PA will start a 3 year study on rattlesnakes since they eat large amounts of the mice that are major carriers of Lyme disease !
Proving once more that gov't are always too little too late !

I dident know mice carried Lymes....
Thought Tick's did.....

The ticks that vector Lyme disease have mice as a part of that life cyclce: http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html

Ohio has a small population timber rattlesnakes. I once had a summer student work for me who caught timber rattlers for the ODNR to tag.

I wonder how rodent consumption by snakes like rat snakes compares to rattlesnakes?

Tom

quote:

Originally posted by TWall:
The ticks that vector Lyme disease have mice as a part of that life cyclce: http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html

Ohio has a small population timber rattlesnakes. I once had a summer student work for me who caught timber rattlers for the ODNR to tag.

I wonder how rodent consumption by snakes like rat snakes compares to rattlesnakes?

Tom

Rat snakes,Black Snakes,Fox Snakes and Pine Snakes all consume Mice and some larger animals.There is no need for rattle snakes.

The Pa Game Commission stocked rattlesnakes in the Game Land adjacent to where my mother and numerous other relatives reside. They also banned horses since "they damage the rattlesnake habitat" None of the locals were impressed with this, least of all my mother when she found one living under her dumpster. I occasionally saw one sunning on the access road, but I doubt if any of them are still alive.

You know, in ancient Egypt putting a cobra in someone's garden was a favored way to get rid of them.

Deliberately introducing poisonous snakes ... really?

Are the rattlesnake non-native to PA?

Talk about a liability if young child, dog or livestock get bitten!

If it were me, I would cut the rattle off and mail the snake alive to whoever idea this was.

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
PA will start a 3 year study on rattlesnakes since they eat large amounts of the mice that are major carriers of Lyme disease !
Proving once more that gov't are always too little too late !

_____________________________________________

Met:

I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, Butler County, 30 miles North of Pittsburgh and travelled extensile throughout the state working and hunting. I never saw even one rattle snake.

Good luck with their study which is about as valuable as examining the life cycle of Lyme ticks short and long term.

Lyme disease is no joke. It is devastating.

I think that the biologists need to study further the life cycle and prevalence and prolifertion of Lyme ticks.

I'm still working on my Lyme disease after a number of years .Shameful on the part of the medical establishment !!!
Here in the snake protected state of NY our DEC is a joke ,they are the outcome of the 60s -no knowledge or understanding of nature.
NY State's Catskill mtns and PA's Pocono mtns have lots of rattlesnakes .

there were wolves back east as well, I'm sure there are a few people out west willing to send some back to help in the fight against the lyme carrying vermin .

There is a native rattler in PA, the missasagua rattlesnake. they are found only in the praries on the extreme western border of the state. they are tiny, i dont think ive ever seen one over two feet long. but still venomous. k

We also have the venomous copperhead in NY.

In PA and NY we have some coyoteXwolf that run 75 to 80 lbs !! Real cute !

Snakes eat mice? Will wonders never cease! Any kid in the area I grew up in could have told these fools that snakes eat mice.

Great Horned Owls also eat lots of mice but that seems to be a secret ! SHHH !

I grew up and still live in Pa. we have both rattlesnakes and copperheads. The Pa Game Comm. protects them as endangered species...go figure. I know for a fact both are killed on sight by 99.9% of the people I know in the state. Just another idiotic law enacted by our Legislators at the hands of the PGC. The PGC is manned by officials whom never set foot away from their computers or outside their offices. They graduate from college and are given a job by someone who owes their daddy a favor...hence the mess the org is in today.