Copperheads

kaiser715

kaiser715

Doing hard time
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Location
7, Pocket, NC
Copperheads get to live, unless I find them in my yard.

Wife found one last night, about 30" when she took the dog out at midnight...we was crossing the street and headed into our yard. I came out and whacked him.

Tonight, about the same time, walked the dog...used a light since I am one-eyed and not seeing good at all. Nothing on the way out, but on the way back, there lays another copperhead in the road, right in front of my house. Went out back and got a shovel, by the time I was back he was halfway across my yard. Whacked him. Laid out straight, his body was several inches (4+) longer than the mid-point of the shovel, which I just measured at 60"...so he was about 34", minus his head. Good size for a copperhead.

2 nights, 2 copperheads....I don't like this trend.
 
I agree. I've lived in the same house since 1989 and until this year I have never seen a Copperhead. I've killed 2 this year 20 feet from my garage door as they were crossing the driveway. Strange year...
 
Hard enough to spot them in the daytime in nature unless they move. I've seen none this year in my yard ( three last summer) . I've also seen very few toads this summer that were thick in all the years before that we've lived in this house. I think last winters snow/ice, bitter cold killed a lot of hibernating toads around here. Is there a streetlight on the road? have you seen any toads in the road or yard, they are a favorite food for the copperheads.
 
I killed an 18" about a month ago, 20ft from the corner of the house, then a couple weeks later, a 24" that was hanging out under the shrubs NEXT to the house. Couple of days ago, next door neighbor killed a yearling just outside his garage door.
 
My theory is they are travelling further this year because of the lack of food-toads. Lights around homes attract bugs, bugs attract toads and the snakes can smell/detect the toads. Last summer we had a toad that would hop up 12 steps to our deck to catch bugs around the porch light. I kicked it off the deck a few times, but it would climb back up to the deck the next night. I finally took it for a ride and relocated it. Most of the few toads i've seen this year have been large ones I assume were smart enough to burrow deep enough to not get frozen or large enough to survive the bitter temps last winter.
 
My boss just killed a copperhead in his garage Wednesday night.

I killed one last year right beside my house near the hose spigot.
 
Haven't seen a single copperhead this yr so far, I find that strange. I've had black, garter and green snakes around the house and always have plenty of toads.
 
I see them around quite often. Usually one of the neighborhood cats will corner one and I'll have to go break up the fight. I always just grab it by the tail, put it in a bucket and take it somewhere to release it. I can't find it in myself to kill anything because of irrational fear that people have nowadays. Everything is here for a reason and just because I'm human doesn't give me more right to be here or alive than even the smallest of creatures. Just my thoughts.
 
GONOVRIT said:
Haven't seen a single copperhead this yr so far, I find that strange. I've had black, garter and green snakes around the house and always have plenty of toads.
Click to expand...

We've had this discussion, but you won't see any copperheads if you keep black snakes around. Around my shop is considered a mouse / pinky incubator now since my shop cat found out where my house is. I'm starting to see more and more black snake skins regularly hanging in the shop.
 
I'm not doing any of that live-action grab it by the tail turtleman BS with a copperhead. I had to kill one at cub scout camp in July, with an audience of 18 8-10 year old boys, that was "fun". One of the boys saw it slithering across the trail to our campsite, then it got scared and hid under one of our shelter platforms. I laid on my belly and flushed it out with a stick while the other leader circled around and pinned it down with a stick. Then its head was skewered. We couldn't have that snake around our campsite. Now it would've been a totally different story with a black snake or rat snake.
 
I've killed a few copperheads and rattlers this year. All within 20yrds of the house.
I carry a small .22 mag revolver with shotshells anytime I'm outside
 
If I see one where my kids play I will kill it because, despite constant reminders not to turn over rocks or dig through brush or dig through stuff in the shed or barn, otherwise someone will get hurt.
 
I see a snake I grab a shovel. I've got a 4.5 yr old boy wandering around.
 
6BangBronk said:
We've had this discussion, but you won't see any copperheads if you keep black snakes around.
Click to expand...

We have had a 3ft black snake in the backyard, right near where I killed the 18" copperhead, and another 3 footer got ran over in the street in front of the house. Copperheads are outnumbering them at the moment.

I read a thing that said copperheads don't travel. They did a study where they released a bunch of tagged snakes in the wild, and something like 80% of them were within 200 yards of where they had been released several years later. So if you have them around the house, they're likely living and breeding nearby.
 
I had a small black snake laying by the door IN my shop last wk. I looked at the loaded mouse traps and left him be. Haven't had a problem with mice in the shop this yr.
 
Back
Top