Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   Snakes! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/52169-snakes-55.html)

Thanks. Society members took help of some professionals and released in the wild.

24th July morning I saw a small snake (~30 cms) in our Lawn. I took one big iron rod (no intention of killing here, I don't have any equipment with me) and started searching for the snake. But could not find it. After 2 hours of searching I found it in a crack between wall and a tile. I put some stick and brought it outside the crack but it was somehow slithering away.
Finally, after 3 hours of time, I caught hold of him using one small iron pipe in the middle of snake and put one plastic cover on his face and pushed him inside the cover. Took the cover to an empty place and opened the cover to release the snake in nearby shrubs. To my surprise the snake was struggling for it's life.

Somehow I kept the snake on a plant and left the place. I could see it's head moving. Later after 2 hours when I went and checked, ants were there on the snake and they have started eating it :Frustrati

So in general, I killed that small snake. Neighbours were saying it is Naga panchami, friday...etc. Felt frustrated and could not sleep whole night.

As per our tradition, we are not supposed to kill any snake. I have unknowingly killed many baby snakes like this. Two during my drives which I ran over them and this one in our Lawn. I am shattered a bit. No naga dosha should come to our family.
Is there any simple way to handle/catch these kind of snakes easily? I saw this snake was very agile and was slithering away and hiding easily.

Sorry I can't offer you any advice on the belief/religious part.

But since it wasn't your intent to kill the snake and you say you've unknowingly killed snakes on earlier occasions as well, why bother ?

I think the safest way to handle them is to call a professional snake rescuer.

I would suggest get a photo and ask on some snake id group..there is one on facebook that you can find where people give advice regarding id pretty promptly. If it is a non venomous snake, I would suggest leave them alone. They will do you no harm and control the pests around your house. If it is a venomous one, call a professional snake catcher (again info regarding same will be found on the groups mentioned before..there definitely are some in Coimbatore) who will safely remove the snake from your vicinity.

One local whatsapp group (members from our neighbourhood) itself is available. Just joined the group. Coimbatore somehow has more venomous snakes. Thanks.

Sure, thanks!

Leave the tradition, but never ever try to do such an act if you are not sure of what snake it is. You are risking your own life and though snakes as small as 30cm might not have fangs that are long enough but why take chances. Leave the job to the experienced people. If you have squeezed his internal organs in the process of catching it, maybe thats the reason it died a slow death. I think the more you believe in these superstitions, the more they will haunt you.

Wow, never thought there will be a thread on snakes too. But then, here is one encounter I would like to forget about. The incident happened few years back but since then any foul smell inside the car makes me doubly curious!

So, there was this foul smell emanating inside the cabin of the car every time I switched off the AC and opened the windows. The moment AC was switched on, the smell used to disappear. Now this thing went on for some days. Initially I thought some kind of dung might have attached to the tyres or the underside of the car. So gave the car a proper pressure wash but the smell still persisted.

The surprise and the source of the foul smell was detected the moment I opened the bonnet after going through the whole of exterior of the car. Someone got fried inside and it took me around two cycles of proper engine care for the foul smell to disappear. I shudder to think what would have happened if it got inside the cabin by any chance though I knew the one inside was non-venomous. But it would have been impossible for me to check for the variety had it slithered through inside the cabin while driving :Shockked:

Found this guy in the backyard. Can anyone ID this please? From Google images, I think that it's a bronzeback, not sure though.

Past few days have been crazy. Many snakes caught from the vicinity of my house.

Most of them were either Baby Reticulated Python (Ajgar), Indian Rat Snake (commonly called as Dhaman around here) or Trinket snake. However, one of them was a real scare - A Russell's Viper, commonly called as Ghonas in Maharashtra.

A couple of pics -

Russell's Viper


Baby Reticulated Python


Baby Reticulated Python

Cobras, Russell Vipers and Rat snake spottings are so frequent inside our compound these days that we do not let kids go outside to play now. And when adults go out to water the plants etc, we keep our heads down and we are always on the lookout for snakes. So finally took some action today:

Blocked the gaps in the main gate with long strips of metal and covered one quarter of the gate with a plastic-like material



Cleared out the foliage so that the floor is clearly visible:



Our neighboring plot looks like a mini-forest:



So we got 6 feet of foliage close to our compound removed:



Need to see the effectiveness of these, especially blocking the gaps in the main gate. Will report back later.

Yep, certainly looks like a Bronzeback Treesnake, nice one! (Completely harmless too.)

We don't get Reticulated pythons in Pune, they are found more in east/north east India. What we get here is called Indian rock python. That said, juvenile Russell vipers are often mistaken for baby rock pythons as the pattern is very similar which leads to lots of bites. The bottom pics you have put as python are possibly Russells viper as well. I cant see the top pattern but we can clearly see the triangular head in the second photo which is classical of the viper.

On another note, I had a big heart in mouth scare yesterday.
After a long time it was sunny so decided to ride dominar to clinic instead of car.
Must have travelled about 2-3 kms when casually glanced over at speedo and there was a big black lizard there
I was like nope nope nope

Very very carefully was on the way to side of road to stop and had crazy dream of burning the bike now when out of nowhere, a pothole. Bumped nicely and lizard fell down from the spade between handle and tank.

What harm could a lizard have done you?

You should have gone back back and taken it home :D

Incident 1
I was in my teens, returning from a late class on my bicycle. It was getting dark and there were no street lights in the village roads. I had to rely on the bicycles in front of me to know of any obstacle/pothole on the road. The occasional headlight flashes of passing car/bike would also aid in visibility. Slowly all the riders in front of me were gone and I was all alone. Autumn had just started and so I was enjoying the ride, with the wind in my hair and the cooling effect of the sweat evaporating from my neck and forehead adding to the experience. The road was well known to me and I was just 2km away from my home. There is this wetland on both sides of the road, the kind where you will find water at any time of the year, un front if me and just then a bike whizzes past me flashing it's headlights on the road in front of me. Lo and behold, there is a big black snake just about to cross the road. But before I could see anymore, the bike had gone past the snake and I am left in the darkclap:. Now I stopped dead in my path, trying to judge the path of the snake- will it cross the road or move towards me. I wished for another bike/car to come to my aid, but none came. That 1 minute felt like an hour. Finally, I decided to go ahead- paddling very hard and then pulling my legs as high as I could and viola, I crossed that wretched place. From that time onwards, I carried a torch in my backpack as long as I rode my bicycle.:D