RATTLESNAKES

RATTLESNAKES. The writers of the Daily Herald reported in August, 1879 that rattlesnakes were more numerous than they had been for many previous seasons. A farmer named Benjamin Thiesen had recently killed five in one day. A Mrs. Leffelholz of East Dubuque had been bitten while picking berries. She ran to the house, but her foot and leg had swollen to almost twice their natural size.

            She was too far gone to make them understand to 
            kill a chicken so that she might bind the flesh
            upon the wound, which is said to be a remedy for
            the bite of the rattlesnake. (1)

A picnic party of ten couples visited Twin Springs in August, 1888 and on the way home saw two rattlesnakes. (2)

The Dubuque Herald writers commented on August 18, 1889 that accounts of rattlesnakes being killed appeared in nearly all the papers. "There seems to be more of them in Iowa this year than ever before."

Timber rattlesnakes are protected in 14 of Iowa’s 99 counties, excluding within 50 yards of an actively occupied residence. (3) Timber rattlesnake except in Allamakee, Appanoose, Clayton, Delaware, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fayette, Henry, Jackson, Jones, Lee, Madison, Van Buren, and Winneshiek counties but not including an area of 50 yards around houses actively occupied by human beings in those counties. (4)

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Source:

1. "The Deadly Rattlesnake," Daily Herald, August 10, 1879, p. 4

2. "Caught on the Fly," The Herald, August 21, 1888, p. 4

3. Iowa Department of Natural Resources

4. Iowa Admin. Code r. 571-76.1 - Species