Light shone on Snakes??

Has anyone use any form of light to 'scare' snakes away?

i am very fear of them .....

always meet them in the forset whenever i go trekking, etc.

will light affect on their eyes like any 2 or 4 legger animals??

Snakes are already more afraid of you than you are of them and will not attack unless provoked.
Most snakes are not out in the open at night where you might see them, but during the daytime I don't see how a flashlight would help you anyways.

HI there, Roadie,

Personal experience, is that some snakes do like bright stuff, and they will lunge at the source such as spotlights etc. We here in Malaysia do not have forests but we do have lots of jungles. When It comes to snakes, the 'Ular Kapak' or Axe Snake, which looks like the rattle snake but without the rattle particularly likes bright light. Other jungle dwellers do run away when they see light at night. If you do see one, just back away slowly.

Last fall, well after the air was pretty chilly at night, we came up on a 3.5 ft.(~1 meter?) rattle snake streched out in the trail. He was pretty unreactive when hit with a Digilight 12VHP lamp from a few feet away. IIRC snakes sense IR, so some day I want to "light one up" with an IR illuminator.

Paladin

jumpstat said:

HI there, Roadie,

Personal experience, is that some snakes do like bright stuff, and they will lunge at the source such as spotlights etc. We here in Malaysia do not have forests but we do have lots of jungles. When It comes to snakes, the 'Ular Kapak' or Axe Snake, which looks like the rattle snake but without the rattle particularly likes bright light. Other jungle dwellers do run away when they see light at night. If you do see one, just back away slowly.

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That's why it's good to carry two lights. Or more. Drop one and let the snake play with it for a while until it dies. Then go back and retrieve it in the morning. :lolsign:

snakes are usually people fearing, unless its cornered its going to try and find some way to run off...unless its a rattler, etc

Lights dont really have an effect on snakes since their visible spectrum is very limited, mostly by IR, for personal protection I'd suggest carrying a beater light.

Down here in FL, the most intimidating snake I've seen is an indigo, which was pretty cute IMO.
Animals need their space, as long as you respect them, they usually wouldn't wreak havoc

I think a .410 works better than a flashlight if I have reasonable fear of being bitten. Dont get me wrong here, I do not wish to kill anything I am not going to eat... I would however, kill to defend myself or another person from imminent harm...

so no form of lights will 'scare' them away??

ouch ...... i am very 'bad luck' whenever i step into the forest .... as i will cross path with them ,,,,,, arrrrrrrrgh ..... dop

oh well ......

greenlight said:

That's why it's good to carry two lights. Or more. Drop one and let the snake play with it for a while until it dies. Then go back and retrieve it in the morning. :lolsign:

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He..he...lets hope the snake won't swollow it.....ha..ha.:laughing:

roadie, you're better off stomping the ground than shining a light on them. Snakes (on the ground) respond to the vibrations of your footsteps from as far away as 30 ft.

Years ago we had an alarm in a warehouse that went off a lot.
For a long time nobody knew why.
Finaly they found the "burglar", a rattle snake.
Seems the alarm was infra-red and every once in a while the snake would see it and stick it's head up to investigate.

So a light giving out a lot of heat might attract better.

Snakes can sense you coming(via ground vibrations) before you would even notice the snake. As cold blooded reptiles, I am sure snakes would welcome any warmth you can provide with your high lumens flashlights :laughing:

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oh my then will lasers work?

Like everybody else said, best just to let the snake go his way, you go yours. There are very very few snakes in the world that are actively aggressive towards humans. Only kill a snake if it is a pest, IE taken up residence in a yard or barn or what not and only if it is a dangerous snake, rattler etc.

I hate spiders, etc. but they have their place and as long as they don't bother me I won't bother them. More humans should feel this way about other humans IMO, but that is another thread.

As for the actual light, as others have said snakes are attracted to heat so you are not likely to get any reaction with a flashlight.

greenlight said:

That's why it's good to carry two lights. Or more. Drop one and let the snake play with it for a while until it dies. Then go back and retrieve it in the morning. :lolsign:

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thats why you carroy THREE lights...consider this, you see an intimidating snake, you drop one of two lights and run for it...then your other light poops out and you are forced to run back and steal the light from the snake:laughing:

when you said "let the snake play with it until it dies" reminds me of the lithium explosion threads.... :shrug:


NEVERMIND, POST OFENSIVE TO SOME PEOPLE, SELF EDITED

roadie said:

i am very 'bad luck' whenever i step into the forest

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I would be more than happy to accompany you into the forest....I came from a family of naturalists and treehuggers

Illum_the_nation said:

well theres the USL...but that might leave burn marks

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Yep and snakes can't tell when they are being burned so it would prbably sit there happily basking in the warmth of your USL until until it burned itself to death, not reccomended. :tsk:

Illum_the_nation said:

I would be more than happy to accompany you into the forest....I came from a family of naturalists and treehuggers

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i think i would be better off by myself where fearing u than the snakes

Snakes like warmth, If you light generates heat it may attract them

eebowler said:

roadie, you're better off stomping the ground than shining a light on them. Snakes (on the ground) respond to the vibrations of your footsteps from as far away as 30 ft.

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While stomping works against snakes, it attracts leeches.
In I'sia we typically dragged our flip-flops along the ground.
If there's lots of plant cover over the ground, the first person in a group uses a bamboo stick to feel / beat the ground. Walking in a group generally reduces the risk of encountering animals.

I run into a lot of snakes out here, usually diamondbacks and occasionally Mohaves. The brightest thing I've ever shined at them was a 800 lumen Vector spotlight. They really seem to be indifferent to light shined at them on a trail. A five foot stick seems to be the most effective thing to nudge them on their way so that you can get past them on the trail. Snake season is just beginning for us again here.