rattlers

GulfGG is right on about Brown Recluse Spiders - they're nasty! Having grown up in the South, I saw many Black Widows but never met anyone bitten by one. Brown Recluse Spiders were another matter. These darn rascals get into your clothes at night when you're outdoors. We seemed to have an epidemic of BRS bites when I was at Ft Benning (southwest GA). They'd get in your kevlar and bite you on the head when you put it on - we got to beating helmets and clothing every morning and they'd fall out. I saw many bitten soldiers with festering wounds from the bites that would get infected and result in guys getting recycled in schools or dropped. They were literally a real pain. I'm not sure about the range of this critter - if we have 'em in PA I have never seen one here but, man, they're all over the South.
 
I got nailed by a Brown Recluse while in Korea. I got bitten on the calf on a Sunday afternoon while napping on a little used sofa, and by Wednesday my right leg was swollen and painful up to my groin and I had difficulty walking. The medics told me that if I would have let it go let it go any longer I would have lost my leg.

I have a nice scar from the skin incinsion the medics made to scrape out pus and then stuff in quite a bit of packing to drain the wound. I wasn't under for the treatment. It was about the most painful medical treatment I've ever had. Double-hernia, pacemaker and more recent tumor surgery didn't compare.

Save the rattlesnakes, kill Brown Recluse.
 
Military bases are a good source for exotic pests. Locations with high turnover (overseas deployment and continental movement) are good places to find foreign nasties that have hitched a ride in personal gear and military equipment and supplies.
 
Like I said in my earlier post, this one, like the other rattlers I've seen in PA, seemed to be interested more in getting away than anything else. It only put the front end of its body under that ledge after we spent a few minutes taking pictures and checking it out. They are actually quite pretty.
 
I did get nailed by a Brown Recluse a couple years ago. It got me on the top of my right palm, just below my pinky. Within a few days my hand was extremely swollen and the meat around the bite area was literally being disolved. Being an idiot I waited almost too long before going to a doctor. I recieved a very well deserved lecture. Funny thing is, all the research I did on BRS said that they are not in Montana, including the Montana State entomology department. The doctor assured me that the bite was in fact from a BRS.

As for rattlers: In all my years fishing all over Pa I saw only one rattler, on Penns. In 9 years in Montana I have seen maybe 4 rattlers. Shuttle drivers say that they hate to approach trucks in the afternoon at some of the ramps because the rattlers like to crawl under the cars for the shade. I do keep a suction type snake bite kit in the boat though.
 
it should be noted that nothing freaks me out more than the BRS -- I dont know why , but I am scared to death of those things....
 
if you are scared then don't go!!!!!!!!!!!
been fishing NC PA since 83
have had no problems with Snakes, Bob-cats Bears, Mountain Lions (r u kiddning me!!) I think I did see the BOOGEY Man and Saskwatch and the LOCh ness monster once the later chased me backto my cabin, good thing i DID NOT have a gun or some of these may have been STUPIDLY killed.

Steve98
 
steve98 wrote:
if you are scared then don't go!!!!!!!!!!!
been fishing NC PA since 83
have had no problems with Snakes, Bob-cats Bears, Mountain Lions (r u kiddning me!!) I think I did see the BOOGEY Man and Saskwatch and the LOCh ness monster once the later chased me backto my cabin, good thing i DID NOT have a gun or some of these may have been STUPIDLY killed.

Steve98
Click to expand...


uhm, what? I have been going outdoors in PA since I was 4 years old -- all I was saying is that the brown recluse freaks me out -- just the way it looks, what it does - etc -- it would never prevent me from doing anything at all --- chill out, man.
 
yep i got bit last year. Extremely painful to walk and swelled up bad. Got a staff infection from it too. Never want to go through that again.
 
OK You guys just plain stink. First snakes and now freakin spiders. I don't hate either but now I'm going to have nightmares. I use to run for basketball and I could run for a couple of miles across fields, creeks and up hills, a real tough cross country run the last part being the worst. On day I was feeling all good and healthy and at 17 who couldn't so I was running through a field with high cover jumping through brush when I saw a huge black and yellow garden spider directly in my face. I planted my feet and then as I looked around there wasn't one. There were like 300. They were everywhere!! And I mean everywhere! No they weren't poisonous no pending death, but you couldn't tell my heart that, nor my relexes. I think I may have broke a cross country record that day, web coated and all. I thought if I ran fast enough they wouldn't jump on me. EeeeGad!! Can someone please post about bunnies and puppies?

Thinking back I wouldn't trade my garden spider memory for anything.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz6YLH55CX8

just for you wet ;-)
 
:lol: fine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJI-Wn6xDvo
 
Sal - That's pedestrian next to this one!

For wetnet
 
Nothing beats puppies! OMG they are sooo cute. You wait until I have my golden pups in the next 2 years.

My husband was in the army had scorpions in his shoes and did eat rattlesnake, while training. He said it's like lobster but I think it's the adrenaline from eating something that has the potential to kill you that might add some flavor. Might also be why he doesn't eat rice anymore after being in active duty n vietnam. No porta potty's for the workers and they can potentially shoot you. You're just never sure. He really still won't eat rice unless starving. Nothing like just turning 18 and going to war, to make snakes seem simple. I scream snake and he laughs but still checks on me. Some guys talk about vietnam all of the time and never shot a gun. My husband was shot twice, once in the head (No worries picture Homer Simpsons profile, just grazed the scalp) and in the calf and he talked about it once and he hasn't mentioned it again. Maurice you can refile this because I am way off topic but he thought he had his head blown off, with the heat of the blood and one of his team grabbed his gun and stood over him and gave him cover. He said he heard him say " You ain't dead that's hardly a scratch" I don't ever feel bad making him take a spider out on a sheet of paper because I don't want him to kill it and I don't want to pick it up. I'm pretty sure it doesn't bother him either. I don't think either of us would trade Pa snakes or spiders for anything else given geographics.

Given the choice however i'll think puppies tonight.Thanks Sal!!
 
Pete, we forgot ticks, those lovely little bugs that can find places to burrow that only your wife or a really close friend will assist with on their removal.
Then their are chiggers. The itch that only a lot of alcohol, taken internally, can reduce. God I love Florida.
Estuarine crocodiles,and lest we forget pythons in the Everglades.Makes wild hog hunting seem tame.
 
wow this is a popular post i bet it would be a good subject at the jam when everybody has a few cold ones...lol
 
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