I was in the garden this afternoon and decided to move some folded plastic and row cover I had used earlier in the season. I lifted the top piece and immediately saw a large copperhead under it. I went in the house and got my 22 caliber piston, went back to the garden and dispatched the snake. When I shot the snake, a second copperhead made the mistake of moving so I dispatched it to snake heaven also. Two large copperheads with two shots is pretty good. I had been wondering why my frog friends who usually show up in the spring time have not been around. Now I know they were snake food.
An old wise mans rule of thumb was "if you find one copperhead, another one is close by" I have proven him right in most cases over the years.
I usually have a few non venomous snakes in my garden and I don't mind them, but the copperheads are too dangerous to accommodate.
Be careful and always check the vicinity around the area where you plan on sticking your hand. A big copperhead can ruin your day.
Ted
Most people don't realize that the baby 1 foot copper heads arer also very dangerous! I moved some rotten tree bark a few years ago and a 8 inch coper head was in the mix! I kill coperheads as soon as I see one and protect m pets by doing so! Spiders are also dangerous and I killed a black widow last week! Ya you better watch especially some of the people trying to garden while on their cell phones!
Soil,
From Northern California to Southern California, I think you have five or six types of rattlesnake. The little desert rattler in Southern California is the nasty one because they are small and easy to overlook. I don't think they have an anti-venom for it either.
Rattlesnakes are more unpredictable than copperheads. Rattlers can appear just about anywhere in the daytime. Copperheads are more nocturnal and usually spend the days under or beside something. They do come out in mass in the early spring mating season and then are more difficult to find when the real summer heat hits.
Ted
From Northern California to Southern California, I think you have five or six types of rattlesnake. The little desert rattler in Southern California is the nasty one because they are small and easy to overlook. I don't think they have an anti-venom for it either.
Rattlesnakes are more unpredictable than copperheads. Rattlers can appear just about anywhere in the daytime. Copperheads are more nocturnal and usually spend the days under or beside something. They do come out in mass in the early spring mating season and then are more difficult to find when the real summer heat hits.
Ted
Soil,
Do you mean like this?
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/Rattlesnake2.jpg[/img]
or this?
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/Rattlesnake1.jpg[/img]
Welcome to Texas!
We have a problem in Texas with tourists who like to stop along the highways in the spring and place their kids in fields of bluebonnets to photograph them. It just so happens that rattlesnakes also love fields of bluebonnets.
Ted
Do you mean like this?
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/Rattlesnake2.jpg[/img]
or this?
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/Rattlesnake1.jpg[/img]
Welcome to Texas!
We have a problem in Texas with tourists who like to stop along the highways in the spring and place their kids in fields of bluebonnets to photograph them. It just so happens that rattlesnakes also love fields of bluebonnets.
Ted
For those of you unfamiliar with Texas, this is what we call "fields of Bluebonnets".
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/ATT00055.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/ATT00058.jpg[/img]
and this what we call a local resident.
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/ATT00064.jpg[/img]
Ted
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/ATT00055.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/ATT00058.jpg[/img]
and this what we call a local resident.
[img]https://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll308/tedln/2011%20Garden/ATT00064.jpg[/img]
Ted
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Francis Barnswallow
- Green Thumb
- Posts: 696
- Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:28 pm
- Location: Orlando
I was taking out the recycle a few weeks ago and walked right passed a water moccasin. I didn't realize it until it took a strike at my right ankle just missing it by 6 inches. I immediately hauled butt to the other side of porch and ran inside shaking.
It just made me realize how quickly bad things can happen. Lesson learned: Watch out for snakes constantly.
It just made me realize how quickly bad things can happen. Lesson learned: Watch out for snakes constantly.
I stepped on a cottonmouth once when I was a kid. It was just crawling through the back lawn, and I was running, so it didn't get a chance to strike at me. It felt like I had stepped on a garden hose, so when I was able to stop after taking a few more strides, I turned around and saw the snake. I recognized that gaping white mouth as soon as I saw it! I didn't consider it a big deal, as they often invaded our back yard. There was a large drainage ditch running along one side of the property, and we always had a number of snakes and turtles, even snappers, in the area. 
Where I live now, there are rattlesnakes up in the hills, and when the weather is really dry, they sometimes come down into the lower areas. It's rare to hear of one in my immediate area, though. We get a lot of garter snakes and gopher snakes. People often confuse the latter with rattlesnakes. I couldn't begin to count all the gopher snakes I collected when I was a wildlife rehabber. I'd just go remove them from the yard of whomever was freaking out over the poor old snake, and release it in some nice secluded area on my way home. (Yes, I always used a snake pole. Gopher snakes can still bite, even though they aren't venomous.
)
Where I live now, there are rattlesnakes up in the hills, and when the weather is really dry, they sometimes come down into the lower areas. It's rare to hear of one in my immediate area, though. We get a lot of garter snakes and gopher snakes. People often confuse the latter with rattlesnakes. I couldn't begin to count all the gopher snakes I collected when I was a wildlife rehabber. I'd just go remove them from the yard of whomever was freaking out over the poor old snake, and release it in some nice secluded area on my way home. (Yes, I always used a snake pole. Gopher snakes can still bite, even though they aren't venomous.
)Lily,
I don't think there is a "normal" size for rattlesnakes. It depends on the species. The pygmy rattlesnake is very small and seems to prefer hanging out in palmetto fronds and other elevated locations in the Southeastern United States. The Western Diamond Back is normally much larger and can be over seven feet long and weigh 30 lbs. Sweetwater Texas has a rattlesnake roundup each year and contestants capture and bring them in all day. Most of them are Diamond Back's, but they probably only average two feet long and possibly 1 1/2 lbs. I don't know what makes some really large and some rather small. I guess it depends on food supply and longevity. Most don't live to be very old because people have a tendency to kill them when they see them. The timber rattler in East Texas is endangered and you can be sent to federal prison for killing one. Rattlesnakes are not really a "Texas" thing. They are probably the most wide spread venomous snake in North America with the Eastern Diamond Back ranging up the east coast to at least New York state and multiple species from Baja California in the south and probably into Oregon on the west coast. Most states in the central United States have their resident species as well.
Ted
I don't think there is a "normal" size for rattlesnakes. It depends on the species. The pygmy rattlesnake is very small and seems to prefer hanging out in palmetto fronds and other elevated locations in the Southeastern United States. The Western Diamond Back is normally much larger and can be over seven feet long and weigh 30 lbs. Sweetwater Texas has a rattlesnake roundup each year and contestants capture and bring them in all day. Most of them are Diamond Back's, but they probably only average two feet long and possibly 1 1/2 lbs. I don't know what makes some really large and some rather small. I guess it depends on food supply and longevity. Most don't live to be very old because people have a tendency to kill them when they see them. The timber rattler in East Texas is endangered and you can be sent to federal prison for killing one. Rattlesnakes are not really a "Texas" thing. They are probably the most wide spread venomous snake in North America with the Eastern Diamond Back ranging up the east coast to at least New York state and multiple species from Baja California in the south and probably into Oregon on the west coast. Most states in the central United States have their resident species as well.
Ted
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applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30540
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I would freak out if I saw snakes that big, let alone a rattlesnake....I was reading an old favorite -- Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune -- with my kids, and there is a chapter in which Lad is bitten by a rattle snake while protecting a disabled child. I know how it ends but this chapter always makes me cry. The story is set in northern NJ. Happily, some of Terhune's stories are available on-line from Project Gutenberg and Librivox.