Nope! All of the nope!

[Kittish]

Saw my first actual wild rattlesnake today... about five feet from our front door. And I was outside at the time. Nope! I bravely ran away. Managed to get past it and inside, told the Boyfriend about it, and let him deal with it. It was a young one, about a foot long. It's not gonna get any bigger. Unless you want to count post-mortem bloating.

[dalesys]

I was walking backwards, hitchhiking east on US40 in Parley's Canyon (pre-I80), when I heard a buzz near my left foot... By the time I saw it I'd already taken another step away.

Everybody asked why I didn't kill it... Right... Beat it to death with the sleeping bag wrapped around my left arm... Boof! Boof! Boof! That'll show ya!

[flybye023]

When I was a pre-teen we went camping in Utah and were at this one campground that was pretty deserted. There were no trees or grass, just rock and sand and a lake. The bathroom (outhouse) was right next to a trail that led to the lake so that was the trail that we went back and forth on most. One day we were headed back from the lake, laughing and being noisy as kids will with my uncle bringing up the rear.

Apparently there was a rattlesnake right there at the side of the trail, rattling away that none of us had noticed but one of the toddlers in the group did. My uncle caught her just in time and killed the snake.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

The rattlesnakes around here (massasauga rattlers) is a protected (or endangered, I get those confused) species, and if you kill them there can be big trouble. There was an entire subdivision being built that was shut down for more than 7 months because there were two dead snakes found during construction.

As far as snakes go they're pretty chill though. I've seen maybe four dozen, only been rattled at three times and never seen one strike. The one that scared me was between me and the only door in a two foot high crawlspace when it started rattling which made me notice it. I had to stare it down for hours (or possibly about 5 minutes) until if got bored and slithered off. I made a hasty exit. I had to really work to talk myself into getting back into that crawlspace and finishing the job I was on!

The rest I just thought were cool looking.

[Victory Sabre]

A story I've been told many times from my grandma when my grandparents lived back in CA. One morning she opened up her dresser drawer, and found one in there. She got her gun, and took care of it.

Yeah, you didn't want to mess with my grandma back in the day. She was a great shot, and a Taxidermist.

[Sunshine]

We lived out in the boonies when I was a kid and had snakes wander(slither) up all the time. Our chow, Jose, had a specific bark to warn my mom with.
One day I was playing on the porch and he started barking his rattlesnake bark....turns out the snake was under my bike. She killed him, Jose got a big dog treat, and my dad had a new rattle for his collection lol

[wolfie]

Chuck Norris trivia: When he was a baby, he didn't have a store-bought rattle. He made his own - killed a big ol' Diamondback to get it.

[Crai]

We played with Rattle Snakes out in the Mojave Desert when I was a kid. Wasn't much else to do. We lived 50 Miles out side of the nearest town. No power, No TV, there was no such thing as internet back then, We used a Generator for power in the evenings to take showers and cook dinner.

So Lizards, Snakes, Scorpions, were our toys.


This is why I laugh when kids talk about "Safe Space"

[LesserSouthernFroglet]

At least rattlers warn you...

Usually the only warning snakebite victims here get is the sting.