway we were very close to reversing the ban this year. Had there not been the filibuster at the end of the session we would have made it. We learned a lot this last session, but most importantly we learned who is behind the ban. Common sense, reasoning and fairness plays no part in the lawmaking process. If they did the ban would have never gone into effect (the legislature had voted unanimously to exclude reptiles from the ban as they did birds of prey)and a certain lawmaker would not have added the different language after the vote. Anyway we will make our donations this upcoming election year, keep our lobbyist and hopefully get it changed in 2011.

Sorry for the hijack, clear the brush and understand you will never get rid of them. Killing them will just allow more to move in.

[This message has been edited by Robk (edited 8/28/2009 4:21p).]

[This message has been edited by Robk (edited 8/28/2009 4:23p).]

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Just an fyi--You can not have in your possession more than 10 any nongame species (snakes, turtles etc.)

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Good Lord, between the number of box turtles I picked up of the shoulders and the number I kept in my backyard pen (pushing 30 at one point; pen was big) as a kid, I was almost a felon. Geez.

This crap ranks right up there with it being illegal to walk around with a pair of pliers in your back pocket (remnant from the cattle rustling days; pliers used to cut wire fences).

Log, it is a pain in the rear. It was done partially to deal with the commercial collection of turtles. Believe it or not, there were watershed that were having significant loses in turtle populations due to commercial collecting (ie-harvesting for asia).

They actually bust folks over in Canton for it quite a bit.

Back when I was a kid I used to keep box turtles as pets, too. Had a pen full of them. Even got them to reproduce.

I can't remember the last time I've come across one in the wild. Been a couple of decades at least.

Every-so-often I'll stop to let a Berlandier's tortoise (Texas tortoise) cross the road. South of town, of course.

Ursus, don't let them fool you. The road ban had Nada to do with the turtle issue. The turtle issue was covered by the white list and public waterways ban.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/southern_and_midwestern_freshwater_turtles/pdfs/emergency-petition-texas.pdf

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/releases/?req=20070409d

The road ban was 100% the efforts of a few higher ups in TPWD to curb alterna hunters in west Texas. This stems from a 1990's underover operation (operation rockcut) that blew up in TPWD and USFWS faces. These higher ups still feel all herpers are poachers, and that we all make hundreds of dollars a night while out looking. These higher ups have said in testimony that they are willing to work with us, however when push comes to shove thy are not listening or working.
One thing to consider, it is Texas parks and wildlifes charter that they must provide opurtunties for all sportsmen, however they refuse to give us accesss to WMA's. They are providing us with NO public land to pursue our hobby, and have no desire to. Luckily most game wardens out here understand us, and are for the most part a pleasure to deal with. However they must do there job and I understand that.

Thanks for the info. I take what I pick up from various places. I have to dabble in so many issues, I can't keep track of all of them.

I certainly see your argument. Makes perfectly good sense. I'll keep it in mind when opportunities arise.

What AggieRob93 said.