Copperheads are basically territorial. They've done studies where snakes are captured and released and are found years later within 100 yards of where they were first found. So if you're finding copperheads around your house, they're living and breeding within a stone's throw of there. If you pick them up and cart them off somewhere else, you could be sentencing them to a long, slow death in unfamiliar surroundings. Likewise, the copperhead has the unfortunate threat response of sitting-the-fuck-still-and-not-moving-until-they're-stepped-on, which means that unsuspecting people often get bitten entirely by accident. Our kids are well acquainted with the copperhead, and yet Sara, our 5yo, nearly stepped on a year-old snake at about this time last year, just a few feet off the driveway near the carport. And when I say "nearly stepped on", I'm not attempting some bullshit parental hyperbole. She missed the snake by less than an inch.
So, those fuckers get dead. We've killed a bunch, our neighbors have killed a bunch, and I'm happy to say that we moved a woodpile last weekend, and didn't find a copperhead in the pile.
