Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any funny stories about people's ignorance about snakes?

Last week, my summer roommate confessed that she was terrified that my amel corn snake would "start eating her at the toe, and move all the way up until she couldn't breathe."

i live in vermont, lots of misconceptions.

"all snakes can hurt you'

"most are venomous, even some garters"

"checkerdadder's" (a non existant venomous that has checkers{along with every other snake in vt} that most people claim to have seen)

"everything in movies regarding snakes is real"

thats only a few
-----
jake

my addiction:
0.2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1 amelenistic corn snake (maizy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
1.0 albino cal king (zeus)
0.0.1 wc garter (zim)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

yeah, watch out for those checker adders, also called spotted adders... highly venemous.

I really like how Milksnakes got their name. Around here there is an old wive's tail that they would sneak into barns and steal milk from the tits of cows. This probably stems from the fact that barns tend to be places where people are likely to encounter the species but for obviously different reasons.

If I think of any others I'll post them. The milksnake/spotted adder mix up is a pretty common one that gets lots of harmless snakes killed by people "protecting their children"

milks are usualy the ones people call checker dadders around here(could be because the rattle thier tail), yes some people actualy call them checker dadders.

but because most snakes around here have checkers and they cant tell a amel corn from a boa (true story) every snake with checkers or without stripes is a checkerdadder the rest are gardner snakes.
-----
jake

my addiction:
0.2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1 amelenistic corn snake (maizy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
1.0 albino cal king (zeus)
0.0.1 wc garter (zim)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

I keep hearing one about the "2 step snake" in Vietnam...it bites you and you take 2 steps and you are dead...

also have heard people talk about rattlers and garters cross breeding and producing venomous garters...

I read somewhere the boa was named for the same myth (bos = cow in Latin).

Here's a couple of the funny (or not-so-funny?) things I've heard people say about snakes:

1. They try to sting you with their tongue.

2. Rattlesnakes and gartersnakes can hybridize with each other to produce dangerously venomous garters.

I'm totally serious about that second one. I got into a debate with the guy who said that one... I had science and logic on my side, the only thing he had was that his "cousin's friend saw one" or something like that.
-----
- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

1.0 Banded California King
1.0 Mexican Black King
1.0 Goini Kingsnake
1.0 Bay of LA Rosy Boa
2.1 Kenyan Sand Boas
1.2 Rubber Boas
0.1 Pickering's Gartersnake

you think those stories of rattlesnake/garter snake hybrids come from people not understanding why many nonvenomous snakes "rattle" their tails when threatened? I guess someone long ago put "2 and 2 together" and figured they were a dangerous combination of the two.
-----
-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (TBD)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)

Do garters rattle their tails? It doesn't particularly stick out in my mind as something I remember seeing. All the kings and gophers I've caught rattle like crazy, but I can't remember any of the garters doing it.
-----
- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

1.0 Banded California King
1.0 Mexican Black King
1.0 Goini Kingsnake
1.0 Bay of LA Rosy Boa
2.1 Kenyan Sand Boas
1.2 Rubber Boas
0.1 Pickering's Gartersnake

im sure any snake can learn it

and since yhe people were talking about dont know garters from rattlers its possible there is some misidentification
-----
jake

my addiction:
0.2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1 amelenistic corn snake (maizy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
1.0 albino cal king (zeus)
0.0.1 wc garter (zim)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

I was thinking the same thing when I read the above post. I can't recall garters rattling their tails as a defence either. Garters on the other hand are one of the muskiest snakes I've ever encountered. Though I do remember some Narodia (watersnakes) rattling their tails. Them being extremely closely related to the Thamnophis genus.

There are lots of classics in most snake books, but here's a couple you don't read about very often.

"Water Moccasins" are aggressive (not true at all).

Coralsnakes can't bite humans since their mouths/fangs are too small. Sometimes people will add the exception that they can bite a fleshy flap like right between the fingers. (The truth is a coralsnake could bite the palm of your hand.)

Coralsnakes don't bite (anyone who has dealt with more than a few corals know most bite readily and aggressively - they don't coil and strike, but they do bite!).

Two of my favorites which seem to be Texas specialties....

"A friend of a cousin of my next door neighbor's aunt" waterskiied into a "nest of moccasins" on the lake and was bit 233 times. Sometimes a boater inadvertently drives a boat/canoe into one these "mocassin nests" in a tree and hundreds of snakes rain down on them, striking savagely as they fall.

"My daddy's cousin's grandfather" can catch a live rattlesnake by the tail and snap it like a whip causing the head to pop off the body, killing it instantly.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

people around here do that tail snap thing to garters.

they also think it kills them instantly, and when i tell them that the snake is now paralyzed and will slowly die over the next 6 months. then the mumble "iducareillkydufugginthingsanyway snakes just creep me out"
-----
jake

my addiction:
0.2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1 amelenistic corn snake (maizy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
1.0 albino cal king (zeus)
0.0.1 wc garter (zim)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

I have been told the first two time and time again by just about every Mexican co-worker that has found out about my snake addiction. No amount of fact or natural history has ever worked in swaying them toward reason. I can see the terror in their eyes as they recount these tales of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends that have suffered these snake-related tragedies. I really couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!

1) There are snakes in Mexico that will jump to the level of your face and tail-whip you to death.

2) There is a certain snake that waits for a young woman to walk by as it lies in ambush. When she approaches, the snake whistles to catch her attention. When she goes to investigate, the snake hypnotizes her and "milks" her.

3) A young man once told me his uncle was missing two calves on his ranch just outside of Acapulco. When he went to investigate, he found a giant snake with two lumps in the middle. The snake was killed and the half digested calves were found!

I could go on....
-----
Diego

Diego & Tiffany's Zoo:
SNAKES
0.1.0 Boa Constrictor
1.2.0 Corn Snakes (Different morphs)
1.1.0 Hypo Everglades Rat Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Pacific Gopher Snake
2.1.0 Sonoran Gopher Snakes
0.1.0 Amel Sonoran Gopher Snake
1.1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnakes
1.1.0 California Kingsnake
3.2.0 Rosy Boas (Mexican, Temecula, & Bagdad)
1.1.0 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1.0 Indonesian Dwarf Pacific Boa
1.1.0 Cape York Spotted Pythons
1.1.0 Western Hognoses
0.0.1 Lyre Snake
0.0.1 Glossy Snake
0.0.1 Shovelnose

LIZARDS
2.0.0 Bearded Dragons
1.0.0 African Fat-Tail Gecko
0.1.0 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink
1.4.2 Leopard Geckos
1.0.1 Yellow Niger Uromastyx
1.1.1 Chuckwalla
1.4.0 Banded Gecko
0.0.1 Gold Dust Day Gecko
1.1.3 Sandfish
2.0.0 Desert Iguanas

AMPHIBIANS
1.0.1 Green Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Bubbling Kassina
0.0.1 White's Tree Frog
0.0.2 Gold Frogs
1.0.0 Fire Salamander

A know-it-all at a park told me that he once got bit by a baby rattle snake. Then he told me that baby rattle snakes are black with a yellow stripe. This was in MI.

I've heard every one of these posted misconceptions, and many more rediculous ones.

a rattlesnake won't cross a rope layed across it's path.

a freshly killed snake won't die until the sun goes down.

the "classic" "Hoopsnake", that will grab it's own tail by the mouth and role down hill to persue it's victims.

I also love the one that "chrish" mentioned, about the "nest" of moccasins!LOL

A guy once told me that he found a "yellow chicken snake" in his kitchen cabinet,.........he said that it was attracted to the infant's "baby formula" that was stored in the shelves!!LOL
He stated that they are attracted to lactating "womenses"!!,and yes,....the spelling is EXACTLY the way he told it to me!

I told him that the snake was simply attracted to all the rodents that were in his house, and got alot of "chuckles" out of the rest of the people that heard this!LOL

I'll say it again,.....my favorite analogy is...."it's been that way since the BEGINNING of time,....and will continue this way till the END of time"........peoples ignorance of snakes(and many other things) will never end.

pictured below is a "chicken snake" I caught in Brevard County that is doing VERY well on "baby formula"!!LOL

best regards, ~Doug

-----
"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Doug,
The first 3 you mentioned were popular ones back in my days, mid 60's, while growing up in the Apopka area.

a rattlesnake won't cross a rope layed across it's path.

the "classic" "Hoopsnake", that will grab it's own tail by the mouth and role down hill to persue it's victims.

The only exception is for the first one I heard it had to be a horse hair rope. This could've been after I proved 'em wrong once. Ha! Ha!

Another one for the list:
A water moccasin will jump in the boat with you if you get near it. This one came from boaters that startled snakes on logs & limbs while tying off the boat and the snakes fell into the boat while trying to get away. Couldn't tell anyone that, though.

Have a good one!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Yeah!,....

For sure the one about "jumping" in the boat, was no doubt started by people that came upon a resting snake and startled the heck out of it, and it bolted off and just happened to land in the boat frantically trying to escape!!LOL

Along the same lines as people telling me they were chased by snakes for quite some distance!LOL........again, a startled snake not knowing which direction to run in a state of panic!

Oh,....and yes!, I can understand how the rope you mentioned WOULD have to be made out of horse hair Only!!....how ignorant of me to think any other material would do the job!LOL

take care, ~Doug
-----
"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

the one about rope was mentioned on the mythbusters forum.

there are alot of crazy snake myths there:

a rattler fang can get stuck in a boot and kill whovever wears it

if you move side to side it will scare a snake/ make it dizzy and it will run off

and many others, i have to "bust" snake myths on a daily basis
-----
jake

my addiction:
0.2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1 amelenistic corn snake (maizy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
1.0 albino cal king (zeus)
0.0.1 wc garter (zim)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

How in the world could this guy think that chicken snakes drink baby formula? Everyone knows the only thing chicken snakes eat are chickens and eggs (maybe an occational human baby). Beings baby formula is basicly a milk substitute. It had to be a milksnake beings they are the snake that seeks out milk... Gotta get all the facts right. (maybe the confusion come from the similarity that milksnakes will attack an occational human baby)

(Disclaimer) Any or all of the above comments aren't the views or oppinions of any intelligent human being. The above comments are direct quotes from our uneducated society only.

We had our school Exotics Club animals at a World Rabies Day event the other week. I had out one of our rainbow boas, and a woman came up and asked me how many types of vegetarian snakes there were.
-----
1.0.0 Normal corn snake (Frito)
1.0.0 Creamsicle corn (Tang)
0.1.0 Ghost corn (Raynham)
1.0.0 Bay of LA rosy boa (Rivet)
0.1.0 Cape Gopher (Mole)
0.0.1 African House Snake (Really Lil' Dude)

was when a man insisted I was mistreating my animals because one of them bit me. He said that I was underfeeding them and I should feed them every two days.

The reason behind this......If a snake isn't venomous it hasn't any reason to strike, it just constricts.

My response, well wow, so I guess the mice he would eat in the wild would just let him crawl up and give them a big hug which they wouldn't survive. DUH!

Great thread. People crack me up

I have a friend who says all snakes are poisonous, if they don't have rattles, they're cobras.

He also says that all snakes will hurt you. If they don’t bite you, you will hurt yourself trying to get away.

Here is a snake truth I tell people; everything you have learned about snakes from TV and movies is false.
-----
Wade's Weptiles & Wodents

i was doing one of my educational shows...and a girl said "don't snakes have slime trails? like slugs?"

it still makes me laugh...

i also get a lot of people asking if my amel cornsnake is "poisonous"

and "is that a rattlesnake?" in reference to my 7ft male carpet python.
-----
0.1.0 Hogg Island Boa
0.1.0 Albino Columbian Boa
1.0.0 Carpet Python
0.0.1 Red Albino Cornsnake
0.0.1 Aberrant California Kingsnake
1.0.0 Greek Tortoise
1.0.0 Normal Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 ?????? Leopard Gecko
1.0.0 Leopard Toad
2.2.0 Dogs
1.1.0 Cats
1.0.0 Rabbit
1.0.0 Gerbil
....................................

Shed Your Fears!
http://www.freewebs.com/ShedYourFears

I do a lot of public events with my snakes and have heard a few of the ones mentioned above.

Some of my favorites are

While holding my common boa constrictor -
Isn't that poisonous ?
No .. its a boa constrictor and its not Venomous.
well boas have Venom ..
another person standing by pipes in - Yea .. I had a boa once and it had venom. It left red marks on my hand when it bit me.

I wanted to say " Well Duh ! it has teeth and your skin will turn red when its punctured !
I did not respond to this guy but just said .. no .. Boa Constrictors are not venomous .. hence the Constrictor part of the name.

almost everyone that knows just a little about snakes asks "isn't that poisonous ? "
I don't know why people have such a fear about snake bites .. my only guess is that they think all snakes have venom.

And this one is not about a snake but the food.
I was at a public event and mentioned that I feed all my snakes FT rodents. This person asked " when you thaw them out .. do they come back to life ?
I did my best not to laugh ..
-----
Pete
1.0 Solomon Island / PTS Skink
1.0 Boa Constrictor
1.0 Patternless Green Burmese
0.1 Pueblan Milksnake - Apricot phase
1.1 Honduran Milksnake - Tangerine phase
0.1 Honduran Milksnake - normal phase
1.1 Ball Python
1.1 Rainbow Boa
2.0 Cornsnake
0.1 Leopard Gecko
0.1 Fat Tail Gecko's
1.0 Chinese Water Dragon

Looks like I noticed this thread a bit late, but in addition to those above mentioned by everyone else here are a couple I've gotten after various presentations I've given:

If you chop a snake in half it can put itself back together at night.

If a rattlesnake bites a non venomous snake it will then turn into a rattlesnake

Do snakes have hearts?
Do snakes have lungs?

There is a type of two headed snake (I clarified this with the woman and she was not referring to a siamese twin type anomaly but a species of snake in India which has a head on each end of it's body and no tail... extremely deadly... she killed one once)

but my personal favorite was an obvious lie told my a group of Ecuadorian military personel to a rather naive volunteer of mine about the most deadly snake in the amazon which is 8" long and if you don't kiss it when you see it it will spit on you and you will die................................ she didn't get it

what can I say, I'm employed because people (in general) are ignorant and because snakes poop
-----
lost in the jungle somewhere
Z

I know that all this should be funny, but to me it's just really sad. All it does is prove the fear and lack of knowledge that people have about snakes. Herpers still have a long way to go. This is why I want to help educate the public about non-venomous snakes, because the majority of people who see snakes will either kill them or find somebody else to kill them, because they fear that it will a) if they don't know the difference between venomous and non-venomous, they will think it will bite them and kill them, or b)they know the difference between non-venomous and venomous, and want to kill it so it doesn't eat them or their family/friends.
Senseless violence either way. I love snakes, and even though i don't have any of my own (yet ) I plan on getting one soon, and before that happens (and after too), I want to educate people to show them why I love snakes so much, and why i think that they should love, or, even just respect them. P.S. if anyone knows any way in south metro Minnesota that could help my cause, (I don't have the money or resources to start my own group), that would be willing to hire a calm, responsible, willing to learn, 16 year old, please email me at: hydrazulu@hotmail.com. P.P.S. Must be a real organization or business. Thank you for helping me help snakes.

Just wanted to add a couple things. 1.)I will work paid or volunteer, and 2.)I am already a member of the Minnesota Herpetological Society, I just don't think we help educate as much as I would like to. (Not saying anything bad about the MHS or any HS, they do a great job, just not frequent enough for my taste.)