Copperheads

UTfball68

UTfball68

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Location
Granite Quarry
I was out golfing with my boss a couple weeks ago, he takes a leak in the woods, gets bitten by a copperhead. Yesterday I'm tilling up the back of my lot that I clear cut a couple weeks back and came across a 2-2.5' copperhead. Last night I'm out at my mailbox and see a 12" copperhead that I squished with my boot. I've eliminated all of the pine needle landscaping at the new house. Neighbors told me they saw a 4' black snake sunbathing in my driveway a couple days ago. I've probably seen 3 copperheads in the last 10 years and now I've seen 3 in 2 weeks and 2 in the same day. Is this a bad year for copperheads? Do I need to go find a couple more black snakes? Can anything be done? Doesn't particularly freak me out, but I worry about the neighborhood kids and pets.
 
There was a news article about seeing more of them this year due to a mild winter but I think that's bullshit speculation. We killed a decent size copperhead couple weeks ago at my neighbors and I've only seen baby black snakes. I have two dogs who roam freely so I walk with them as it is concerning. Not much you can really do from what I've been told other than keep black snakes present.
 
I've actually seen more black snakes than normal this year. Maybe that's why I haven't seen any copperheads yet. Hope it stays that way, damn copperhead got one of our dogs last year, about 30ft from our pool.
 
IMG_0780.JPG


Fuquay-Varina, Friday night in the ditch the kids were playing in, nobody got bit luckily

And yes a few beers and a machete and they are headless
 
guffey24 said:
View attachment 247625

Fuquay-Varina, Friday night in the ditch the kids were playing in, nobody got bit luckily

And yes a few beers and a machete and they are headless
Click to expand...
Earlier this week while walking the dog.
b2e660639adb7d7e5874cba39c68ddc0.jpg


Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
 
guffey24 said:
View attachment 247625

Fuquay-Varina, Friday night in the ditch the kids were playing in, nobody got bit luckily

And yes a few beers and a machete and they are headless
Click to expand...



.......Looks like riprap in a ditch bank or a snake condo, tell the kids to stay out of the ditch/riprap



I'm no expert, but we had a shiton of toads in our yard every summer for a decade at least. After the snow/ice storm in 2014/15 I think I've seen 5. I think the the bitter cold froze a bunch of the toads that did'nt bury themselves deep enough and the snakes may be traveling further to find other food. I've also found a second copperhead in my backyard last week, 5 miles from Fuquay
 
Last edited:
Only things we've seen so far this year are a full-grown garter and a 3ft rat snake.
 
I've come across 7 or 8 4ft copperheads out fishing the river banks, I leave em alone let natural selection take its course on the idiots running around in shorts and sandals bahaha I have about 25 black snakes at my house and tom of garder they keep the coppers away from the house!
 
Releasing some king snakes is your best defense.
 
UTfball68 said:
Have any??? Went up to the property Monday night to wrangle up some 'black' snakes...only ones I came across were in the water and less friendly than the copperheads.
Click to expand...
Sure do. I'm not so sure I want to take on the duty of transporting them up to you in the Jeep however. Kings are some of the worst smelling snakes out there. I turned a few loose at my house about three years ago to knock down some of the other populations I didn't want around. The biggest is pushing 6' long now when I saw him in the yard the other day.
I even considered a mongoose.
 
Looks like I have an eastern king snake to help this year (black with yellowish bands). I scared him doing some yard work this past weekend. He gets to live, a copperhead would have received some 7 1/2 shot from a 410 revolver.
 
Back
Top