Yard critters

[tpennell]

This little fellow was tanning on my patio when I got home yesterday. It is only about 9 inches long but really good size around. Most of my neighbors say it is a baby cooperhead which I believe but it is hard to tell from the pics. If it is luckily the kids werent home from school yet

 

[pbell]

I can't tell from the pictures, but if it is a copperhead, there are more of them around, and they are poisonous, even when small/young.

 

[kweaver]

Timothy - Here's a Kentucky Copperhead.

That's a 22" one that Kathy almost stepped on one night in July at the carport.

I'd say that your pic is one too , with the normal variance for regional differences.

Baby Copperheads are more dangerous than adults. Babies will give their full dose of venom and not save some like an adult.

 

[wshytle]

Timothy-

That's not a copperhead. It looks to be a hognose or maybe a rat snake. Did you get a look at its nose? A hognose will have a slightly upturned nose and are harmless as is a rat snake. Both are good to have around. They eat the d**n mice that get into Kohlers.

Ken-

Nice little specimen. The skin hatband here came from a 42" copperhead I found still alive on a country road many years ago. I had my helper with me at the time so I caught it and he cut its head off while I held it. I remember it dressed out to 42" so the overall length was close to 45" (with the head) which is very big for copperheads. Another thing about the baby copperhead is they are lightening fast. I uncovered a nest a few years back out on the property but didn't do anything because they were several hundred yards from the house (closer to the liberal neighbors).

 

[wshytle]

I had just finished changing a tire on a trailer and was rolling the air tank back to the shop when I found this guy. I almost ran over him. He just came out of my house too. I've been hearing some strange noises lately so now at least I'll know the probable source. I guess his length at 5.5 feet at least. When I was a young, stupid lad I caught one about this size and he laid into my palm. I remember taking teeth out of my hand.

The tree beside him is right at 30" a foot or so up from grade. Oh, it's an almost harmless black snake.

 

[dschwandt]

Had to give this little guy a ride way out of the area this AM He was a sucker for a handful of acorns!!

Hope he don't have any relatives left here.

 

[jclazar]

Well my goodness Wayne! Kind of creeps me out, please no offence! I'm sure we have our own snakes here in the higher altitude Great Lakes Region, but darn if something like that slithered away from my house,...I got buck shot for my magnum .44 just for those critters!

My wife and I are chicken farmers as a hobby. Every now and then, a raccoon or possum will catch a magnum, but that's about all of the critters. Our coops and mangers, and garden is pretty well fenced.

 

[wshytle]

John L.-

I can't believe that post is six years old now.

I'm not necessarily a tree hugger but there's never a good reason to kill a black snake. If they are a problem just relocate them. If you have a problem handling them (thank you society) just find someone that will. I am sure there is a snake under my house most of the time and I have survived here for over thirty years. I had one well over six feet show up in my bathroom one night while I was watching TV. I just caught it and took it outside to a tree. I've never been afraid of snakes and have even caught copperheads and rattlers but I do have the upmost respect for them and what they do for us unknowingly.

David-

My critter would love to meet your critter.

.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Wayne, any idea how a snake that size would get from under your house (I assume you have a crawl space) to inside your bathroom?

I don't mind snakes, but then I don't have poisonous snakes frequenting my yard. Just an occasional bull snake, hog nose snake, garter snake or corn snake. We do have timber rattlers up here but they are rare and only found in certain areas along a few select river bluffs.

 

[wshytle]

Kraig-

It would be no problem for any snake to get into my 1/2 crawl space-1/2 basement. Back in '98 when I was recovering from surgery I decided to get rid of some of the iron pipes that made up the plumbing here and introduce some copper. While working one day I looked over about 3 feet from me and saw a black snake coiled up and hibernating (I guess, it was winter). He was in a void on the inside wall of the stone underpinning and was a monster of a snake too. It was at least two inches in diameter and coiled was way bigger than a football. I just quit work and he was gone the next day. I don't know why or where he moved because I didn't disturb him at all.

Anyway, my yard is full of holes from all sorts of critters. I'm sure some of these holes are easy entryways for snakes. Just the other day I watched a 2ish foot black snake go down a mole hole but stop with a bit of its tail still exposed. I grabbed it and it disappeared. I walked to the house for a minute and when I got back the snake was back out but still beside the hole. It went back in all of the way this time and I haven't seen it since.

When growing up here in south Chapel Hill we had a 40x40 chicken coop on the property. We used it for storage and Pop made a wood working shop from 1/3 of the coop. We all the time would find black snakes up on ceiling joists with a bulge in their middle. The only time I saw Pop kill a snake is when he caught it in a bird nest he had been watching. He wouldn't handle a snake either and always called me. I don't remember ever seeing a rat.

I even found my old snake stick I made when I was an adolescent while searching for some cub parts just the other day.

.

 

[sblunier]

You can keep em........ I don't want 'em!!!!!!!

 

[mgwin]

David S.

If there is a little one there, you can bet there's at least two big ones around!

That would be some good eating if he were a little bigger.

 

[dschwandt]

Spied another across the street at my son's place yesterday and reset the trap there w/more acorns.
We'll see what happens, He's already shot one there earlier last week, but this one was right in front of his shop, too close to stuff to shoot.