Something I found on drudgereport.com
 

news local-beat
Granny, 87, Kills Venomous Rattler With Bare Hands
Tampa octogenarian takes matters into her own hands, kills snake
By BRIAN HAMACHER
Updated 4:52 PM EDT, Tue, Aug 11, 2009


An 87-year-old Tampa woman had had it with the motherloving snakes on her motherloving porch.

So when a seven-inch pygmy rattlesnake slithered up to Esther Orring's door and bit her on the hand, she got even, strangling the venomous little serpent with her bare hands.

"She's a tough lady," Orring's daughter, Maria Pellicone, told WFLA. "She's a very strong person, so she will be a survivor."

Orring has been hospitalized since the Monday incident, after she was administered several vials of antivenin.

But the well-gripped granny is expected to make a full recovery, and Pellicone says she'll have the dead snake framed for her.
First Published: Aug 11, 2009 10:40 AM ED

I've killed a few Rattlers in my day - Western Diamondbacks, Southern Pacific, Timber, Eastern Diamondback, Mojave Sidewinder, Canebreak, some more I probably misidentified as one of the major subspecies - never knew there was any other kind of Rattler than a 'venemous' one. :rolleyes:

FWIW - Rattlers never bothered me much - it was Moccasins I hated. :mad:

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Q: How does a 7" snake "slither up to someone's door" and bite a standing adult on the hand without the human ititiating the action by reaching down for it?

TR

Doesn't say she was standing - maybe she was crawling to the door...:rolleyes:

Actually - perhaps reaching for the newspaper or such would make more sense. ;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

You know, almost everyone I know personally who has gotten snake bitten, got it while messing with the snake.

I can think of a lot of things to kill a 7" snake with, other than my hands (to include a newspaper, if that was what she was reaching for).

Wasn't there, didn't see it. Just sayin'....

TR

According to her daughter this is what actually happened. "Her mother spotted something dark on the doormat outside their home and prodded it with her cane. It didn't move. Thinking it was a stick she reached down to pick it up . The "stick' then sunk it's fangs into her finger. " She then took a rock to it's head!

Feisty old woman!:D

Snake Bite
 

When I was five years old, my dad took me out to the golf course at Fort Bragg and using a set of cut-down clubs, I played a couple of holes with him.

About the sixth hole, I hit my ball into the ruff (rough) and when I went looking for it I encountered a Pygmy Rattler who promptly bit me on my right ankle. I was taken to the Fort Bragg Hospital and had ice packs applied to the bite area.

I was in the hospital for an entire week before getting out. I remember that there were a few soldiers from the 82nd AB who were patients (Korean War).

Once upon a time, while conducting a class on "Desert Survival" at the USARC in Phoenix, I mentioned in all seriousness that biologists had determined that there were only three periods in the life cycle of a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake when it would bite a human being. All the 2Lt's began to take notes as I stated:

"Immediately before, during, or after you F*#k with it!" :D

Bump
 

I love finding threads, old or new, (older = better), where you can get the wisdom of TR, Richard and ZD in under 7 posts.

Just too much fun!!!

Has anyone here been bitten by a Pygmy Rattler' recently?

Not a rattler, but a three foot corn got me recently.


And yes, I was $%^&ing with it.:D

I hate the Western Diamondback. They always run into them on trails and while rock climbing. SOB almost got me a couple summers ago while free climbing, had to jump off the rock *shakes fist*

As an equal opportunity snake killer, I assume them all to be poisonous.

Once had a snake strike at me while climbing. I thought really?, (150' up), how you get here?

Second strike launched him down 150', too funny.

I yelled "Snake!".

Guy below me yelled, "What?", followed by "Shit!".

Many years ago we were on a Texas hillside when it started getting dark and chilly. Pappy, our senior weapons guy was in the hide site and in his sleeping bag when I left him. I went back to the MSS and soon heard six or seven rounds go off. Myself and our engineer could hear Pappy screaming but couldn't understand what he was saying. When we arrived, Pappy was still in his bag, outside the hide site looking down at a huge dying Western Diamondback. Apparently, the snake dropped into the hole with Pappy, who had his M9 in the bag with him so he commenced to blowing holes through his sleeping bag to shoot the snake, which he did.
Of course with our site so completely compromised we had to relocate which made for an aggravating evening but, it was all worth it. Pappy never lived it down. I kinda felt bad for the snake.

The only other snake issue involved a green mamba in West Africa but, it wasn't as funny as ol'pappy's big adventure...jd

Snake stories. Too many to count.