# Snakes...they're out there



## Pagey (Sep 12, 2009)

Walked behind the house to put some recycling in the storage cans and I noticed our cat and our miniature Dachshund were playing around with great interest on some old, rotting maple rounds from a tree we had taken down 2 or 3 years ago.  I figured they had a ground squirrel trapped under them, as we have one that comes out of that area from time to time.  Then I saw a copperhead moving its head around...then a second wrapped around the first!  Got a good shot off and got the first one's head, but the second hid.  My FIL came down, and we used a hoe to move the other rounds.  We were about to give up when he moved the last round...and in the process of shooting the second snake a third appeared!

















A harrowing reminder of what one did to me last August:


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## Jerry_NJ (Sep 12, 2009)

Well, I normally like snakes, but not vipers.  I understand it is possible to see a CopperHead in NJ, but happily I haven't yet seen one. 

So, you must be packing hardware/heat to be able to respond with a shot so quickly.


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## Detector$ (Sep 12, 2009)

WOW! Better find out what they're eating... get rid of that and you wont have the snake problem.
Copperheads are beautiful snakes. Shame their bite is so bad.


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## Pagey (Sep 12, 2009)

We keep a little .22 rifle in the house.  My wife hurried out with the rifle, and I got the first one.  We had to work for the other two.  These were literally 5 feet from the back door.  We have no back yard - just deep deciduous woods as far as you can see in either direction.


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## savageactor7 (Sep 12, 2009)

Strange there should be 3 together like that...not that I know anything at all about snakes. Good hunting and after being bit like that I'd do the same thing. Ordinarily I willing to let the few snakes I see be.


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## maplewood (Sep 12, 2009)

One of the best side-effects of living in Eastern Canada - no poisonous snakes or spiders!
Glad you weren't hurt again.


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## Pagey (Sep 12, 2009)

savageactor7 said:
			
		

> Strange there should be 3 together like that...not that I know anything at all about snakes. Good hunting and after being bit like that I'd do the same thing. Ordinarily I willing to let the few snakes I see be.



Had these not been 5' from the back door and about 10' from where my youngest daughter (and our Dachshund) plays in the yard so often, I would have let them be.


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## basod (Sep 12, 2009)

The only good snakes around the house are blacks or kings.  I had recent run in with a 4' king snake, while I was scooping some leaves off the pool... and thinking how few I had seen this year, here he came out of a small void between pool deck and retaining wall.  He just cruised off body clinging to every contour of the retaining wall.  My female chihuahua is 6lbs of snake killing machine.  Two springs ago she was down in the woods barking up a storm, the GF went down there and she had a 6' water snake coiled up, while it was giving live birth.  Needless to say poisonous or not there needs be no 6' snakes around my house.
Just a note for those perified of snakes- Copperheads, Eastern Diamondbacks, Timber Rattlers, pigmys, have mildly toxic venom.  The Cottonmouth/water moccasin while relatively small compared to others is hemo/neurotoxic.  They are also the most aggresive of pit viper species.  The Coral snake needs to bite almost between your fingers as their fangs are so short..
By the way anyone watch Bear Grills Man vs. Wild in Alabama, complete joke.  Not only did he travel from one end of Alabama to other ~500mi.  There are no snakes out in winter months, they hibernate just like up north.


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## LLigetfa (Sep 12, 2009)

maplewood said:
			
		

> One of the best side-effects of living in Eastern Canada - no poisonous snakes or spiders!
> Glad you weren't hurt again.


Same here.  Only skeeters and ticks to worry about.


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## Stephen in SoKY (Sep 12, 2009)

Pagey & I just have all sorts of fun stuff to contend with down here. Whenever I'm in the woods in the summer I have the Rocky snake boots on. The airweight chief is my CONSTANT companion around here, in the summer the first 2 up are CCI shotshells for the snakes that crawl on their belly, the next 3 are full house HP for the snakes that walk upright on 2 legs.


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## iskiatomic (Sep 12, 2009)

Pagey, I must ask why all the magic marker on the leg?


                                                             KC


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## Pagey (Sep 12, 2009)

iskiatomic said:
			
		

> Pagey, I must ask why all the magic marker on the leg?
> 
> 
> KC



They were marking the swelling every hour to chart the progression.


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## crazy_dan (Sep 12, 2009)

nice clover patch   and 3 good snakes it is a shame they are pretty.

the marker gives the medical folks an objective means to monitor progress etc.


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## firefighterjake (Sep 14, 2009)

Pagey said:
			
		

> A harrowing reminder of what one did to me last August:



Pretty amazing snake . . . I mean how did he write on you with the Sharpie magic marker?  

All kidding aside . . . one other reason as to why I like living in Maine . . . no poisonous snakes.


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## m0jumb0 (Sep 14, 2009)

The only snakes I've personally encountered at our place are black snakes.. we have one living under our house.  I figure he keeps the bad snakes away.  I live in a place that used to be known as "rattlesnake ridge" and our neighbors killed a rattlesnake just a month or so ago.  Where in middle tn do you live Pagey?


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## Pagey (Sep 15, 2009)

m0jumb0 said:
			
		

> The only snakes I've personally encountered at our place are black snakes.. we have one living under our house.  I figure he keeps the bad snakes away.  I live in a place that used to be known as "rattlesnake ridge" and our neighbors killed a rattlesnake just a month or so ago.  Where in middle tn do you live Pagey?



I live on the Cumberland Plateau just outside Fall Creek Falls State Park.


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## mayhem (Sep 15, 2009)

Snakes...hate em, but unless they're trying to nest where my kid plays or the wife gardens I leave em alone...too valuable at keeping rodents ay bay.  But to be fair, all I get here are Gardner snakes...a big one is 2-2.5' long.  No risk of vipers here.


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## westkywood (Oct 30, 2009)

I've owned and bred snakes all my life. Someone mentioned it was odd that they were all together. In September they are heading to their hibernating area. Possibly their den is close by?? I go to areas where we'll see up to 70 snakes in a 1000 sq ft area.
 I've never killed a snake in my life, but I can understand people killing venomous snakes on their property, expecially after being bit by one before. ( Yikes ) ..
 I have a big problem with people killing snakes in the woods etc just because they have a childish ignorant fear of them.


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## westkywood (Oct 30, 2009)

BASOD said:
			
		

> The only good snakes around the house are blacks or kings.  I had recent run in with a 4' king snake, while I was scooping some leaves off the pool... and thinking how few I had seen this year, here he came out of a small void between pool deck and retaining wall.  He just cruised off body clinging to every contour of the retaining wall.  My female chihuahua is 6lbs of snake killing machine.  Two springs ago she was down in the woods barking up a storm, the GF went down there and she had a 6' water snake coiled up, while it was giving live birth.  Needless to say poisonous or not there needs be no 6' snakes around my house.
> Just a note for those perified of snakes- Copperheads, Eastern Diamondbacks, Timber Rattlers, pigmys, have mildly toxic venom.  The Cottonmouth/water moccasin while relatively small compared to others is hemo/neurotoxic.  They are also the most aggresive of pit viper species.  The Coral snake needs to bite almost between your fingers as their fangs are so short..
> By the way anyone watch Bear Grills Man vs. Wild in Alabama, complete joke.  Not only did he travel from one end of Alabama to other ~500mi.  There are no snakes out in winter months, they hibernate just like up north.



With all due respect, you couldnt be more wrong. The Copperhead is the only "mildly venom" snake you mentioned. Timbers and Eastern Diamondbacks are very dangerous. Its the Timber that has the nero/homotoxic venom, mostly hemotoxic.. I see literally hundreds of Cottonmouths a year and seen thousands in my life. I can count the ones that have even struck at me on one hand. Thats out of thousands. Cottonmouths have the worst reputation of them all and are less agressive than any you mentioned. The bite is serious but not normally fatal.  Timbers are one of the most venomous rattlesnakes in the country.


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## greythorn3 (Nov 2, 2009)

if theres one thing i know about snakes, it is that they taste pretty damn good when made into jerky!


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## savageactor7 (Nov 2, 2009)

Here's my snake story. A few years back the wife decided insulating blanket around the water heater looks ratty and want to replace it. OK then ...as I start to remove the old one about 10-15 milk snakes come pouring out of the blanket so we quickly leave the cellar. Come back about a week later snakes all gone and replaced the blanket. Boy they were a lively bunch...Holy Cow!

We have field stone basement wall and have seen snake skins in the basement before. So we knew they were about and figured they were catching mice...I dunno. Since there's no real poisonous snakes around here...meh. although I've heard there are copperheads here we've never run across any.


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## CarbonNeutral (Nov 2, 2009)

In my yard, not so scary...


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