NO escapee I just met in the super market said.....

[liberalitch]

cotton mouths are everywhere!
Trying to find high ground and sun themselves.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Alligators are out too

------------------------------------------------------
Save the Gulf, then save the nation!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[stray cat]

2. You climb a tree and so do they

Snake bites will probably claim quite a few victims. The snakes and people escape to the same pieces of dry ground.

[Trillo]

3. FOOD!

Just need a long stick and a knife.

[Mz Pip]

4. That would give me nightmares

That and the alligators. :scared:

I'd be more afraid of them than of looters. There are a lot more of them to be sure.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Melodybe]

10. Don't forget the bugs, my best friend rode it out in Gulfport

and said immediately after the hurricane passed the house was infested with ants and bugs seeking food and dry.

EWW, way too much icky for me, I don't know how those brave souls did it.

[Carni]

21. Speaking of bugs imagine what's happening with the palmetto bugs

No offense southern DUers but that is just a pretty name for the nastiest cockroaches I have ever had the misfortune of seeing and those monsters are all over NO.

I'm not going to go there -- but let's just say with all the trash filth and unspeakable matter currently in the city they are living large currently.

[Spinzonner]

5. As if the Federal snakes weren't bad enough

:sarcasm:

[Katidid]

6. Water moccasin's are very aggressive too ...

will attack when they sense movement or agitation.

They also have a foul odor - but who would notice right now in NO.

Gosh, I hope no one was bitten.

[DemoTex]

7. That's what I remember about Dan Rather's coverage of Carla in '61.

The snakes. So many snakes.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. I moved to Houston in January of 1962

There were STILL snakes everywhere.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

13. Wasn't there also a bad

encephalitis outbreak in the Houston area after Carla? I visited an aunt and uncle in Lake Jackson and that was a great concern.

[Silverhair]

17. Yep. I was in Carla.

Rattlers were looking for safe places too. Lots of them. There was even a picture in LIFE magazine showing a guy shooting a rattler.

[jbnow]

8. Knowing nothing about cottonmouths I looked it up

www.wf.net/~snake/moccasin.htm
says in part(with many pictures)

The Cottonmouth Water Moccasin
(Agkistrodon piscivorus)
There is only one North American poisonous water snake - the Cottonmouth Water Moccasin! Not to be confused at all with its many nonpoisonous neighbors, this snake is a pit viper in the same general family as the Copperhead and the Rattler.

This dangerous semi-aquatic snake is truly an aggressive reptile that will stand its ground or even approach an intruder.

They favor lying dormant on logs, rocks or limbs at water's edge awaiting the telltale movement of approaching prey. It is characterized by a brown, olive or blackish dark body with lighter belly, and body crossbands which have a distinct border extending all the way around and across the yellowish stomach.

This 'Cottonmouth' or 'trapjaw' can snap shut with lightening speed instantly when touched, and can deliver a large venom dose to prey or victims alike!

[Rainscents]

11. YUK!!!

:scared:

[johnaries]

15. Yep, a copperhead or rattler will run away rather than strike

if they can.

A cottonmouth will chase you! I know, I barely got away once...

[DemoTex]

26. I have had cottonmouths come at me in my kayak ..

.. heads out of the water, swimming very aggressively. On White Rock creek inside the city limits of Dallas. That's when it is time to put down the fly rod and paddle like crazy. Know whut I mean?

[Atlas Mugged]

12. If that's not creepy enough

There's floating islands of fire ants, which are actually a wingless hornet.

[Fridays Child]

14. Busy little critters, trying to do the recycling they're programmed to do.

If we hold still long enough, they'll recycle us, too.

[punpirate]

16. Had a friend in Missouri who was bitten by one...

... while out fishing. Just a baby 8-10 inches long swimming in the water near the boat. He was worried about the two boys in the boat with him, so he broke a dead branch off overhead and tried to catch it in a fork of the branch and fling it away.

As he caught it and raised the branch to heave it, he said that snake stretched out about two feet long and bit him on the end of his finger. They hightailed it back to the car, and he drove to the hospital. They got some anti-venom serum into him within about an hour and a half and he was still out of commission for weeks.

Said his entire arm up to the shoulder swelled up about twice normal size--he said it looked like a giant sausage--and the skin turned black. Four days later, the doctors were about a day away from slitting his arm in several places to relieve the pressure when the swelling finally started to go down.

I never would have known, except that I'd asked him one day what mangled the end of one of fingers so badly. That was the point where the snake had bitten him and the venom had corroded the flesh so badly that it healed abnormally.

Very aggressive snake, indeed.

[ForrestGump]

18. Yep, cottonmouths are a nightmare snake

Not as venomous as many, but they can get the job done -- very liable to not only stand their ground but to come after you (I say this as somewhat of an expert on so-called 'dangerous' or 'aggressive' animals, most of which don't deserve the hype). And their breath is absolutely heinous...icky beyond belief. Squat, ugly snakes, they are, and their looks -- for a change -- hint at their temperament.

If I were there, I'd be far more worried about cottonmouths than alligators. I suppose we can be somewhat grateful that there aren't Indo-Pacific saltwater crocodiles thereabouts...

[Straight Shooter]

19. Cottonmouths scare the bejeebus out of me

When I lived in the South and would go down to the local swimming hole, it was always in the back of my mind that a cottonmouth might be nearby. They are dreadfully dangerous. I hadn't even thought of the snakes in the water. That's sheer terror.

[Fridays Child]

20. Never seen one, up close and personal. But, judging from that photo...

...they are several orders of magnitude creepy. :scared:

[nonconformist]

22. Cottonmouths will CHASE YOU

:scared:

[Old Hickory Fan]

25. Yep as do other snakes.....

spraying with fire extinguishers can keep them out of the boat or house so I am told. They freeze :-)

[Jade Fox]

23. I was wondering about the snake/reptile situation...

It's usually bad in hurricanes, cause the snakes are trying to find dry
ground usually in the same spots as humans.

[napi21]

24. My son told me sharks have also come in from the Gulf.

He was talking to his cousin in FL, and I guess the cousin knows some people in NO. He said there are alligators swimming all around, and now sharks have come into NO from the Gulf, looking for food, and realizing what was in the water!

It's been a very frightening place, and it's getting much worse as the days go on!