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ThisAdamGuy
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09 Feb 2017, 8:55 pm

Okay, time for a weird question. I'm writing a new book, and there's a part where the good guys have to camp out in a place notorious for how many poisonous snakes live there. I know some animals get scared off if you make the area smell like their predators, like how a deer will run off if you pour mountain lion urine on the ground. Some birds of prey, like eagles, eat snakes. If my characters were to spread eagle poop around, would the smell scare the snakes away?


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feral botanist
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09 Feb 2017, 9:44 pm

ThisAdamGuy wrote:
Okay, time for a weird question. I'm writing a new book, and there's a part where the good guys have to camp out in a place notorious for how many poisonous snakes live there. I know some animals get scared off if you make the area smell like their predators, like how a deer will run off if you pour mountain lion urine on the ground. Some birds of prey, like eagles, eat snakes. If my characters were to spread eagle poop around, would the smell scare the snakes away?



What kind of snake?

Some snakes are agressive and you had better leave, some just dont like noise. The biggest predator of poisonous snakes are other snakes.

King snakes eat rattlesnakes and are immune to the toxins from a bite.



Misslizard
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09 Feb 2017, 11:39 pm

Some of the old timers here say that sulphur sprinkled on the ground repels snakes.If I remember right,in True Grit they would coil a rope around the sleeping bag with the belief that it repelled snakes.Snakes wouldn't be afraid of poop of any kind.Most just want to be left alone,plenty of snakes here in my yard and we all get along just fine.I never harm them but respect them.


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Raleigh
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10 Feb 2017, 1:42 am

How do you collect eagle poop?
Like, I don't think you'd just find it lying around and eagles build their nests in some out of reach places.

Urine contains ammonia, which could repel snakes.
But then again, I don't think I'd be wanting to collect it from mountain lions. :lol:

They could all pee a perimeter around the camp, maybe?


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lostonearth35
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10 Feb 2017, 11:29 am

I really don't know. I do know that snakes smell with their tongues, so it's like they're both smelling and tasting poop! :eew:



Misslizard
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10 Feb 2017, 11:30 am

Pee won't phase a snake.My son used to pee off the porch all the time and there was always some sort of snake in that area,usually a copperhead.Its a rural area,men seem to like whizzing off the porch.Never figured that out.


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10 Feb 2017, 11:56 am

Hey it's great your writing a book, I always fancied writing ☝️

what about using some kind of device that vibrates the earth? They feel with vibrations in their tongue, and if there was a frequency which annoyed them then they might just float off :?: dunno

Seismic snake scuttler ! !! yaaaay



ThisAdamGuy
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10 Feb 2017, 12:15 pm

Moondancer wrote:
what about using some kind of device that vibrates the earth?


It's set in a fictional world reminiscent of our own "ol' west" time period, so they don't have that kind of technology.


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Private Idaho
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10 Feb 2017, 1:11 pm

Do eagles even eat snakes?



Misslizard
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10 Feb 2017, 3:27 pm

Private Idaho wrote:
Do eagles even eat snakes?

Yup.


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11 Feb 2017, 1:16 am

Edward Abby wrote in Desert Solitare, that if you have bull snakes around, you wont have rattlesnakes.



EzraS
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11 Feb 2017, 3:51 am

Misslizard wrote:
Pee won't phase a snake.My son used to pee off the porch all the time and there was always some sort of snake in that area,usually a copperhead.Its a rural area,men seem to like whizzing off the porch.Never figured that out.


I peed on a snake once. It was on a ledge below. I thought it was a tree root. The snake didn't like it and took off fast. I apologized to the snake, but it was too late.

Hey Adam, how about some kind of fictional sake-bane concocted by a medicine man or apothecary?



Misslizard
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11 Feb 2017, 8:56 am

EzraS wrote:
Misslizard wrote:
Pee won't phase a snake.My son used to pee off the porch all the time and there was always some sort of snake in that area,usually a copperhead.Its a rural area,men seem to like whizzing off the porch.Never figured that out.


I peed on a snake once. It was on a ledge below. I thought it was a tree root. The snake didn't like it and took off fast. I apologized to the snake, but it was too late.

Hey Adam, how about some kind of fictional sake-bane concocted by a medicine man or apothecary?

One of my neighbor's went to take a poo in the woods and wound up getting copperhead bit,ouch!!He rode it out at home with whisky.
Not a bad idea about the plants,there is one called Rattlesnake master but I think it's used to treat the bites and not as a repellant.


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ThisAdamGuy
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11 Feb 2017, 9:06 am

My best idea so far is to moth balls. Apparently they scare snakes away real good.


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Raleigh
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12 Feb 2017, 2:36 pm

^ who camps out and takes mothballs with them?


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12 Feb 2017, 3:05 pm

I doubt that would work. Your best bet would be hitting the ground hard a few times with a walking stick or similar. Snakes are sensitive to vibrations in the ground, and tend to make themselves scarce if they hear something stomping around close to them. I once made a snake actually jump into the air by stomping my foot hard (checking for snakes, so...I was right.)


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