Weekly snake thread

I saw the smallest snake I've ever seen yesterday while mowing. I first thought it was a worm but as not and dry as it has been I took a second look. I didn't have anything to take a picture but it was roughly 6" long, smaller in diameter then a pencil. If this thing could get its mouth around a pea I would have been impressed. I made a number of passes on the mower trying to figure out what it would eat being so small. It was a black color with a bit of a blue hue to it. Seemed harmless so I got him out of the way and kept going.​
Was it a Ring Necked? Did it have a different color band around it's neck? Those don't get very big.
 
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Was it a Ring Neck? Did it have a different color band around it's neck? Those don't get very big.

No, it was all one color. I first thought black snake but I don't know that they are that small. I also thought the blueish hue was funny for a black snake.
I almost picked it up to show my kids but it was fairly worked up at this point and I thought I would have to pinch it too hard to catch it. I just shooed it on.
 
One of our neighbors was bitten by a copperhead last week. It was under the rocking chair on her patio and when she sat down, it got her on the heel. Spent 6 hours in the ER, but didn't need antivenin. Very lucky lady.
 
... I thought I would have to pinch it too hard to catch it.
I stopped using a putter to catch snakes for that reason... now I catch 'em all by the tail. That's the easiest way to keep from hurtin' 'em, and the surest way to keep 'em from bitin' ya, which can also hurt 'em. Large or small, I grab 'em by the tail, just like Steve Irwin.

Some folks catch 'em by the tail an' use a stick to assist... but a snake can run up a stick real quick! So I use the stick just to drag 'em back outa the bush or into the open. When I get a shot at the tail, I grab it an' lift the whole snake up, mebbe leavin' the throat on the ground.

A tree-hugger neighbor lady, who is famous for rescuein' unborn babies outa a roadkill 'possum, once had some construction workers at her house, an' they found a large black rat snake. They were gonna kill it, so she just grabbed it in the middle an' let it bite her arm, knowin' it wouldn't get away with it's teeth hooked in her skin, then she gathered it up an' took it off to the woods. When she was outa their sight, she carefully worked it's teeth out, so it could go on it's way.
 
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Went to the falls at Hanging Rock Friday, wading around with my boy to beat the heat and get outside. In the deeper end of the pool on the bigger rocks, something hit the top of my left foot a couple times in rapid succession, fairly solidly, and my right heel as I stepped away. About ten minutes later up popped a snake cruising out with a fish in its mouth, it was pretty amusing watching everybody lose it.

According to the other witnesses it was a copperhead for sure, and one woman said they were all stupid that it's a Moccasin and a huge one. Pretty sure it was a Northern watersnake, though the coloration was damned close to every "guide" picture I've ever seen of a copperhead. The huge Moccasin by the way was about 3-3.5ft long and maybe 1.5-2 inches across at its widest.

Thinking maybe I stepped on it or otherwise pissed it off and it's probably what thumped my feet.
 
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My dog found this in the driveway this morning. Her first snake. Neither of them were impressed with each other
 
one of my wife's friends stepped on a copperhead as he walked into his shed but he was not bitten...who does that even happen.
 
Elderly woman kills copperhead snakes with shotgun, shovel and rake handle
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/3...akes-with-shotgun-shovel-and-rake-handle.html

A 72-year-old Oklahoma woman refused to let more than a dozen copperhead snakes slither under her home unchecked Friday, using a shotgun, shovel and rake handle to crush and blast the critters to death.
The woman, identified only as Mrs. Newby, was dubbed the "snake killer" after she was spotted with 11 dead reptiles on the ground, neighbor Susan Thompson wrote in a Facebook post.
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One of our neighbors was bitten by a copperhead last week. It was under the rocking chair on her patio and when she sat down, it got her on the heel. Spent 6 hours in the ER, but didn't need antivenin. Very lucky lady.

The antidote is very, very expensive and comes with a whole bunch of nasty side effects, so most docs worth their salt will observe for a few hours to see if symptoms of envenomation occur rather than pull the trigger quickly for the antidote.

If you get any venom, you will usually know pretty damned fast....your affected extremity blows up like a balloon and turns all sorts of colors...
 
The antidote is very, very expensive and comes with a whole bunch of nasty side effects, so most docs worth their salt will observe for a few hours to see if symptoms of envenomation occur rather than pull the trigger quickly for the antidote.

If you get any venom, you will usually know pretty damned fast....your affected extremity blows up like a balloon and turns all sorts of colors...

I've seen reports of anywhere between $16k and $80k for treatment.

I saw this lady last night. It was the first time she'd walked the neighborhood since the bite and said she was doing very well. Also said it was a 15" copperhead.
 
That's scary to think that many copperheads were so close to the house........ Odd's are there are more to be found.
 
Copperheads can be bad but are probably the best of the NC venomous snakes to get bitten by.

My cousin got bit by a timber rattler last year and almost lost her leg because of it. Multiple rounds of antivenin. Even after it was clear she wouldn't lose the leg, she had nerve damage for a while. Thankfully she recovered fully.

All this talk of snakes reminds me of a story about my grandpa. He was out by the driveway one day with a few bottles of bleach pouring them all over the ground. When my dad asked what he was doing, my grandpa said "I'm killin' all these baby snakes." My dad looked down at a bunch of worms squirming around and told his dad that they were just worms. My grandpa replied "Well, you can't be too careful." as he opened up another bottle of bleach and kept pouring.
 
All this talk of snakes reminds me of a story about my grandpa. He was out by the driveway one day with a few bottles of bleach pouring them all over the ground. When my dad asked what he was doing, my grandpa said "I'm killin' all these baby snakes." My dad looked down at a bunch of worms squirming around and told his dad that they were just worms. My grandpa replied "Well, you can't be too careful." as he opened up another bottle of bleach and kept pouring.

When I was a kid in the Orphanage in Arkansas there was a pond behind the property that we used to hang out around. If we wanted to fish we just went into the edge of the woods and scratched back the leaves and collected worms. One of the older boys went down there one afternoon and collected what he thought were worms but turned out to be baby rattlesnakes that had just hatched. He was bitten so many times that by the time he got to the hospital there wasn't anything they could do and he later died what I can only image was a very unpleasant death. The House Parents gathered us in the dining room and told us what had happened and the pond was permanently put off limits which only made us want to go there even more than before. So I'm with Grandpa..... Bleach 'em!!!
 
I was opening the gate at my Son-in-laws hunting/fishing camp in Hobucken and nearly stepped on old Mister no shoulders. The G19 took him down. A hit by a 3.5' Water Moccasin would have done more than ruin my fishing trip.

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Copperhead greeted my friends when they got home the other night... One less no shoulders in the world too!
 
20170815_175058.jpg This little guy tried to beat my F150 across Highway 33 in Beaufort County. He lost.

He stretched halfway across one lane, so 4'-5' long. He was still snapping his jaws when the tire crushed that head.
 
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Looking for someone to ID this lil snake, I'm stuck on a few by pictures. Hated to kill it but it was in a bad spot. Thanks for the help
 
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Looking for someone to ID this lil snake, I'm stuck on a few by pictures. Hated to kill it but it was in a bad spot. Thanks for the help
Eastern hognose. Was harmless, but now dead
 
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Reminds me, I keep meaning to ask what this was. Clearly long dead, and only about 6” long, but was super bright blue.
 
I have noticed a huge change in snake populations at my farm. During the hay season I always check the inevitable killing of various critters. Over the last eight years I have seen so few snakes dead by the mowing. Even fewer around the barns and the house. Just a couple of black snakes in the last few years. I love the king snakes but I am seeing fewer of them too. I used to see Kings, copperheads, blacks and hog snakes regularly. No more.

I see no increase in rodent population. No increase in avian predators. No significant increase in coyote
or other snake eating predators.

Water snakes? Last one seen was 12 years ago.
 
I’d forgotten about racers, we only had black ones in St Louis as best I recall.
 
Was it a Ring Necked? Did it have a different color band around it's neck? Those don't get very big.
I was back at my well and opened a cover, and there was a little red ring neck. Only 6" long or so, at first i thought it was a salamander cause they're always around the well. Jet black with just that red ring. He was adorable! So I grabbed him, patted him on the butt & scooted him out in the bush. Go along and play now.
He definitely gets cutest snake of the year award at my house.
 
I was back at my well and opened a cover, and there was a little red ring neck. Only 6" long or so, at first i thought it was a salamander cause they're always around the well. Jet black with just that red ring. He was adorable! So I grabbed him, patted him on the butt & scooted him out in the bush. Go along and play now.
He definitely gets cutest snake of the year award at my house.
An orange ring neck baby slid in front of the mower last time I cut grass, I was bummed.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J120AZ using Tapatalk
 
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Looking for someone to ID this lil snake, I'm stuck on a few by pictures. Hated to kill it but it was in a bad spot. Thanks for the help
These are tons of fun to play with. They play dead when you handle them. Last one I caught laid dead in my hands until I laid him down and then I swear he peeped at me to see if I was still there before slowly, like a scared cat, turned over and slithered away.
 
We've had several black snakes around the house this year. Our pit cornered three or four beside the porch when the swallows were nesting. I used a plastic rake and moved them all to the pond to slither away. We had one get in the house a two weeks ago and the girlfriend killed it, still not sure where it came in.
 
I stopped using a putter to catch snakes for that reason... now I catch 'em all by the tail. That's the easiest way to keep from hurtin' 'em, and the surest way to keep 'em from bitin' ya, which can also hurt 'em. Large or small, I grab 'em by the tail, just like Steve Irwin.

Some folks catch 'em by the tail an' use a stick to assist... but a snake can run up a stick real quick! So I use the stick just to drag 'em back outa the bush or into the open. When I get a shot at the tail, I grab it an' lift the whole snake up, mebbe leavin' the throat on the ground.

A tree-hugger neighbor lady, who is famous for rescuein' unborn babies outa a roadkill 'possum, once had some construction workers at her house, an' they found a large black rat snake. They were gonna kill it, so she just grabbed it in the middle an' let it bite her arm, knowin' it wouldn't get away with it's teeth hooked in her skin, then she gathered it up an' took it off to the woods. When she was outa their sight, she carefully worked it's teeth out, so it could go on it's way.

Man, I wouldn't try to tail any vipers!

They can still bite while tailed.
 
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