Be careful when you pull over

Did some off-roading near Shawnee National Forest. Stopped to pee. Thought it was a stick. Until the stick moved. Cottonmouth

 

Two snakes in the grass....

 

If that woulda happened to me......you would have seen me jump 3ft in the air without bending my knees screaming like a school-girl!

 

I left that part out. Scared the hell out of me. We don’t have snakes (maybe gartner) but nothing like that and venomous. I told my wife. DO NOT get out of the truck. And of course I was only half done peeing so the remainder was the most anxiety pee I’ve ever done.

 

Meh. Come to AZ. Rattlers are abundant. And, they don't always rattle.

 

I lived In La. almost 2 full years. Only had 1 encounter W/1 of those. Another tech was on the helipad & beat the W/some chocks! I've been told they're the ONLY snake that Will come after you IF you're in their area. Other snakes only attack IF cornered.

 

And if it’s not a rattle snake it’s a scorpion or a black widow

 

I could be wrong because it's not the best photo but that looks more like a North Watersnake to me, which aren't venomous but will bite and draw a little blood if threaten.

But in this case you did well to avoid a close encounter just in case it was/is a Cottonmouth.

I'm our local neighborhood snake wrangler, when anyone local see a snake around their home they call me to come and relocate it without killing it.

 

This reminds me of what happened to me in High School. I lived in Central Florida at the time. My friends and I had been out drinking and "muddin" in my friends Jeep CJ7. He pulled over so I could pee. It was an area known for gators. I was told him "Big deal, we won't see any!"

I pulled it, started pissing, then a gator walked up on me. I did scream like a girl. Then I ran down the road as fast as I could... Dick was still swinging in the breeze. My friends just sat in the Jeep, laughing their asses off.




They finally caught up to me after I ran about a mile.

 

Right! All kinds of shit trying to kill you. Cholla cactus, murder hornets, weird soil fungi...

 

This is not true, some people think that because sometimes they will come towards you if they feel cornered and trying to escape, the name "Cottonmouth" comes from their common display of gapping their mouth opened showing the snow white interior to try and intimidate the threat so they can escape.
There's no North American snake that will "chase" you, they ALL want to avoid encounters with anything that's not potential food or possible mating!

 

Describes all the girls in my high school senior class!

 

You guys could always move up to the Midwest where the weather sucks half of the year. No bugs or snakes trying to kill you up here though.

 

100% cottonmouth. There was a snake researcher out there and she came over and said that’s a cottonmouth. She even brought out a book to prove it. I guess cottonmouths have a white line under their jaw. That’s how she confirmed it was a cottonmouth

 

I’m the OP and can confirm what you said. There was a snake researcher who came over and essentially said what you did

 

Okay says you! Only told by what I have been told by locals.eh?!?!?!

 

I’m the OP and live outside of Chicago and you’re correct. There are no deadly or venomous anywhere around us.

 

Those locals are only repeating what they have been told all their lives by family and friends, i.e. "old wives tales" but not facts from experience of actually interacting with capturing and relocating Cottonmouths and or other venomous snakes, I've been doing this for over 60 years.

Cottonmouths do seem more aggressive because of the "standing their ground nature/mouth gaping" until they see a chance to escape.

 

IIRC, there might be some venomous snake species present, but very rare.

 

I 100% believe that snakes are harmless unless provoked. I had a close encounter with one in my sleeping bag one morning in the Anza-Boreggo desert when I was a kid. I was 5-6 years old and sleeping on the ground. When I was waking up to the smell of frying bacon, I felt something beside my leg and told my Dad. He and his Army buddy both told me, DON'T MOVE!!
My Dad gently lifted the corner of the bag and didn't see anything and very sternly told me again not to move.
As the sun was rising, it and me was getting hotter & hotter and I really had to pee.

After they finished their breakfast (bastards) they kept asking me, you holding up ok boy?

Soon after that, it started to move and he told me again, stay still. Then he told me to gently and slowly turn my head away from whatever was moving towards the top of the bag. After a couple more minutes, my Dads buddy says, hey look at that.
Another minute went by and my Dad said ok get up and pee. And his buddy followed a rattlesnake away from our camp site.

Just before we got home my Dad stops the double cab VW and turns to me and says, don't EVER tell your Mother that this happened.
If you do she'll never let you come with us to the desert again. I got it Dad!
She never did find out.


On edit.
In my younger days we raised snakes and feed them mice that we raised too.
I had a Red Tail Boa that was longer than I was tall.
My Dad used to work at Van Wyke Volkswagen in Fontana, CA.
He would occasionally take me to his work with the Boa wrapped around me.
The White guys didn't pay no attention to me but, the darker brothers told me to stay the f away from them as my Dad pushed me towards them.
It was my earliest introduction to cus words.

 

You may want to do some research on this....but Illinois has 4 venomous snakes, eastern massasauga (a rattlesnake), timber rattlesnake, copperhead, and yes cottonmouths, there also at least 36 other non-venomous snakes as well.

From the Illinois DNR website, here's a link..
https://dnr.illinois.gov/education/wildaboutpages/wildaboutsnakes.html#:~:text=Illinois threatened snakes include Kirtland's,species, is endangered in Illinois.

 

Except for everyone that lives in Chicago

 

Welcome to California.

Snakes of the Mojave

And I see soo many folks just scrambling over rocks and things at events like KOH without a clue they’re clambering over prime habitat.

 

Personally I miss bad weather. Not tornado or hurricane bad but there’s too much sun in AZ!

 

In Australia they call those "danger worms"

 

Not sure how he felt threatened, but we had them by the house as a kid. One time we were sitting on the screened porch minding our own business and heard something hit the screen, looked down and saw the cottonmouth hit it again from the outside trying to strike my dad who was on the other side of the screen.

 

I can remember just about every snake I walked over quail hunting on cool Oct. mornings in AZ. I'm sure there were more I didn't see.

 

Except the two-legged kind

 

I was heading up to a remote radio site for work. “ Perfect Storm Conditions “, all new guys unfamiliar with with communications and emergency procedures with me. My cell phone slipped into the back seat of my truck. I stopped to get it. Opening the truck door, I felt almost an electric shock. A Pacific Rattlesnake was coiled ready to strike within 6 feet of where I was standing. I screamed like a 6 year old girl and slipped behind the door of the truck to watch the snake start to slither away, rattling the whole time. One of the guys with me said that he would never forget the look of terror on my face. Definitely a teachable moment. I started looking up snakebite treatments and started wearing high top leather boots when traveling to sites. Also anyone coming out with me was instructed on communication and emergency procedures before we left the city.

 

I just fed my smoothies.