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Gary350
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Copper Head Snake 69 Inches

This is the first snake I have seen in the garden in 40 years. Be careful in your garden. This is a very common poison snake in Tennessee, GA, AL, KY, NC, SC, WV. and many other places. They like to live where there are rocks, brush, along streams and rivers. Rain finally stopped a week ago and it has warmed up in the 90s so snakes are out. Copper Head snakes are very hard to see because of their color pattern. They are not very aggressive snakes you can almost step on them and they wont bite they wont even move. I see Copper Head snakes all the time on hiking trails during the warm weather months. If you accidentally step on one it will bite. Copper head and rattle snakes are very common here my cousin killed one in her yard 64" long last summer. I shot it 6 times in the head with a pellet rifle. This is why you don't usually see snakes this long just by chance sooner or later they get shot. I don't like snakes.

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Last edited by Gary350 on Wed Jun 01, 2016 7:17 am, edited 9 times in total.

HoneyBerry
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Wow! I can't imagine seeing a snake like that in my yard. What did you do? I need to look up that type if snake. I think it must be poisonous.

HoneyBerry
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A cording to LiveScience copperheads are only 2-3 feet long. I wonder why yours is so much longer.

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BirdLover wrote:Wow! I can't imagine seeing a snake like that in my yard. What did you do? I need to look up that type if snake. I think it must be poisonous.
Yes, copperheads are poisonous and are common in my part of the world. I've not seen one that big before, but more in the 36" range or slightly bigger. One year I was mowing my grass and it was late spring when all of a sudden after I made the pass with the mower, I saw movement in the grass and it was several baby copperheads making tracks away from my mower.

That made me head inside to put on a pair of boots and get out of the tennis shoes I had been wearing to cut the grass.

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Yes! Need to protect them toes.
The creatures here tend to be mild. Garden (garter) snakes are small and don't bite. I haven't seen one since I was a kid. I think it must be due to environmental stuff.
We have brown recluse spiders. I've never been bit by one before, although I know someone who did get bit by one. It was a nasty bite on her leg. I thought that she might lose her leg, but she got through it. I think it must have left a scar on her leg.
Sometimes people here have exotic pet snakes. We were at Denny's at 4 am (opening day of fishing) and the guy sitting at the booth behind me had a huge snake wrapped around his neck. I think it was a python?? (I need to catch up on my snake reading.) I turned around and there was this snake, right frickin behind me, an inch or two from my head, while we were having breakfast. So I moved to the booth on the other side of our table. The waitress came and told the guy that he could not have a snake in the restaurant. He had a fit about it, insisted on staying right there with this snake wrapped around his neck. Long story short, the waitress had to call the police and the guy had a tantrum in the parking lot and got arrested. We didn't wait around to see what happened. We had some fishing to do.

HoneyBerry
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Maybe it's a different kind of snake that looks similar to a copperhead but is bigger than a copperhead.

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BirdLover wrote:Maybe it's a different kind of snake that looks similar to a copperhead but is bigger than a copperhead.

That's what I'm thinking since it does not look like any copperhead I've ever seen with the markings it has. When I clicked the picture for a better view it looks to have a very consistent pattern to it as opposed to the mottled look of the copperheads I've dealt with over the years.

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Allyn
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Well, there are different varieties of Copperhead that each have distinct coloring and some look very different than others. I'm also wondering about the size though. The largest Copperhead on record was 53 inches long. . . on record, mind you. I know not all of them showed up to be measured that day when the record was declared. :)

I know a Northern Water snake is sometimes mistaken for a Copperhead. . .I know because I can't always tell the difference unless I get a clear look at its eye. Slit pupil is a Copperhead, round pupil is a Water snake. Northern Water snakes can get to 5-feet long or a bit longer.

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MichaelC
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BirdLover wrote: Sometimes people here have exotic pet snakes. We were at Denny's at 4 am (opening day of fishing) and the guy sitting at the booth behind me had a huge snake wrapped around his neck. I think it was a python??
That was a great story. Pet pythons are fairly common (inasmuch as it's common to have freaky pets) I think. I used to live next door to a pet store that my daughter and I would regularly visit, as they had dozens of huge pythons for sale (and scorpions, among other things! :shock: They're a bit more fun to be near when they are behind glass. :)

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I used to know a guy who had pet tarantulas - 2 big black ones and 1 little red one. The red one got loose. People would come to visit, and while they were sitting there shooting the breeze, the loose tarantula would shoot across the floor. It was funny, the way people reacted. Most of them couldn't handle the stress of a lurking tarantula in the house, so they would suddenly decide they had to scee-dadle.

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Nice snake!

Very few snakes ever come to my lot. A garter snake now and then. Up in the hills we do have rattlers. When I was working for a feller who had hay fields up by the mountain, we always rolled the baled hay towards us and looked under it before picking it up. .Every year we would find a few rattlers hiding under the baled hay.

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Saw my first rattlesnake for this year the other day. He was coiled up between some slabs of flagstone. I thought that looks funny, how did that black stick get in there like that! Then realized what it was. At this time of year I automatically go into that cautious mode of looking down at the ground, and not reaching for anything really fast! I usually relocate the rattlers, I don't kill them. But, I just didn't have time that day, he's probably still there. This was up at our wilderness cabin, so ok, why bother?!
I have seen a garter snake this year and a bullsnake down at the garden property this year. Bullsnakes are good for keeping rattlers away.

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Allyn
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BirdLover wrote:....Sometimes people here have exotic pet snakes. We were at Denny's at 4 am (opening day of fishing) and the guy sitting at the booth behind me had a huge snake wrapped around his neck......
And they get loose sometimes!

Just a few weeks ago, I went into the kitchen to make a sandwich. I was standing at the counter slicing the bread when something out of the ordinary caught my eye. It was a snake hanging down in the corner below the cabinet. There was about 16 inches of him hanging down and he was slowly backing up, retreating upward. Obviously, he'd seen me first.

I stood back and called for my husband, but before he could get there, the snake was gone. I hunkered down a little and looked up under the cabinet and there was a hole in the wall where the bottom of the cabinet didn't quite meet the corner (nothing in this house is square, straight or level). I stuffed some paper into the hole to block that avenue of ingress.

Now, was the snake poisonous or not? I didn't get a look at his eyes; my only view was top-down as he was hanging down with the top of his head toward me, so I couldn't see if he had slit pupils. I spent the next week off and on looking at pictures of snakes native to Mississippi trying to identify him. No luck. Then it occurred to me that people have snakes as pets and sometimes they get loose, so I expanded my search. Bingo! It was a boa constrictor. Probably a young one; I'd guess about three feet long. At least it isn't poisonous.

HoneyBerry
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Whoa!!! I can't even imagine something like that happening. I would have to move out. I wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise. Boa constrictor - that sounds pretty serious. :eek:

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Allyn
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Oddly enough, I'm okay as long as it isn't poisonous. I was throwing back the covers and checking my bed every night before I identified it, though.

Now bees, I can't tolerate in the house. (definition of a "bee": bees and any flying, stinging insects such as wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, et al. Also includes any flying insect that has not yet been identified as not a bee.) We've had skinks, anoles, frogs, mice and now snakes in the house. I can deal with that, but if I see a bee, don't be standing between me and the door or you will be on your butt wondering what just happened.

And as if on cue as I was writing this, I looked up to see a wasp fly over my head. I gave the high-pitched scream of panic (the agreed upon signal for my husband to come deal with it), and scrambled out of my chair knocking over the trash can as I beat a hasty retreat.

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Speaking of snakes. I have a friend of the family that at one time had a reticulated python as a pet. He got it when it was just a couple days old and even then, it was 2 ft. long. Over the years it grew to be close to 12 ft. long and easily over 100 lbs. as most snakes like this in captivity tend to be heavier than those in the wild.

At one time he had it living in a huge aquarium in his house but it outgrew that habitat and he hired me to build it an outside cage. I made it 8 ft. x 8 ft. x 5 ft. tall with a front made with wood framing around clear acrylic panels so you could see the snake. It also had a door for access. In one corner I built a sunken area 3 ft. x 3 ft. x 2 ft. deep and made it watertight for a small pool it could cool off in. I also put in a couple nice pieces of driftwood for it to crawl on and 2 heat lamps for when it got to be winter and too cool for it to live.

Unfortunately, a few years ago it got below freezing for a couple nights when they were away visiting relatives and there was a power outage in their neighborhood. The snake didn't make it, likely freezing to death since they are cold blooded and need a source of heat to survive when that cold.

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Allyn wrote:
BirdLover wrote:....Sometimes people here have exotic pet snakes. We were at Denny's at 4 am (opening day of fishing) and the guy sitting at the booth behind me had a huge snake wrapped around his neck......
And they get loose sometimes!

Just a few weeks ago, I went into the kitchen to make a sandwich. I was standing at the counter slicing the bread when something out of the ordinary caught my eye. It was a snake hanging down in the corner below the cabinet. There was about 16 inches of him hanging down and he was slowly backing up, retreating upward. Obviously, he'd seen me first.

I stood back and called for my husband, but before he could get there, the snake was gone. I hunkered down a little and looked up under the cabinet and there was a hole in the wall where the bottom of the cabinet didn't quite meet the corner (nothing in this house is square, straight or level). I stuffed some paper into the hole to block that avenue of ingress.

Now, was the snake poisonous or not? I didn't get a look at his eyes; my only view was top-down as he was hanging down with the top of his head toward me, so I couldn't see if he had slit pupils. I spent the next week off and on looking at pictures of snakes native to Mississippi trying to identify him. No luck. Then it occurred to me that people have snakes as pets and sometimes they get loose, so I expanded my search. Bingo! It was a boa constrictor. Probably a young one; I'd guess about three feet long. At least it isn't poisonous.
Oh heck no, I'd pack up and move out of state! :shock: I'm just shell shocked...

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(I just realized that my last response to this didn't go through. I remember typing it.)
I cannot imagine a snake indoors like what you describe. I think I would have to move out. I wonder if homeowners insurance would cover the motel expenses. It seems like a boa constrictor in the house would be a safety issue.

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I think it came in and was exploring when it crossed paths with me. This is an old one-room cabin on pillars. I'm sure there are plenty of gaps and crevices underneath that eventually led to the hole in the wall under the cabinets. I think once he saw that this isn't the best place to hang out (literally), he left. I know there are snakes under the house. My husband pulled a shed skin out from under the porch when he was pulling debris out from the previous resident. I startled a garden snake a few days ago that was sunning himself on a concrete pad in front of the laundry room. He beat a hasty retreat under the house. We have skinks, anoles, frogs and toads that live in/under/around the porch and occasionally find one in the house. As long as it isn't poisonous, I'm way okay with it as long as the snake stays out of the living quarters.

Now, I am concerned about the chickens with a constrictor in the neighborhood, but boas are usually nocturnal hunters and the chickens are locked in the coop at night. I'm honestly more worried about stray cats and roaming dogs than I am about snakes.

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Gary350
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I heard this on TV News. Some family had a pet boa constrictor in the house. One morning they find their 14 year old son dead the snake got loose during the night and killed him while he was asleep.

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Allyn
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Gary350 wrote:I heard this on TV News. Some family had a pet boa constrictor in the house. One morning they find their 14 year old son dead the snake got loose during the night and killed him while he was asleep.
I can find no reports of that. Two young boys (5 and 7 yrs old) were killed in Canada by a snake that was incorrectly reported as a boa constrictor. It was actually a python. According to the Humane Society of the United States seventeen people have died from constrictor snake related incidents in the United States since 1978. Only one was from a boa constrictor and that person died of a Salmonella infection due to the bite, not being squeezed. The people squeezed to death were killed by pythons.

I'm not saying it isn't true. I just can't find any reports of that. If you have a link to the article, please share it.

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Gary350
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Allyn wrote:
Gary350 wrote:I heard this on TV News. Some family had a pet boa constrictor in the house. One morning they find their 14 year old son dead the snake got loose during the night and killed him while he was asleep.
I can find no reports of that. Two young boys (5 and 7 yrs old) were killed in Canada by a snake that was incorrectly reported as a boa constrictor. It was actually a python. According to the Humane Society of the United States seventeen people have died from constrictor snake related incidents in the United States since 1978. Only one was from a boa constrictor and that person died of a Salmonella infection due to the bite, not being squeezed. The people squeezed to death were killed by pythons.

I'm not saying it isn't true. I just can't find any reports of that. If you have a link to the article, please share it.
I saw that on TV a few months ago. It could have been a python is did not know there were other constrictor type snakes.

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Allyn
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Gary350 wrote: I saw that on TV a few months ago. It could have been a python is did not know there were other constrictor type snakes.
Oh yes, there are many species of constrictor snakes that include boas, pythons and anacondas. I'm not a snake expert, but I believe boa constrictors are usually the smallest of the bunch -- typically less than 10 feet and less than 50 pounds. The man-killers are the really big snakes: green anacondas (up to 30 feet long, up to 500 pounds), Burmese pythons (up to 20 feet long, up to 400 pounds) and reticulated pythons (up to 25 feet long, up to 350 pounds).



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