Snakes and roaches. Post your story.

Ok. I really dislike them. They are just creepy.

So, out camping. How many encounters are out there? Anyone wake up with Jake in the tent? Maybe find one too close after returning from a ride? :eek1

No good creep stories.

Friend of mine and I put a canoe into the Colorado River at Needles, CA for a drift down to Lake Havasu City. Planned two or three nights, depending. We weren't seasoned campers but knew enough to avoid most disasters. So, we make camp just outside the park. Too hot for a tent so we laid out our bedding on a tarp in the sand. A few hours after turning in, I awoke to some shuffling noises and with the light from a full moon I saw several wild burros meandering by. They disappeared into the darkness after a short time and I figured I'd take the opportunity to relieve myself, away from the tarp, obviously. The moonlight seemed good enough to get me out and back. Just before sunrise I crawled out of the sack and stood up for a stretch. I spotted, so to speak, my tracks where I had signed my name in the sand. Not more than a foot away from my tracks was a slight depression in the sand, occupied by a two feet long rattler, all rolled up and cozy. I decided it would be best in the future that I take a flashlight with me.

:eek1

Earlier this year I had one slither up the kickstand and hide up above a valve cover. Took some disassembly and persuasion to get it outta there.

Oh boy! :eek1

You two look confident and relaxed about pulling that rascal out of the bike. Sounds like he was looking for a warm spot to sleep.

When I first moved out of my parent's house, all I could afford was a shitty apartment next to the railroad tracks, and even had to take a room mate. He was a slob, and always left his dirty dishes everywhere, including grease splattered pans all over the stove. California's Central Valley is infested with cockroaches, and they considered our place paradise.

Each morning when I came home from working graveyard shift, my first order of business was to kill as many roaches as I could when I turned on the lights. I could usually get about 10 of them with my broom handle before the rest scurried back under the walls. I must have bug bombed that place 5 times, but they always came back within the week.

I now live at high enough elevation where we don't have roaches, and I don't think I'll ever go back to the flat lands...

I'm an electrician, and was sent to a commercial building to repair something in the basement. Walked into the mechanical room, and couldn't find the light switch. So, I turned my little maglite on, and it looked like the wall was moving. I found the light switch, and saw that the wall was full of roaches. That is a little too nasty for me, so I left. There have been other experiences with roaches and mice. I've had to work with a can of Raid in one hand, and pliers in the other.

Killed four rattlesnakes in my backyard one night; their den was under my house. Had Time Warner Cable guy come up and tell me there was one under the house during his "instal," I took care of it with .22Mag ratshot. Absolutely the best snake load as it doesn't blow a hole in the wall... Great fun on the ranch. Saludos, Jim

You should have bombed the roommate instead. Roaches like to eat too, but so far in their evolution they haven't learned how to open a can of beans or pop the top of a beer bottle. As long as the food is sealed up, they'll move on. But, they do send out scouts to see if another slob has moved in.

We were serving a search warrant in West Hollywood, typical mundane apartment building that probably dated to the 60s. When we opened the door and went in, I had the bad luck of starting in the kitchen. Dishes and utensils that hadn't been washed in months, dry or molding food on the counter top, etc. Opened the first cupboard, it was like an invasion scene in a bad flick. Now, cockroaches are kind of crafty and within 15 seconds, they had mostly disappeared. The creepy thing is that the 'residents' weren't bothered having a zillion bugs around.

Oh yeah, roaches. Saved this big sucker from a gas station during a moonlight madness DS ride. He was in danger of being squashed, so I relocated him to a planter.

This one took refuge in the shade under my bike. Never had a rattler climb up onto the bike but several bull snakes have done so. No big deal, I like snakes.

Is that a Rattlesnake? He looks mean. I hope you had a lot of camera zoom to take that picture! :eek1

Yes that's a rattle snake. As long as you stay out of their strike range, which isn't very far, you're in no danger. Some rattlers hiss, rattle and strike with little provocation, and others seem more easy going. That one was pretty mellow.

When I lived in Houston TX many years ago, cheap apartments were full of roaches. If I put out roach poison, by morning I had to sweep the kitchen floor which was completely littered with the dead and dying. My Texan friends told me to relax: "They don't eat much." The only really disgusting part happens when they cannot find enough to drink and sneak up to you while you are sleeping and drink saliva out of the corner of your mouth!
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Had a 4, maybe 4-1/2' red-bellied black snake slither between my legs and over my boot while I was crouched down working on my bike just in front of the shed a few days ago. Gave me a hell of a fright, I don't think I've jumped so high in my entire life. Don't mind redbellies, they're usually pretty placid and help keep the browns away. Still not real keen on getting up close and personal with them, I'm not a huge fan of wrigglesticks.

Wasn't a snake, but a deer mouse. My riding partner and I had a tarp strung between two trees and had our sleeping bags on the ground.

Woke up one morning and as Dave put his boot on, he found there was already something in his boot. He kicked that boot off and it landed 20 or so feet away. We went over to it and found a small deer mouse still in the boot.

Dave always shook out his boots after that.

I lived in Central America de 5 years and had my share of animal encounters. But the two I tell people about are when I was in Guatemala I lived in the jungle and Almost everyday I would go for a run on an old jeep trail and always see either parrot, snakes or monkeys. Most of the snakes were little ones that would slither back into the jungle. one day I came up over a little hill with my headphones on and was stopped dead in my tracks, maybe even skidded a little as the entire jeep trail from left to right was covered with a brown and blue snake as thick as a baseball bat. I never saw its head as it was already moving but it's body more than covered the width of the trail. It took off and left me in a daze. It was longer than I was. I don't think I moved for 2 minutes.
What I would give for a picture of my face when I saw that....even today it gets my heart moving
I found out its a zumbadora in Spanish or a forest racer snake here's a video of one

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2tsC2aVv3nY&desktop_uri=/watch?v=2tsC2aVv3nY

The other story was in Honduras, I went to take a shower and in the shower was a large hole where the pipe came out of the wall to send water to the shower head and one day I opened the curtain and on the wall was a black spider larger than a volleyball. I just stood there for a second with a "really now, is this really happening" attitude. I think I was in a hurry and had stuff to do, this spider wasn't making my day any easier. I stood there for a minute and it took off behind the enter/exit door which pissed me off. I snuck out of the room weighing my options So I did the only thing I could do, I went and got an 18 year old girl with a broom. My best employee was Mary and she would do anything, I said Mary I need your help there's a spider in my room can you kill it.
We went back, Mary leading the way of course and the spider was gone, never saw it again. I do remember being a little jumpy the next time I took a shower

That is some funny stuff, Catracho!

I spent three years in Panama, and can recall having to deal with Fer de Lance snakes on two occasions. One was on the neighbors grill that was setting in the carport only feet from where the little kids were playing. The other had its fang stuck in the ribs of a bullfrog being dragged (hopped) down the street. I took care of the snake, and the frog hopped away only to die at the steps of another neighbor.

Encountered big, hairy spiders in El Salvador. They liked to get up in our mosquito nets over the cots at night. Pretty exciting people behavior when they are discovered!

I remember talking about snakes with the locals and it was usually just joking around until the fer de lance was mentioned then their attitude changed. The look in their eyes was of real fear. In Guatemala they called it a barba Amarilla