Cobra In My Compost Heap

[steffi]

That has got to be one of the funniest things I've read in a very long time.

Okay, so the recipe is: Take a mongoose, soak it in diesel, pour a litre of vinegar down its throat and ram half a dozen mothballs up its arse. Hang a ghetto blaster around its neck, chain it to the top of the heap and tell it to mow the lawn.

Simple.

[farmerjo]

Get a long piece of bamboo and tie some fine rope to one end like a lasoo.Hook it with that then get a rake to pin it and follow off with a shovel.

[phaethon]

....and follow off with a shovel.

Wouldn't these creatures have some value alive to a snake farm/anti-venom production facility?

[farmerjo]

Those places a bit hard to come by in the middle of nowhere.Just as easy to drop it off at the local police station where they will carry out a post mortem followed by bbq.

[steffi]

Your picture shows what looks to be a snakehandlers tool ... Where did you find that then?

Did you have to wait for it to settle down before you could pin it's head like that?

We had an Indochinese spitting cobra in grandma's bathroom I did kill it but only because my kids were sleeping in the next room and my wife was pregnant my paranoia took over my better judgment. I regret it now because the snake was not aggressive, it did spit venom on my glasses but only because I was trying to catch it. In India cobras are allowed to live in the homes and bites are virtually non existent. The disease carrying rodents are far more dangerous than the docile cobra. I have known many keepers of Cobras in Canada and the US and while bites have occurred it was only when handling them carelessly. I will never kill another snake again in the future if one takes residence in my home I will persuade it to leave.

http://www.karamanosfamily.com/images/SpittingCobra1.jpg

http://www.karamanosfamily.com/images/SpittingCobra3.jpg

[mrjohn]

Snake

A snake came to my water-trough

On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,

To drink there.

In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree

I came down the steps with my pitcher

And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me.

He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom

And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the

edge of the stone trough

And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,

And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,

He sipped with his straight mouth,

Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,

Silently.

Someone was before me at my water-trough,

And I, like a second-comer, waiting.

He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,

And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,

And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,

And stooped and drank a little more,

Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth

On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.

The voice of my education said to me

He must be killed,

For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.

And voices in me said, If you were a man

You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.

But must I confess how I liked him,

How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough

And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,

Into the burning bowels of this earth?

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?

Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?

Was it humility, to feel so honoured?

I felt so honoured.

And yet those voices:

If you were not afraid, you would kill him!

And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,

But even so, honoured still more

That he should seek my hospitality

From out the dark door of the secret earth.

He drank enough

And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,

And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,

Seeming to lick his lips,

And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,

And slowly turned his head,

And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,

Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round

And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.

And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,

And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,

A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into

that horrid black hole,

Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,

Overcame me now his back was turned.

I looked round, I put down my pitcher,

I picked up a clumsy log

And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.

I think it did not hit him,

But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in

undignified haste,

Writhed like lightning, and was gone

Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,

At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.

And immediately I regretted it.

I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!

I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.

And I thought of the albatross,

And I wished he would come back, my snake.

For he seemed to me again like a king,

Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,

Now due to be crowned again.

And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords

Of life.

And I have something to expiate:

A pettiness.

DH Lawrence

[appleman]

I try never to kill animals, including snakes, although cobras and kraits other dangerous snakes may have to be eliminated from your garden. But there is a reason they are there in the first place.

My compost heap attracts many kinds of insects. In turn, the insects attract toads. Toads just happen to be the cobra's favorite snack. I know this well since I have reluctantly had to kill a number of cobras, one actually while it was swallowing a toad.

So, You might look around and see if there are any toads in your compost. My bin has at least a half dozen. No cobras yet but I found a non-poisonous copper headed racer in there yesterday. I didn't kill it (as many of the TV people would suggest I do) because snakes are a very important part of the ecosystem which I share with them. Just learn which ones are dangerous and try to find a way to deal with them other than killing them if you can. My suggestion is to get rid of any toads or frogs living in and on you compost. You might want to use shovels and rakes when working on the pile also.

Good luck

[AlbertWeinerschnitzel]

If it is a cobra, and it does have a nest, keep well away-they can become EXTREMELY dangerous guarding their young!

If there are young snakes, be even more wary of them, they can be even more dangerous than an adult.

The adults "understand" that they cannot eat you, and in many instances will not inject venom, the young snakes have not "learned" this yet and can inject lethal ammounts.

If it has a nest in there, I would expect it to defend it at all costs, which could be lethal...get a local to get rid of it, don't go near it yourself you could wind up dead!

[phaethon]

"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure..."

Ripley, Aliens

[Maizefarmer]

If it is a cobra, and it does have a nest, keep well away-they can become EXTREMELY dangerous guarding their young!

If there are young snakes, be even more wary of them, they can be even more dangerous than an adult.

The adults "understand" that they cannot eat you, and in many instances will not inject venom, the young snakes have not "learned" this yet and can inject lethal ammounts.

If it has a nest in there, I would expect it to defend it at all costs, which could be lethal...get a local to get rid of it, don't go near it yourself you could wind up dead!

Yes yes - I should have added that to my original comment: AWSchnitzel is quite right - they are "double-trouble" when brooding over [a nest of] eggs and lot quicker to pick a fight than otherwise normally so.

If you wish to see just what damage they can do (human tissue) I can post a picture of my lower right leg. After many years the healing is still not complete - and that was after getting large amounts of antivenom about 3hrs after been bitten.

[WilliamTarmby]

What is wrong with thus pathetic site? I upload 274K of attachments, which are "eventually loaded into my "control panel" however, when I and try and post them in a message, it tells me there are 0 attachments...a child could design a better site than this!

How in gods name do you post a PHOTO...do you need a degree in computer technology?

It is no wonder Thai visa is getting the reputation it deserves!

[BigSnake]

A no Brainer Dude, SMOKE that sucker out, gather your Thais friends(farang if game) and have a Snake Steak Dinner. Do it Now. It taste just like Chicken when wash down with a couple of Leo beers or some Lao Khao.

[WilliamTarmby]

I GIVE UP!

[phaethon]

Posted Today, 2008-10-01 22:12:12

What is wrong with thus pathetic site?

¦

V

Posted Today, 2008-10-01 22:27:43

I GIVE UP!

15.5 minutes of concerted effort, zero posts to the help forum, zero posts anywhere politely asking for help...

QUITTER!

[WilliamTarmby]

So if you upload images, and the site says they are uploaded, then you go to include them and they are no longer there....explain the logic behind that one?

The images appear in "my control" but I cannot even see the uploads in the original message (where they were originally uploaded) then..am I missing something?

It is a bit frustrating when you are on a crap internet connection, that takes forever to upload/download and you appear to have wasted your time.

But what the hello..lifes to short!

[Pond Life]

Can anyone identify this snake ?

I mainly added it so I can walk WT thru the upload process.

If I can do it anyone can.

OK WT,

Go to the bottom of the page & press the "REPLY" button.

Below right of the reply window theres the "upload" button.

Select the file you want to attach & press the "upload" button.

Wait a while as it uploads, can be slow.

Look over to the left at the "manage current attachments".

when upload is complete it will show "current attachments 1".

Just to the right of these words is a little arrow button.

Press it & get a little drop down window.

in the window should be your attachment, also 3 little buttons.

Press the green + button & your attachment should appear in the reply window.

Good luck

ps buy a Mac

[captbob]

Hi all many story about snakes cocra and all BUT i am in Vientinae and a lot of cobras in my far kill allreday 3 wild bores ..But insted to kill them any way to farme tmen and do some money with that its a question.... Bob

[drtreelove]

This is the funniest thread I've ever read. What are all ya snake farmers growing and smokin out there?

[aras]

quote]

If it was my compost heap first of all I would look on the web and find out if Cobras are egg layers if so do they just lay and then leave the heat from the heap to incubate the young. If so then the snake could be long gone. I would also check if young ones are harmful if not I would then leave well alone.

However this may not be an option if you have young kids around.

I see you have no idea what a cobra can do to you, when you are awake or when you are asleep lol

snake babys are more dangerous than adults because they kinda bite rendomly and dont care really

my friend kill the bastard snake and listen to the villigers they know best ( and in these issues never listen to a farang, because in western europe there ae no dangerous animals and weel farang is not scared of animals and thinks they are all pets or that they behave like in the hands of steve etc in animal planet) You or your family might not reach a doctor on time so kill the bastard and his possible baby.

do i sound cruel? well rather cruel and alive.....

[svenivan]

Here is a good link:

http://www.siam-info.de/english/poisonous_animals.html

There you can also read how to make your own snakecatcher!