The best way to deal with the snakes and gators is you have to become meaner than they are. But, the snakes, gators, and spiders are not the worst critters we have to deal with, its the yankees that move down here by the thousands that are scary,lol.Well, the Auburn fans are pretty bad too.

Doc, I've heard lots of those stories too.  They could be true, nut I've never seen it.  In the 1930s a timber company had 400 loggers in the okeefenocee swamp cutting cypress.  No one got bit by a moccasin.  You can google that if you like.  Don't get me wrong, I stay far away as possible, but I haven't seen them act particularly aggressive, they just don't have the sense to get out of your way.  If you walk up on one you'll just have to go around, cause he won't move.

P.s. I'd bite you if you stepped on me.  

Hmmm.  It's true if you're careful and don't mess with them you likely will not get bitten.  But, just in the rural county where I live in north MS, which is not exactly jungle country, I personally know seven individuals - five adults and two small kids - who've been bitten by copperheads or cottonmouths.  Generally these folk were minding their own bidness or just walking.

Pay attention...

You're right, mike.  Paying attention is key.  All I'm saying is the snake isn't going out of it's way to bite you.  If you got bit, you probably stepped on it, played with it, or stuck your hand somewhere you couldn't see.

With the snakes it depends on the time of day. Early morning or cooler weather they move slower.

When it is warm they will get out of your way right quick.

I am much more concerned with the skeeters than I am a snake or gator. They will leave you be if you leave them be.

I wouldn't depend on just leaving a snake or gator alone. I've been struck at by too many cottonmouths and a couple of rattlesnakes from me being in a hurry and walking too close before I saw them. I'm amazed how the human body can somehow spin, do a Pirouette and change directions even with all weight leaning and going forward with only the back foot on the ground.

Just before I moved from Fl. a guy was bow hunting in Bull Creek WMA down there and got attacked by about an 8 foot gator. The swamps were full of water and he was wading through a wet place. Next thing he knew a big splash and the gator grabbed his arm.

He was lucky it was the arm and hand that he had his compound in because the bow kinda kept the gator from biting all the way down. The guy took off, dropped his bow and went back later in the week and found it..messed up a little. He only had superficial wounds...scratches. He most likely just got too close into the gators territory, early in archery season..mating season and gator was just running him out instead of trying to eat him.

Thanks for the follow -up.  Like I said, never caught these folks in windy stories, so I took it as gospel.

It was spring that the "chase" issues occurred. Is that mating season for them slither tails?

The snake sliding off the log and chasing the trolling boat and trying to get in was in spring on Back Bay, VA...near the NC border.

Those guys believed it!! They refused to go back their trolling for bass...EVER!

There was a song years back... "I don't like spiders and snakes"  --- I live by that motto!    

Hate to argue w/you good folks; but, I can put 2 identical snakes next to one another, one poisonous the other not, & unless you know what you're looking for you'll not tell the difference w/o lifting his fangs. Water snakes outnumber mocs 20 to one. If you look directly down on top of their head & do NOT see eyes, it means the "pit" or poison gland is covering the eye. Otherwise, all snake in or near water are mocs. As good advice above, just leave them alone & no worries.

Gators are different especially in Florida. They've made an astounding comeback in the past 30 years & are no longer guarded. There is a plentiful season. What you definitely need to be aware of is, especially in Florida, bigger alligators. These things get real big & will take you down in a blink! 6-7' will ruin your weekend. Bigger will eat you. We have bunches in Texas especially along the coast; but, nothing like Florida. Take you down the hiking trail here at Brazos Bend State Park & you'll never go into the water again.

Are there any remedies to a snake bite? Whats the best thing to do if your 3 hours from the nearest hospital and you got bit by a snake??

QuoteOriginally posted by Tracker2:
Are there any remedies to a snake bite? Whats the best thing to do if your 3 hours from the nearest hospital and you got bit by a snake??

Put your head between your knees, and....      :eek:        

Doc, did you hear the one about the water skier falling into a nest of water moccasins and being struck dozens (maybe even hundreds) of times?  That story is attributed to every large lake in the south.  It's an urban legend that never happened.

It's kind of like that picture of the gator that has a deer in its mouth that has been all over the internet.  It is supposedly from whatever lake you live by.  In this case it is a real picture, but most of the stories associated with it are bogus.

Point being that snake stories and gator stories take on a life of their own.  Human nature says that after about the third or fourth time we hear a story we start thinking it is ours.  Science has proven that when we tell the story after that there is a better than even chance that we will place ourselves in the story.  We just can't help ourselves!    

Gregg,

Yeah, I did hear that and learned it was de-bunked!

The skier friend said that the mocs swim the end of the canal and if a water skier was to intercept one, it would not be a lovely outcome...so they keep a 2nd watcher in the bow to steer the driver away from swimming snakes... she said they get quite large there.

I think the movie Lonesome Dove helped perpetrate some of that "nest" thing.  Some Texas folks did say that when there is a flood, a swarm of mating pairs can be sent downstream in a wad...

I have no intention of learning if that is true and don't care.

Only came across a few Mocs while in the VA/NC area... one at a damn I was trying to dismantle beavers built and it swam over my hand, I'm told. I saw it go, but it was so fast I had no visual.

Other was in Back Bay Refuge... that one was huge, lying on a floating grass matt as we walked on an access road on the other side of the canal.

It reared it's head, looked at us 30 yards away and slipped into the water.  After hearing stories of them trying to get in the guy's bass boat, I just vacated that area with a firm determination!  It may have just chose to go under and away. I didn't stay to find out where it came up!

Again, the "aggression" stories were all mating season related and I was told by a biologist they're very "territorial" in their mating season!

Spiders, gators and snakes, oh my!  Think I'll just hang out up here in central IL.

Yep, snake boots for the snakes and permethrin based spray for ticks and chiggers. These are essential for southern hunting. Once you get used to the great southern hunting opportunities, these few drawbacks you mention will no longer be on your radar screen.