Well, oldest son just texted me. His mother in law got bit a minute ago. On way to Scott and White in Temple Tx. Via hospital in Taylor Tx. As I write this. He says she is doing ok.

Be careful. She was either In her veggie area behind house or picking berries! She has a big garden area. Lots of vegetation.

We've got 'em here in the NC mountains. Here I am with one I just got off of the propane tank. They get up inside the lid of the tank.

I hope n pray she doesn't have too bad of a time with the bite.

My brother has a bit of a problem with copperheads around his house. He has had two dogs bitten and now has a small grandson running around. I gave him some bird netting. The black PVC kind about 3/4 inch square. I've seen it trap snakes around blueberry bushes and suggested that he might place some 18" high strips in strategic places around his house. I saw it used like that in a park in California and it did a great job of snagging a Pacific Rattler. Might help around a garden too.

I wouldn't recommend this kind of remedy to be used except in areas where venomous snakes can't be tolerated. It will be an indiscriminate killer unless checked often and harmless snakes released in an area where they are less likely to be caught.

348

Explain a little more how it traps them?

Dang Simon.

Shouldn't that sucker be grasped alittle closer to the head so he cant turn, strike out and git ya???

Got some big brass ones bro.

Continued luck dealing with them.


Also hope she has an easy go of it, Kaywoodie.

I sure hope she heals well KW.

Sorry to hear that, Bob.

Hope she gets better without all the antivenin.

Let us know how she's doing.

They try to go through and when it starts getting tight, they turn and try to go back. They just can't go back through the same hole and it ties them up. They can't back out because snakes scales don't let them back up very well and the thin plastic lines grab them pretty tight. The snakes I've seen caught have tried to turn around several times and gotten themselves into a real knot.

The Pacific Rattler had been through 4 or 5 times, was very secure and really pizzed off. The rangers started trying to cut him out and realized that they were going to get bitten. Last I saw him he was going into a big trash can and there was talk of tossing the whole mess off this handy cliff.

Will do fellas. Thanks for the nice words. Sorry had to stop work and cook supper tonight.

She's a pretty stout gal. German stock!

Sorry to hear this news. Prayers on the way for quick healing.

Bob, hate to hear of the lady getting bit. Sure hope she doesn't have a bad time.

Best way to get rid of copperheads or any other snake you dont want is to catch all the Kingsnakes you can and let them loose in your yard/area. They will clean all the others out pretty quick.

Dang Bob! Sure hope she's OK

Sorry to hear. Hopefully it was a "dry bite". My experience in the ER, about half of the bites had no venom injected.

Are you from Texas? -Bob Wills

I am nice to my little rattlers, one of which, a Mojave Green, was rude enough to enter my closed front courtyard where I put the dogs.

We had a handy steel rod with prong for water faucets, so I eased him out the gate and send him on his way. He really did not like it at all!

We have big ones too, but if possible I would do the same. They keep the rodents down.

Blast dem sombitches KW, got an 11 shot 870 12 ga. I'll loan ya if you need it.

Hope the MIL is gonna be okay.

Down on the old home place in Atascosa county, grandpaw slept on the back porch year round. Had canvas roller awnings on outside. Many a morning he'd wake up an kill a littler rattlebug with his boot, that crawled out on the slab night before.

Not to wander too far from the thread, but my mom was born in Taylor, Texas, in 1917.

Much of my mothers maternal side of the family were from Milam and eastern Williamson county.

The good news. For a healthy adult copperhead bites are rarely fatal.

Best wishes to the lady, kaywoodie.

Yes, websterparish47, when I was a paramedic in Georgia we were taught that about 50 percent of bites from poisonous snakes were non envenomated. That is, the snake did not inject poison.
'Ol copperhead got scared and bit the guy but at the last moment realized he couldn't kill a human, or, if he did, couldn't eat him so did not release venom.
Among the three major species in America, the rattlesnake has the most poisonous venom, the cottonmouth is second, and the copperhead is third.
So, almost impossible for a human to die by copperhead bite.

My 32 pound dog got nailed on the forearm by a copperhead, took her to the vet. He loaded her up on antibiotics but did not administer antivenin. Said, it was nearly impossible even for a small dog to be killed by a copperhead.
It was nasty, the wound got laid open and festered for a week or more, really nasty, but then it healed up and my poor doggie was ok once again.

So, safe to say the mother in law will recover. I hope she does well.

By the way, if you are ever in a situation in which you fear someone was bitten by a poisonous snake, the number one symptom is swelling. Massive swelling.
I have seen a man who was bitten by a Georgia timber rattler, his forearm was the size of a football.

Massive swelling within 10 minutes. If you are dealing with a snake bite, and 20 minutes have passed and there is redness etc, but no swelling, you can relax. Get the dead snake if possible and head up to the ER, get a tetanus shot and call it a night.
No swelling no poison.

And, why should you be cautious about managing a snake bite? Because the antivenin is a powerful drug. Did you know that some people are allergic to antivenin? Did you know that some people die because they are given antivenin?

Be rational, and be careful about trusting your fate to the tender mercies of the docs and nurses in the ER.

Sorry to hear of this, hope she heals up quickly!

When we were kids rattlers were commonplace.
We never got bit and never had much fear of them, but copperheads still scare the bejeezus out of me.

Dogs are more valuable than any damn snake. Especially poisonous ones. Snake anywhere around or in the yard is DRT as the campfire likes to say.

I don't know why anyone would not kill the bad ones around the house.

You can let the others eat the mice.

I agree with Gunner on snakes! Here's a 15 second video of my favorite snake gun in action :

Kings get a pass here, in fact, a couple two or three live in and around our yard, copperheads, rattlers and cotton mouth/moccasins get an ounce and an eighth of 7.5's.

Sorry to hear this Bob. Prayers offered up. miles

I wish my MIL would get bit by one of them or a Cobra, Black Mamba or Gibbon Viper, just can find an importer to get one to California!

Best Wishes for your sons MIL.

that's a decent sized copperhead!

Well if its any consolation, she did manage to kill the literal Hell out of it! Only about a foot long. Lucky thing is she keeps our youngest grandson. He had been out playing in the same flower bed earlier. He was in napping so she figgered she could get some work done while he was asleep. Glad it wasn't that little turd chunkin' primate that got bit!!!

Yes that was a big snake. Here I am rooting him out from the lid of the propane tank.
See, Mrs. Mouse would go up in there and make a nest and have babies. Mr. Copperhead went up there for dinner, and just stuck around. This was the third copperhead I found up in there, so I got these snake tongs off of ebay for 45 bucks.




Here is the viper in the cooler. I put him in the cooler and drove him way out into the country and turned him loose. Hate to kill any of God's creatures if I don't have to.
Also got 2 king snakes and 3 corn snakes in that same lid to the propane tank. A corn snake is almost identical to the copperhead.
The best way to tell a poisonous snake is, the poisonous snake has a big broad head. Looks like an arrowhead. On the copperhead the head is about 2 times bigger than the body.
On the corn snake the head is the same size as the body.

Corn snakes, and king snakes eat mice and rats! You don't want to kill an innocent snake they are your friends.

That is a big copperhead. I've seen a lot around my area in SC but I don't remember ever seeing one that big.

I hope so as well. Had a girl I coached get bit. Her grand dad took her down to the stream on his property in his Gator. When she stepped out at the edge of the field she stepped on a copperhead. She missed the playoffs and I'm sure it cost her parents a small fortune for treatment as she did get a dose of venom. She was always a very quiet girl but she was tough as nails and came back the next season.

I told the other girls the snake died from biting her!

Doc Eyeball wants to know if you haul God's flys and skeeters way out to the country, too?

Never met a snake I liked. Hope she gets well soon.

Girlfriend has quit asking me to kill spiders or flies, I open the window and toss them outside.
A hornet gets into the house, I kill him, don't want to get stung. Don't like to kill any of God's creatures.

Prayers sent Bob.

Bob - sorry to hear this and praying she is OK. How is she doing?

Will say a prayer for her tonight before I go to sleep. Here's a tip my older neighbor gave us a few years back.....spray the garden with the hose before you go in to pick. Helps get them on their way !!

Best wishes for a positive outcome there Bob...

Prayers lifted up here, too.

What's the word on her condition?

Ed

I've heard of rattlesnakes 'dry biting', but didn't know copperheads could do it too. Can moccasins?

Hadnt heard anything this morning. Son said last night they would prolly have her in hospital til tomorrow.

Thanks!

Any viper can dry bite. Some just don't like to. They want to give you the full benefit of their presence.

Swelling going down and she is resting comfy! Feels good! I suppose all is going well according to the kids!

Thanks again to you all!

Good to hear Bob!

My uncle got bit one day and he was in tough shape for over a week. Healed up though. And we took a buddy's uncle to the hospital one day, got one fang from a little copperhead in his pinky.
Hurt so bad he was literally begging us to shoot him by the time we got there.

He pulled through too....without noticeable damage to the finger.

sorry to hear that, hope she recovers well. I do not get along with buzztails.
I always remember a son in law, we were out quail hunting. He is on top of a ridge and spots about a four foot diamondback. Asks me what to do? My answer was you haven't killed it already? He proceeds to tail it down the hill towards me.
I asked him to step aside. I had a remington 1100 and dumped the magazine on said snake, reloaded and did it again.

Glad to hear the good news.

Hope she at least gets a bit of a break from her "routine", and a bit of extra attention from the "kids".

Maybe ice cream too!

Geno

Bob, looks like the power of prayer is prevailing. Glad to hear that she is on the mend.

Thanks for the report Bob - hope it continues to zero problem for the lady.

I kind of agree on the dogs, but in the above case, the dogs were not around the courtyard, the movers had left the gate open that day and it was easy enough to use the 5' steel rod to nudge the small though highly venomous Mojave Green rattler down the drive.

Maybe a month or so later, my oldest Jack Russell ended up with a big bite over her eye and a badly swollen head. We took her to a vet who said there were numerous snake bite cases around here. However, my best guess was a fight with one of the younger daughters over dominance and a shot for infection cleaned her up. The skin was just too ripped to look like a snake bite.

Yes they can but with their nasty temperament they usually just say [bleep] it an give you all they got.

Pit vipers get no quarter from me.

I've arrived here late, but since I have been bitten twice by copperheads and once by a cottonmouth, I can tell you the copperhead is much the lesser of them. I was last bitten on top of my left foot which was bare at the time while in my driveway washing my truck. Since I was over 55 years old that time, they would not give me anti vennom at the hospital. They gave me a tetnus shot and I stayed in the hospital over night and they measured the rate of swelling evey hour. If it had exceeded a ceratin rate, I would have been transferred to Atlanta. But it didn't and I was discharged late the next day.

Because I did not get the anti venom, my whole leg swole up, turned several colors, and there was a lot of tissue damage and necrotic blood. It was the most painful bite out of the three. I had to wear an anti embolism stocking and go to physical therapy where they put that leg in ice cold water and used a leg stocking on it that expanded and contracted and worked the bad blood out. They were afraid I was going to throw a clot with all that necrotic blood.

About three weeks later I could get a shoe on that foot and walk on it without a limp. Snake bite and old age do not go well together fellas, so don't do it.

Bob, Thanks for the report. Hope she is resting and not hurting.

When my son was about 3 years old he was bitten by a big rattlesnake that had got into his sand box.

Several difficult hours passed until the Docs determined it was a dry bite.

Scary stuff...

Glad to hear it. Read it yesterday and didn't comment and was thinking about her late last night.

Glad to hear the good news so far.

Just saw this, Bob - glad she's doing well. I'll say a short prayer of thanks.

Thanks to all! Son is on his way to Temple right now to get her and bring her home. A couple more appts in the next week or two.

Good news. miles

The trouble with copperheads and cottonmouths is they don't buzz. Your first warning may be when the teeth sink in!