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JOURNAL STAR (Peoria, Illinois) 14 April 06 Rounding up rattlers, Texas-style - An annual rattlesnake roundup brings in thousands of pounds of slitherers each year - and has put a Texas town on the map. (Jaime Holguin)
Sweetwater, Texas (AP): Every year they congregate in this small West Texas town.
People from nearby Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado, and from as far away as Boston and Norway, descend on sleepy Sweetwater to catch a glimpse of one of the most venomous creatures on Earth: the rattlesnake.
More than 284,000 pounds of rattlesnakes have been rounded up here since the event that calls itself the World's Largest Rattlesnake Roundup began 48 years ago.
The four-day festival, organized and put on by the Sweetwater Jaycees on the second weekend of every March, includes a snake charmer pageant, flea markets, a gun show and a small carnival. But the main attraction, of course, is the hunt for snakes, which draws about 30,000 people every year.
asap's JAIME HOLGUIN traveled to Sweetwater with a video camera to capture the roundup, and to better understand the integral role it plays in the livelihood of the community.
In these video clips (http://asap.ap.org/stories/513988.s), learn how the roundup came into existence. Step into a milking pit and watch a handler extract venom. Watch what happens to a snake after it's been milked. Go along on a guided hunt and watch how snakes are caught. And learn what the roundup means to companies that make products out of snakes, and to the town of Sweetwater.
Meanwhile, here are some interesting tidbits:
Rattler Records
The five years with the biggest hauls from the rattlesnake roundup:
1982 -- 17,986 pounds
1983 -- 15,053 pounds
2006 -- 13,552 pounds
1985 -- 12,797 pounds
1988 -- 11,709 pounds
Quick Bites
-- Rattlesnakes have a musk gland, and the Jaycees go through about a case of Right Guard during the roundup weekend to keep the smell down in the Nolan County Coliseum, where the rounded up snakes are displayed.
-- If you come across a rattlesnake, stand still and holler. Snakes don't have ears. If no one is around to help you, try your best not to panic, and slowly start to ease your way out. Good luck to you.
-- A rattlesnake won't shake its rattle unless it feels threatened. That's a warning to stay away. However, most of the time a snake will strike before it ever rattles.
-- Some rattlesnakes will bite, but won't inject venom. It's known as a "dry hit."
-- Underneath their tail, rattlesnakes have a penile cavity, where roundup participants will insert a lubricated prod to determine the animal's sex. If it goes in, it's a male; if it doesn't, it's a female.
-- If you are bitten by a rattlesnake, do not have someone cut the wound and attempt to suck out the venom. If that person has any sores in their mouth, the poison will go straight into their bloodstream. Also, do not apply a tourniquet -- The more concentrated the venom is, the more damage it will do in that area. If you are bitten, stay calm to keep your heart rate down, and get to a hospital as soon as you can.
-- Q: Can you tell a rattlesnake's age by the number of rattles it has? A: No. There's no obvious way to determine its age.
-- Rattlesnakes don't have eyelids. When they shed from nose to tail, the skin temporarily blinds them. This is when they're most dangerous and will strike violently at anything -- even other rattlesnakes -- that comes close.
Rounding up rattlers, Texas-style

I responded to this article by writing a letter to the editor of this paper. It's bad enough that we have to deal with this in Texas, but for this to be supported in Illinois is absurd!
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Tim Cole
www.Designeratrox.com/
www.AustinReptileService.net
www.AustinReptileExpo.com/
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