For those who live in the south

[RGar974417]

We have booked a site at James Island County Park in September. They have a dog park with a lake/pond and beaches for the dogs.On Trip Advisor,someone said there was no worry about alligators. But how do you know which lakes in the south have gators? I remember in the early 90's visiting my Aunt in St Cloud,Florida and there was a lake there with a beach. I thought who's going to swim there.But I guess people do.

[memtb]

Scottiemom wrote:
DH's cousin lives in Zachary, LA, north of Baton Rouge. Years ago he found a fairly small alligator in one of his farm ponds. It's a field where they run cattle and there are 3 ponds in that field. It was all fenced in with farm fence. They have no idea where he came from, but 10 years later, Wally is still there. Although they have never seen him out of a pond, he does travel between the 3 ponds on the property. Apparently he is getting enough to eat, because he has grown to about 6.5 feet now. A couple years ago they had a flood and the field was covered with 3 feet of water and the fence between the field and the house went down. I worried that Wally would be on the move then, but he apparently hunkered down in the pond because that's where they found him once the water had receded.

DH's cousin, an avid outdoorsman says the same thing about gators and the south. If there's a body of water, just expect it to have a gator in it. That way you will be safe. And obviously even if it didn't have one before, no telling if there's one there now.




Dale

Scottiemom, I was born and raised in Zachary! I may know your in-laws, shoot us a PM! Inquiring minds! 🙂

[Fizz]

Scottiemom wrote:

DH's cousin, an avid outdoorsman says the same thing about gators and the south. If there's a body of water, just expect it to have a gator in it.

Dale

Wish this was true with fish.

[Scottiemom]

DH's cousin lives in Zachary, LA, north of Baton Rouge. Years ago he found a fairly small alligator in one of his farm ponds. It's a field where they run cattle and there are 3 ponds in that field. It was all fenced in with farm fence. They have no idea where he came from, but 10 years later, Wally is still there. Although they have never seen him out of a pond, he does travel between the 3 ponds on the property. Apparently he is getting enough to eat, because he has grown to about 6.5 feet now. A couple years ago they had a flood and the field was covered with 3 feet of water and the fence between the field and the house went down. I worried that Wally would be on the move then, but he apparently hunkered down in the pond because that's where they found him once the water had receded.

DH's cousin, an avid outdoorsman says the same thing about gators and the south. If there's a body of water, just expect it to have a gator in it. That way you will be safe. And obviously even if it didn't have one before, no telling if there's one there now.

Dale

[down_home]

Long time ago group of us from the office went fishing for sea trout east of Panama City.
Some wanted to sleep outside until the Host pointed to the foot and tail drag marks between all the cabins. Why they went into the bushes etc at night and came back out near dawn or whenever I don't know. We saw several about 100 feet to 100 yards away. There was one that was longer than our cars by near double that sunned it self to the east of the camp. It ran and dove into the water if we got somewhat near. If you have sand or mud or any kind of soil and see feet and tail drag marks, you have Gators.

[mgirardo]

I know there are lots of alligators on Kiawah Island, just down the road from James Island. Being a County Park, I would expect they would keep the alligators out like they do at the county parks here in my county. They will probably still have warning signs around all body of waters. Expect that any body of water could have an alligator in it.

We are south of Charleston, when we go to Charleston, we take I-95 to US 17 North. There are alligators all along US 17. It is unusual for us not to see at least 1 gator while driving to Charleston.

-Michael

[RGar974417]

We should have let them go extinct or at least isolated them to a few areas like the Everglades. We don't miss the dinosauer or the Dodo bird and we wouldn't miss gators.

[kzoocamper]

The last time we stayed there I do not recall there being a fence or any visible form of gator control in the pond however we did not see any gators in the dog park pond or area. The dog park and pond were highly used with many locals bringing their dogs in for a run and swim with what seemed like no concerns.

[Fizz]

There was a bit on the news that showed alligators in a frozen over pond with just the tip of their nose sticking out for air.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

Besides the threat of alligators, who can simply stroll to wherever they want to go, you have venomous water snakes; plus in warm-water environments you have brain-eating-amoebas and flesh-eating MRSA. I know that northern America is in the grip of a Polar Vortex; but cold is your friend because it keeps these threats at bay....LOL!

[Retired_JSO]

I’m a native Floridian. While most other non outdoorsmen will argue, if there is water, alligators are likely. During times of drought, it’s not uncommon for them to take up temporarily in area swimming pools. Food and territory drive alligators to move and many parts of this country where alligators were never seen before now have their own crop. While we’ve never observed one at James Island CP, you can bet they are there. BTW, they are said to be very close to inhabiting Virginia.

[2012Coleman]

Suggest you Google James Island County Alligators

[johnhicks]

Here in the south dogs are known as "bait."

Used to be that if you wanted to go swimming you simply went in the lake; normally gators would stay away.

[bighog01]

Especially here in Florida, assume all fresh water bodies have alligators. Also around the water be on the lookout for water moccasins which are just as dangerous.

[bukhrn]

wildtoad wrote:

bukhrn wrote:
We're not South, according to Floridians, but you wont find them this far north. ;):B

Actually you are as south as it gets. Unless of course you’re from Northern Virginia!

No way, too much like where I left from.