A question about pet snakes and snakes in general?

Asked by raiden88 (106

) April 20th, 2022

When I was a kid in elementary school, my teacher would on occasion bring her pet snake to the classroom. He was a male boa constrictor named Measter. I liked him at the time. She would put Measter on my neck, and he’d slither around it and lick me in the ear and I had absolutely no fear at all of him attacking me in any way or hissing at me, or showing any aggression. He was a friendly snake. Recently however, I’ve had a couple close encounters with a snake one of them being a coral snake in my front yard, and another was a big, or at least long black snake in my garage. When I opened the garage door getting ready to park my motorcycle, I saw the snake I just described the best I could, and as I pulled in, it just turned around and slithered away from me. That particular encounter really scared me. I never got bit, or hissed at or anything. However, these close encounters along with some videos and documatires I’ve watched about snakes, as well as hearing stories about pet snakes killing and eating children whole, and poisonous snakes coming after somebody with the intention to attack and inject all its venom into the person have now got me utterly paranoid about snakes, and yet I’m somewhat fascinated with them at the same time.
Do snakes usually come after people on sight to attack them even without any provocation? Is my paranoia or fear of snakes entirely or partially justifiable?

pets
snakes

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5 Answers

Most snakes that you are likely to encounter have no interest in you. If you leave them alone, they will not bother you. Even most poisonous snakes have smaller prey in mind, though it is a good policy to keep a large distance from them.

LostInParadise (31917

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The main reason people occasionally get bitten by snakes, is because they’re wild snakes, and people don’t notice them and accidentally step on or very near them, so they’re trying to defend themselves. Though there are exceptions, and when they happen, they get a lot of attention.

Zaku (30367

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Different snakes live in different areas of the world.
Where are you?

kritiper (25757

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That’s why, when you are bouldering in the desert, you should occasionally knock on the boulder with a rock to make noise. Warns any nearby snakes that you are nearby so they can move away. Don’t want to surprise them or corner them while they are in their hideout.

RocketGuy (15239

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Coral snakes are very shy. (Was it a coral snake and not a scarlet snake?) They are very poisonous but rarely interact with people. The other snake you saw sounds like a king snake, though it is hard to tell. If it WAS a king snake, say thank you to whatever higher power you like because they are great to have around. They eat other snakes. Even poisonous ones.

Most snakes will try to avoid people. There are exceptions, but they are not generally plentiful Some Rattlesnakes, Copperheads and Water Moccasins have been known to be more aggressive. I also had a snake at a previous house that I later found out were Lake Erie Water Snakes. They were VERY aggressive and would move towards people Thankfully these were not poisonous, but were highly aggressive.

Overall snakes are harmless as they try to avoid you. I think many people get nervous around them because they show up unexpectedly and move very fast…all when you least expect it. If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.

seawulf575 (16672

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