This week I had a story run in the outdoor section of the Great Falls Tribune about Glenn, a local guy who catches rattlesnakes for fun. He clears them out of ranches and other places where they’re a hazard to horses, pets, or people.

It’s a fine service, but I still think he’s bonkers. He crawls up the dens and starts pulling them out using a grabber of sorts, and boy oh boy, does he have stories to tell.

Last fall when I saw him (he’s also a tremendous gardener) I asked how the snake hunting was going. He told me he had one crawl over his arm the day before. Last year it was a cool, wet growing season that gave us lots of tall grasses. He shimmied up to a den on the early, cold October morning and started pulling out snakes, tossing them down the hill behind him. He kept glancing behind to make sure they stayed put. It wasn’t long until one came back and crawled over his right arm to get to the den. He simply snagged that one by the tail and threw it back behind him.

What actually freaked him out was when he felt something cold underneath him. He eased up slowly to discover he was lying on five of them! One little one was actually crawling up his shirt. Needless to say, he arose very quietly. Glenn said that one sent chills up his spine.

It disturbed me to hear how many he finds. He’ll clear out 80 or so from a den. There are times of the year, most often in the fall, when he watched many of them travel through the high grass back towards the den. If Glenn says its an eerie thing to watch, I believe him.

Keeping an Eye Out For Rattlesnakes

As someone who’s out digging around tall vegetation a lot, rattlesnakes are a concern. A couple of summers ago two of our neighbors’ dogs were bitten by rattlesnakes and nearly died. Dogs can receive a rattlesnake vaccine; people cannot.

We do our best to keep the lawn cut short, and another one of our neighbors has been great about mowing behind the fence to discourage snakes from our yard. I still would like to have guinea hens or at least keep a rooster. (Brittany, our rooster who said, Cock-a-doodle-doo! wouldve been a good candidate.)

The other place I really keep my eyes open is in Ulm, a town roughly 8 miles from here, where I keep my horse. The people who have them do a really nice job of mowing everything around the barn and upper pastures primarily for rattlesnakes.

I interviewed Peggy, my friend down there who is my riding partner when I have time to relax in the saddle, because she and I have discussed snakes during our rides. She said her most memorable one was a 7 mile leisurely ride from her home. She said they killed the first snake, the second one the rode around, the third one was coiled underneath her mare ready to strike, so her mare bucked her off trying to get away from it. Peggy’s had them at the corner of her house so she’s always vigilant.

Stay vigilant!

Probably 10 minutes after talking with her this morning about the article, I headed home. Sure enough, there was a rattlesnake coiled and buzzing alongside the driveway. I took a couple of pictures out of the window, and then backed up and tried to run it over. I missed. So I backed up and tried again, but he slid off the side of the drive before I could get him. Im just trying to do my part since I really dont want to have to put a tube down my horses nose to help him breathe!Too bad I missed.

Yes, snakes have a place in the ecosystem. I totally understand that. They eat rodents granted it might only be one a summer but they still eat them. And any deceased rodent is a good one. But, Im sorry, if I see a snake, particularly in an area where my boys or horse might be, Im with Glenn. Its got to go.