Reptile & Amphibian
News Blog
Keep up with news and features of interest to the reptile and amphibian community on the kingsnake.com blog. We cover breaking stories from the mainstream and scientific media, user-submitted photos and videos, and feature articles and photos by Jeff Barringer, Richard Bartlett, and other herpetologists and herpetoculturists.
Monday, June 11 2012
First on my list of critical items to bring snake hunting is always batteries. Make sure you bring them. Make sure you have them. Make sure you charge them. Make sure you re-charge them.
Sanderson is a very small town, with limited places to acquire batteries, in an emergency or otherwise. With all the locals and all the herpers coming into town, batteries will be tough to find locally. Bring all you need so you don't find yourself 50 feet up on a cut with a light that just went dim. Make sure to bring any chargers you need for batteries or devices as well. Finding an iPhone charger might prove difficult, finding a camera charger impossible.
First thing I do when I get in from hunting is put all my gear and all my batteries on chargers. Cameras, lights, phones, laptop, everything. A dead battery is dead weight,
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| No, that buzzing sound isn't powered by anything operated by batteries. THose are bugs.
Some bugs are cool to encounter while out snake hunting, others not so much.
Walking around in the desert at night with a light is bound to, and does, attract a wide variety of insect life, usually when and where you don't want them. On a still night, with little or no breeze, being engulfed in a cloud of bugs can be downright aggravating.
Save yourself some grief and pack insect repellent in your field kit. Lotion, spray, wipes -- it doesn't really matter until you realize you left them at home and you have a gnat that just won't quit. You're not likely to encounter any mosquitoes on the cuts, but the gnats, flies, and other bugs can drive you to distraction. Or off a cliff. |
Speaking of bugs, driving through the desert during the day or at night will rapidly fill your windshield with the splatters that were once hundreds, or thousands, of insects, making seeing difficult and troublesome, or even dangerous at times. I once hit a swarm of bees at speed south of Alpine that coated my windshield with a honey-like goop, forcing me to the side of the road so I could clean off the mess.
Bring a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels (or two; you can never bring enough paper towels) and you won't find yourself having to use some convenience store squeegee from the Reagan era.
My truck is so tall I actually bring my own extendable squeegee to make sure I can get it all without a step ladder. But I still bring paper towels.
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| There are a myriad of little things that can and do go wrong when your stumbling through cactus patches in the desert at night. Scratches, scrapes, bites, stings, bruises, and the occasional sprain are to be expected, whether you're out for a night or a month.
Having a good basic first aid kit just makes sense. This kit is a good start, but even just tossing together some supplies from your medicine cabinet at home is better than nothing. Planning ahead now can save a lot of pain later.
If you're bringing more than one person, plan accordingly and bring more first aid supplies. The kingsnake.com field truck is fully equipped to take eight people into the desert and has a first aid kit that would make a paramedic envious. |
It's a long drive through the desert to get to Sanderson, no matter which direction you're coming from. At night it will be especially difficult to get even basic services if you should suffer a breakdown, and probably the most common breakdown is a flat tire.
There are all sorts of on-road and off-road hazards that can cause a flat, from rocks and bottles, to cactus spines and animal bones. Probably the biggest culprit is the nasty "crown of thorn" trees, which shed branches with thorns up to 4 inches long. With the requirement to pull your vehicle completely off road, this will likely account for more than one flat tire this weekend.
Make sure you're equipped to deal with a flat. Most cars today don't come equipped with a full-sized spare, and some don't even come with that. Just to be safe, I always carry around a can or two of Fix-A-Flat or Green Slime, and our big rig not only has a full sized spare, but an on-board air compressor as well. If you have a flat this weekend and need help, flag us down and we will air you up faster than you can call Onstar. | |
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