SNAKE!!!

[wood714]

The only good snake is a dead snake.

I know the difference between venomous and non venomous snakes.

Killed several water moccasins in my yard the first year I had my house built. I've saw 2 rattlesnakes since living in FL. One was in the dunes at the beach. Note to tourist...there are a lot of rattlesnakes living in the dunes! Aint saw a coral snake.

Any non venomous snake I just call yard snakes. I was just watching one in a potted plant in the rock bed I have around my house.

I'll go out of my way to leave the non venomous snakes alone. I'd rather have them around my house than mice and rats in it.

 

[soFlaNative]

I bagged a copperhead Saturday. It is a young one that still has the green/yellow tint in the tail and is good for about $500 to a local guy who milks them to make anti-venom. Waiting for him to show up. It almost got killed until I seen the tail.

Can someone fill me in on the significance of the tinted tail?
I've seen and disposed of a few in western NC but never paid any mind to the tail.

 

[Bro. Dave]

Although not a herpetologist, I believe the color of the tail indicates a juvenile of the species. As they mature the color fades. I'm unsure of just how long that process takes.

 

[6518John]

Juvenile as you point out. They use the tail tip as a lure. "Young Copperheads will use their brightly colored tails in a hunting technique called caudal luring. Essentially, they will twitch their tails and literally lure in their prey to within striking distance. This technique likely works best on small frogs and lizards."

Herps of Arkansas: Eastern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)

 

[italiansport]

Hope you skinned the 30 " out and tanned the skin!!
Jim

 

[Rustyt1953]

With this being a gun forum:

 

[misswired]

Hope you skinned the 30 " out and tanned the skin!!
Jim

Twenty years ago.... skinning that snake would've been a done deal.


It's crossed my mind several times.... keep telling myself: "you don't won't to skin that stinking snake!" Back in the day I cleaned several timber rattlers and a couple of copperheads. That hide would make a fine hat band.

Please, don't talk me into skinning it

 

[Doug M.]

I'll stick to cooler, even cold climates where snakes are less common thank you very much.

 

[carpriver]

I'll stick to cooler, even cold climates where snakes are less common thank you very much.

I am with you Doug. Cold weather no snakes, or none with venom.

 

[misswired]

Hope you skinned the 30 " out and tanned the skin!!
Jim

Dang it.... that snake laying in the road 14 hours in the hot sun... was putrid. Thanks to you I decided to clean it .... wrong , it was too far gone. Threw the stinking carcass out at shooting buddy's... after hanging the gate. We both had game cameras stolen on his property.... It was time for a gate!!!

 

[johnbeaver]

Where I used to live I would kill a big copperhead every spring. Generally more than one, but one place in particular. On the drive way where a culvert crossed a big drain. Nicely wooded on each side.
Biggest was close to three feet.
Most of the time just stepped on them close to the head and used a pocket knife. One or two were big enough for the shovel.

 

[wood714]

I remember once when I was most young walking thru the woods with my grand dad on his farm. He grabbed me and picked me up, asked him what was wrong and he said he smelled a Copperhead.

He said they smell like cucumbers. Sure enough there was one on the other side of a log we were getting ready to step over.

I've only killed one, but never got close enough to smell it.

 

[misswired]

The original home place is going up for sale at a bargain. 73' built home remodeled ten years ago...... 42 acres within 5 minutes of a municipal airport .....20x40 in ground pool. You can raise your own deer, turkeys and snakes....:all thrive here.

Vinemont.... that's worth a move right there....more acreage is available adjoining property

 

[papu8890]

I remember once when I was most young walking thru the woods with my grand dad on his farm. He grabbed me and picked me up, asked him what was wrong and he said he smelled a Copperhead.

He said they smell like cucumbers. Sure enough there was one on the other side of a log we were getting ready to step over.

I've only killed one, but never got close enough to smell it.

Never thought of it as cucumbers, but your grand dad was right there's a smell to them.
Killed this one Thursday or Friday evening-
first one this year...

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

 

[gman51]

I have been told it is best to have a dog walking with you in high grass near water.
We had a big lab mix where I worked and he got bit by a snake on his head. The bite swelled up about size of a baseball on his head. Took several weeks for the swelling to go away. Supposedly snake bites will not kill dogs. But I wouldn't bet on that.
I have also heard moccasins stink and they just stay in really bad moods. I don't even walk a creek that the banks are fully grown over. Almost guaranteed to step on or get bit by a snake.

 

[misswired]

Having a vet as a personal friend .... one Benadryl per ten pounds of body weight will do the trick if a canine is poisonous snake bitten... I've seen it work miracles on my snake bitten dogs.... that said..... I'd hate to have my little Mountain Feist hit by a big copperhead.

 

[ChuckS1]

Long story short, I was cutting up a poplar tree that fell in my pasture. After about 30 minutes with the chainsaw, I rolled over the last round I cut and this guy was waiting for me under it. Normally, I kill copperheads, but since it was in the pasture, about 10 yards from the woods, I coaxed him back into the woods with the longest stick I could find. Still gives me the creeps.

 

[Drm50]

I've caught and skinned a lot of Copper Heads here in SE Ohio hill country.
A 3' CH is a monster. We got a bonus for all snakes over 24" by the inch.
Biggest was 32". I have a old newspaper article of 38" CH killed in next county in early 1900s. It made the news then because of its size. I wish there was somebody here paying $500 for CH to milk. They aren't that hard to come by. I've skinned out several that had unborn still in membrane. These tiny snakes had perfect bright markings on them. Smell? Yea they have musty odor when you are handling them but I have never sniffed one out. I've herd the cucumber story hundreds of times. Also that Black snakes and CHs are cross breeding, hoop snakes and various other BS stories. Mostly by people who wouldn't know a CH if it bit them. 99% of calls on CHs are common water snakes or rat snakes. I don't shoot CHs, the holes would dock the price. Pin them down and grab them by hand. Drown them in a perforated drywall bucket in the creek.

 

[oink]

Where I used to live I would kill a big copperhead every spring.....
Most of the time just stepped on them close to the head and used a pocket knife. One or two were big enough for the shovel.

Had a snake call in a residential neighborhood years ago. Back years ago when cowboy boots were mandatory (cheap Acme Dingo was the norm). Anyhow, I get there and there is this upset mother all frantic. She says "there's a snake. I think it's a Coral Snake!", pointing at the concrete driveway. A bit annoyed I go over, look and see maybe a 18 to 20" Coral Snake. I say yep it's a Coral Snake and stomp on it's head, get back in my car and leave. I tried but wasn't always as patient and diplomatic as I could have been. I guess since I grew up having to deal with snakes I just assumed any normal person could have handled the situation without calling the cops.

 

[Chukar60]

We just have polite venomous snakes around here. They make noise when you are irritating them.
Despite their good manners they are rewarded with some lead to the head or being introduced to a large stick.
I run pointers and any venomous snake is a problem that needs to be eliminated.