Snakes on the Lawn
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We haven’t reached June yet and already snake bites are at an all time high in parts of California. In the Thousand Oaks area, according to reports, 5 dogs are bitten each day by rattlesnakes.
Already two people have gotten struck and as the weather get warmer, the snakes come out. We are standing on a patch of grass near Lake Sherwood in Westlake Village, around me are multi-million dollar homes, surrounded by the wild of the Santa Monica mountains. Man and nature sometimes don’t mix and this is one of those times. So, bring on the ‘Rattlesnake Wrangler’ Bo Slyapich.
We first met him last fall and have kept in touch since. I followed him through people’s back yards, under decks and even under homes. Wherever snakes roam, Bo can be found hunting them down. He snake protects yards and removes any slithering threat in a matter of minutes.
His weapons include tongs, various sized flashlights, long boots, even a pistol loaded with snake-shot for extreme cases. When snakes come calling in these parts, people pick up the phone and call….Bo knows snakes. Here he is after our first live shot.
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Adam Housley has been with FNC since 2001 as a Los Angeles-based
correspondent. He has covered news ranging from wildfires in California
to political unrest in Venezuela and was one of the few reporters who
witnessed the execution of Stanley “Tookie” Williams. 
Adam,
I wonder if California has rattlesnake roundups like we do in Texas, or are the liberals willing to sacrafice a few people to save the rattlers.
I hope your close encounter with the snakes hasn’t given you “a reptile” dysfunction.
Dog
SurfDog-
I have heard of the roundups, but not here in California. I think there would likely be a battle tho with some animal rights groups if there was one.
Adam
Adam
Saw you this morning - yikes - Actually sounds like a dangerous situation especially when someone gets bitten. A vet bill for a dog bitten - $2,400.00 - wow!!!
Hopefully, this will be a short news story. Wouldn’t you rather be embedded with the troops than playing with rattlesnakes????
cool story,
I grew up hunting, and dealing with rattlesnakes was always an issue, We would occasionally get them in our yard as a kid and my grandpa would dispatch them with a shovel.
I can see where the average californian would pay to have somebody humanely dispose of these animals, relocate them, and let them live in their suburbs in peace.
I gave up hunting after my years at war, I have no desire to kill anything ever again, but right after I had gotten home, I was walking with my cousin and all of our kids, I have 3 he has 3, and we had a couple of others with us, we were walking in the mountains, near a stream when we heard the unmistakable sound, the kids all wanted to see, and we had a rattlesnake about the same size as the one in video on the path, both of our fatherly instincts kicked in and I pinned it with a stick, while he chopped the head off….we even cooked and ate the thing later.
I haven’t run into a rattle snake on the east coast yet, but over 10 years ago I killed a water moccasin with a shovel, and I will tell you this, rattle snakes sound scary but water moccasins are scary…those bad boys will put up a fight, and are more likely to attack than run away.
@Adam Housley
Is there a reason why the comments posted in POD 10 after 1045am today are no longer there?
No sure, let me see where they went.
Adam
speaking of snakes my friend and his dad killed a four foot rattle snake yesterday which was in their backyard all on tape….
Adam we have western diamondbacks here. The research is a good thing, it is sortof like the botox. Bad coming from good.
My middle son has seen two snakes at the farm, one was a huge water mocassin.
Being in Agoura, I see Bo, all overthe place. Ive already had 5 Rattlers in my backyard. About the same as last year. My brother in law, grabs rattlers with his bare hands. Just crazy to watch him. Then he skins them and cooks up the meat for a bar b q. He just skinned a 4.5 ft one last week.
Hey Adam, if your still in the local area. I wouldnt mind coming over and saying “hi”.
Stop on over. We are on the way to Lake Sherwood.
Adam
You couldn’t pay me enough to go look for snakes! No way, José!!!!!
I just whacked the heck out of a black widow the other day– she is good and dead!!!
Sunshine– congrats on getting the answer on the POD– Adam must have missed your earlier guess! but it was you! LOL
Hello to all and have a good day!
Max– I emailed you– I LOVE the t-shirt- I will be wearing it June 8th when Jen comes to visit!!! thank you soooooooo much!! Perfect size and color!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi surfdog!!!!!
Imagine looking for snakes with old age eyesight? Which of the ten pairs I have would work the best to see one and get the heck out of Dodge?
Susan–AZ,
1.25 is as close as I’d get…no seriously I’ve been on rattlesnake roundups and as long as I can see them I have no fear, but crawling in, around and over things is a little different…give me flat ground.
The roundups are pretty interesting and useful, the venom is harvested, the skins are turned into purses, belts etc, and the meat is pretty good…I’d say a cross between chicken and frog legs, It is work intensive though with all the bones.
Dog
Dog-
Also just an FYI to everyone. Bo releases almost all of the snakes he catches. He has people who welcome the snakes out on their vast properties. He only kills one when there is absolutely no choice and that is very rare.
Adam
*standing on the desk shaking head* nope, nope, …nothing creepy crawly around me or i’ll find the shotgun!
If i ever see them close to this house, i’m moving to town!
I don’t give snakes much thought………I don’t mess with them, they don’t mess with me. When I lived in Florida I once had a Garter snake slither up to me while I was sitting in my yard reading a magazine. We sort of eyeballed each other and after a few moments it slid underneath my lawn chair, curled up and went to sleep. We seemed to have a mutual respect and need for each other……….I didn’t have to worry about small rodents, spiders or lizards sneaking up on me and it didn’t have to worry about birds of prey swooping down on it while it rested in the hot Florida afternoon sun. After a while, it slithered away………no fuss, no muss.
Now, my girlfriend despises snakes. She’s absolutely terrified of them and avoids them at all costs……………Well, all except one type of snake………but that’s a whole different story.
That would scare the heck out of me, although I have to check the yard each time before I leave the pool cage to walk the dogs to make sure there are no alligators lurking around……..quite a common occurrence here in southwest Florida and it is mating season for the gators. ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈
Comment by Adam Housley
May 28th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
No sure, let me see where they went.
Adam
***
Thank you kindly.
LDG-
There are some on there after 10am. I’ll have the admin look and see if some got lost somewhere. Thanks for the heads up. Now back to more snakes. Taryn and the people who run the blogs are going to post the last live report. They are fantastic and so is BO! Notice how I kneel behind him.
Adam
Adam - just saw you live. I noticed you NEVER took your eyes off the snake while talking. ha ha! can’t say that I blame you! Smart guy! What an interesting story!
goodness gracious SNAKES alive! do be careful Adam!
Hey EVERYONE!!
I am sitting here in the satellite truck with socalsurfer! He is cool and has some great stories.
Adam
ahhhh that is cool socal! You mean he is a real person adam ? *L*
Adam maybe you can get that snake man to release those nakes at my school so they can cancel our exams lol ;)….. national exams begin for me tuesday and my last one is the day before i leave……. EXAMS SUCK
Adam - do a video with socal like you did with Max!!! it’s fun to put a face to a name!
This could be part of the sequal to ‘Snakes on a Plane’. ‘Snakes on a Lawn’:
“Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherf**king snakes on this motherf**king lawn! “
Adam: i posted that just before the live shot went up. Great minds think alike, right?
Year of the snake? They are everywhere here in my neck of the wood here in KY.
I just ran over a six foot black snake yesterday on my road and there was another two days ago the road over.
Hey socalsurfer…… Enjoy your visit with Adam!
****Yes my post from earlier this morning is missing from the POD thread…. I congratulated Sunshine and all who said grapes.
A few years ago I saw a show where they put different critters on the road to see what drivers would do. (of course they were all fake) such as turtles and snakes. Most all would go around are try to miss everything except the snake. After running over the snake, some cars even stopped and backed up to run over it again.
I thought about doing that yesterday…but it had already been hit by someone else
so once was enough for me.
Susan!!
12 days and counting! Can’t wait to see your T-shirt. LOL
wow! Im “cool!”……….lol Like the Fonz! Yes, I regailed Adam with a story about paochers and how my brother was famously fired and rehired by Ted Turner w/in a 48 hr period when he was a news director for CNN many years ago.
It was “cool” meeting you too Adam. See you in 3D is better than seeing you in 2D any day. Oh yeah, Make you get to hold the wee little rattle snake when Bo gets back.
Susan: glad you like the shirt!
my bro just gave the book ” The Broker” by John Grisham ….. anyone ever read it before…. he told me it was really good lol
Adam, its much easier to run from a standing position isn’t it? *L*
You were just a wee bit nervous!!!
Oh ya….and tell the guy how nice Bo is while he has the snake in his hand. ha ha
Did you touch it????????
Socal…Fonz….*L* I can see you strutting with thumbs up!
Patty-
It’s just better to hide behind the guy with the tongs.
Adam
jen…Old wives tale from the farmers…snakes on the road means rain coming.
Comment by Patty
May 28th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
jen…Old wives tale from the farmers…snakes on the road means rain
Patty————it’s true!
jen and patty….old wives tales are what the mom’s said to scare the bejeebers out of their kids and keep them doing the right thing…keep making faces and it will freeze like that….etc
Old farmers almanac or old farmer tales are entirely different, they are the things that the men noticed over and over again, so they recognized a pattern, snakes on the road, means rain is coming true….snakes can sense weather patterns long before us warm blooded humans can, and if a snake doesn’t want to drown, he is taking the shortest route home…ie the roads (that they would normally avoid) another good one is when hornets or bee’s build a nest, if it’s higher than normal, expect a lot of snow that winter.
Nature is absolutely amazing, and we can learn a lot if we will just listen to it.
Adam,sorry, i cant make it back. But, I cant get off work early enough.
Oh No Adam my son W has been catching snakes since he could walk, this is not a good sign. I am going to post a story about him on my blog since you had this story, Bo reminds me of W only W has hair and jeans.
Adam you are so gracious to us bloggers honestly it is refreshing!
I am way all confused here-
I posted earlier and the comments are gone! What and where?
HMMMM?
SOCAL-
You met Adam? Wow and wow!
Adam–
WAAAA! My and Max’s meeting with you is like now obselete?
Max-
I love the t-shirt— navy blue with- I love LONDON- In the Heart WITH THE FLAG! SO COOL!
But my most favorite is the postcard you sent with it– Palace of Westminster- Houses of Parliament- with your handwritten note on the back-
Dear Susan,
I hope you like the card & T-shirt. I hope its the right size. It was the only nice one I found. the rest were all either really chessy or rude.
have a good summer
Much love, Max x
—————————————————————————————————————
I thought I would include this on the blog!
Max-
I love you!
the t-shirt is awesome but the postcard stays with me forever!
xxxxx
Adam—
Don’t me sending me any snakes over here in guise of a wine bottle if you ever hate me!!!
One thing I do know, wear heavy boots when in snake country– so when the guys lash out, the stuff just hits the leather! Been on the desert!
Dogs– well- I use to walk my dog down here by the ditch! I was always on the aware of snakes- with my faithful bat!
I hate snakes! But then in the desert, you are on their land!
As with the ocean– sharks– it all belongs to them! You assume the risk!
So I sit here and whack the crap out of anything that looks like it may be a threat!
So who it to blame here?
And if I lived somewhere where my dogs are like going to be hit by a rattlesnake, the dog is inside!!!
24/7!
Sunshine won the POD–
Adam,
give her credit!
thank you!
SUNSHINE!! I am sorry, I didn’t realize you won the POD. So, congrats. Also…everyone I realize the comment box doesn’t appear is some of the older threads, the transfer of stuff into ‘On the Scene’ isn’t complete yet. I’ll also have a topics list on the side of the page so we can refer back. Just FYI
Adam
Jen–
June 8th is our day!
You know my number and you also know where I live!
We will have funl!
Surfdog-
You crack me up! I don’t care if snake is good eating, but these guys are not my choice of hanging around with. But if push came to shove, I could handle it– but to be one of these guys to be doing it for a living– NOT! NO WAY!
May Steve Irwin rest in Peace! LOL
AVI
I have most of John Grisham’s books here at my house– Last one I read– The Innocent Man-
It is a good one!
xxxxxx
Wow–
I just watched the video–
The guy is 50 years old and he has been doing this since he was five?
Good luck and Praise him!
No way would I do this!
I willl still continue to carry my bat! And just bat it to death! I hate snakes! LOL
Susan: Glad you liked what i sent. The price was far less than i imagined, i think it’s because i didn’t pay for any of the bells and whistles, last time i sent to america i paid for them and a card cost $10 to send and didn’t get there any faster, maybe actually took longer.
Also, i read that you can buy rattle snake steak in a lot of meat stores in arizona. Mabe you should look for it, and you can share it when Jen arrives
Max-
Susan is so kind…you know she’ll give a person the shirt off her back.
So I just may be wearing that t-shirt home. lol
I’ll pass on the snake meat.
Max and Jen–
thank you!!
küss küss
(postcard stays with me forever!)
Not even chicken fried sneak with gravy?
oops, snake*
Hey Adam. I to started catching snakes when i was a kid. I live just a stones throw away from the chickahomany swamp so we have lots of snakes. coper heads, cotton mouths, black snakes, corn snakes. etc… I think snakes get a bad rap. most people dont know that they are more afraid of us then we are of them and will only bite as a last line of defence. I love what your doing I relocate coper heads myself here in VA. keep up the good work. Respectfully Troy Dawes Highland Springs VA.
Hey Adam, My sister roped me into going to the rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater, TX mentioned in the first post on this thread. Wow! A carnival atmosphere with thousands of snakes and everybodys a snake handler. One guy took hsi hat off, coiled up a rattlesnake in it and put it back on his head. Walked around with it like that for several minutes.
[...] more snakes around than usual [...]