One of the reasons that certain parts of the US are not on our search area for retirement.
Venomous snakes come in two-legged varieties, too. The worst part is they are harder to recognize as such, so wherever you go, you're taking a chance.
As for the legless type, only four states in the US reported to have no venomous varieties: Hawai'i, Alaska, Maine and Rhode Island.
In my paved driveway in suburbia. I hadn't moved it in about 2 weeks. We have a creek and its surrounding wetlands in back; I guess they come up from there. Three summers ago, I killed 10 copperheads over the course of the summer basking on the warm pavement of my driveway, killed 2 in my neighbor's yard across the street, and my neighbor 3 houses down was bitten on the calf when she went out on her back steps for a smoke. She spent a painful week in the hospital.
While I know they are part of God's creation, I don't want them creating around anywhere I walk.
Once, when I worked for our state's prison system (1978-83), I came out after my shift with a co-worker, who hunted and trapped, dug herbs and ginseng, etc. A real back-woods expert. As we got to the parking lot, there was a circle of other officers, looking at something. It was a coiled copperhead, and they guys were all poised to run. Philip, the guy I was walking with, looked at them and said, "hell, it's just a copperhead", walked straight to it from behind, reached down and grabbed it behind the head, walked over to his pickup and threw it in a 5 gallon bucket in the bed. Everybody looked at him like he was crazy; he said "that thing is worth $50 for its venom, and it tastes pretty good, too." He was forever known as "Snake" after that. He brought the skin to show us about a week later. It was a decent sized copperhead, about 4-1/2 feet long.
If they were worth $50 back in 1979, shouldn't you be catching them today?
