Certainly, I wouldn’t advise it. As I’ve posted before, TradClimber is no expert and been known to be wrong before.“Pepper Spray against BuzzTails is very effective when used properly. Proper use is to spray the BuzzTail's eyes from less than 12 inches for six seconds…”
Mtman posted:
It is also not clear to me that this is correct.Pepper spray would irritate the rattler just as it will a mammal.
“The seeds of Capsicum plants are predominantly dispersed by birds. Birds do not have the receptor to which capsaicin binds, so it does not function as an irritant for them. Chili pepper seeds consumed by birds pass through the digestive tract and can germinate later, but mammals have molars, which destroy seeds and prevent them from germinating. Thus, natural selection may have led to increasing capsaicin production because it makes the plant less likely to be eaten by animals that do not help it reproduce.”
“In 2006 it was discovered that tarantula venom activates the same pathway of pain as is activated by capsaicin, the first demonstrated case of such a shared pathway in both plant and animal anti-mammal defense.”
The above two quotes may be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin
It appears to me more research is needed before I could say that snakes are affected by pepper spray.
TradClimber
PS: Email me for where to send the grant money.