Back Yard Fun

[RaspberrySurprise]

Except for the politi--

Nevermind.

No those are Vermin, not Venomous.

As for rattlesnakes, I have to respect anything that is that ornery and cantankerous.

[Uncle Bubba]

I've also been striked at by the body of a decapitated snake. I consider myself a person with a strong stomach, but being striked at by the stump of the snake's body really made me a bit ill feeling for a bit.

(grammar police)

Struck.

[Gewehr98]

That's a good-looking rattlesnake, French!

Then again, I've had plenty of pet snakes in my day, my last one being a Calabar Ground Python.

We had all sorts of Black Racers around my Florida home, and they were some impressive specimens of snake design. 

Big eyes, fast-moving, and definitely more afraid of you than you are of them...

[never_retreat]

Not to be ignorant about dead snakes, but how does a headless snake go after you? How does it know where you are to lunge?
I could understand twitching and moving ofter death but were does it do its thinking?
Only snakes I ever killed were copper heads and a water mock or three, after blasting they don't move.

[Gewehr98]

I wasn't referring to a headless snake.

I was referring to a dead snake with head still attached, and you were silly enough to have appendages near the jaws. 

Can't vouch for a headless snake striking with any semblance of accuracy.

[CNYCacher]

Not to be ignorant about dead snakes, but how does a headless snake go after you? How does it know where you are to lunge?
I could understand twitching and moving ofter death but were does it do its thinking?
Only snakes I ever killed were copper heads and a water mock or three, after blasting they don't move.

I wasn't referring to a headless snake.

I was referring to a dead snake with head still attached, and you were silly enough to have appendages near the jaws. 

Can't vouch for a headless snake striking with any semblance of accuracy.

Some on this thread did refer to headless snakes striking at you.
Invariably it is when you touch the body somewhere.  For example if you pick it up by the tail the headless body can instinctively bend up and strike at your hand.

[charby]

Northern Illinois: Venomous Snake and Scorpion Free since before the the last ice age !!!

Not exactly

You still got timber rattlers, few and far between but you do.

Also copperheads can get there via barges from the south, winter does kill them. Also cottonmouths can be found near water sources.

Brown recluse and black widows can be found there to.

I grew up in SE IA and fished a lot of the Mississippi river as a kid and I remember seeing lots of cottonmouths, used to piss them off with my fishing pole. Only time I saw rattlesnakes was in the early morning when they were coiled up on the side of the asphalt in the river bottoms. Dad told me about seeing copperheads in the summertime on the rocks near the railroad bridge he worked on, but I never got to see any.

[Gewehr98]

I was wondering about that, because Wisconsin has plenty of timber rattlers, and we're north of Illinois...