Monday the neighbor's son showed up at his ranch, and his dog got bitten in the face by a copperhead. They looked around where the dog was walking and killed a good sized copperhead.
Dog went to the vet and got treated. She's okay.
Next morning neighbor and his son are messing around on front porch and killed two adult copperheads right on the porch. They looked around the front yard and killed 3 more.
I texted him yesterday and asked if they had seen any more copperheads...?
He texted me that they had killed a total of 9 now.. Since Monday. In the yard.
I think his wife is pretty spooked now.
I've seen rattlers get plentiful in an area like that, but not so many copperheads in one place at the same time...
I found that keeping the grass mowed, and having no junk, brush, woodpiles, leaf accumulations, or other hiding places cuts way back on the copperhead population around the home or workplaces that people frequent. I still killed one occasionally, but not very often.
I know a guy that goes to a ranch to help his friend do chores on the weekends. The ranch is SE of Lockhart. A few years ago they killed about a dozen around the old farm house. He said that was the thickest they ever saw them.
I found that keeping the grass mowed, and having no junk, brush, woodpiles, leaf accumulations, or other hiding places cuts way back on the copperhead population around the home or workplaces that people frequent. I still killed one occasionally, but not very often.
We lived in a development up on a rocky ridge a while back. Every year in April I would start killing them like that and see them dead in the road. They den up like rattlers.
"In October the Copperhead retreats to its underground den to hibernate until late February or early March. Dens are most often in rocky hillsides with southern or eastern exposure to the sun. These "snake dens" will be returned to year after year and may contain a large number of snakes. In late summer through mid-October, between 1 and 14 young are born alive rather than hatched from eggs."
I found that keeping the grass mowed, and having no junk, brush, woodpiles, leaf accumulations, or other hiding places cuts way back on the copperhead population around the home or workplaces that people frequent. I still killed one occasionally, but not very often.
This
The funny part about the neighbor's place is that there's no brush very close to his house at all. Keeps the yard mowed too.
I killed a bunch of copperheads at my place when I first moved out here, but went to pushing the brush away from the house, and have only killed one this year so far.
I usually see them in spring after they come out, or fall... It's pretty damned hot right now.
We killed several when we first built 20 years ago and then 2-3 a year for the next couple of years. Haven't seen one since. We do have a few 5-6' black rat or racers around which I'm sure helps.
If you're talking pit vipers in the yard, I'd agree. But killing a snake just because it's a snake is ignorant. We have garter snakes that winter underneath the back porch slab and sun themselves in the same place every spring. Never hurt a thing, except the local mouse population.
I have to drive east a couple hours if I want to see a venomous snake.
I get a bit nervous for the dog during early season bird hunting. She doesn’t see a snake all year and then can end up in a mess of them. They usually get a load of 6’s.
“Life is life and fun is fun, but it's all so quiet when the goldfish die.”
You might say he seems to live on... Copperhead Road?
But still, do not kill EVERY snake that you see, leave black snakes alone (no, Goosey, not THOSE black snakes...), black snakes do a world of good around property. And, I suppose, around Paddler's butt hole...
We have a den on the ranch and in the spring or fall can go out and kill some prairie rattlers. Best time is when it is still cool then a warm day pops. They will be right by the den sunning themselves. A good hard tined rake to pin them, a pellet gun to put one in the head along with a sharp knife, machete, etc to cut the head off. Good boots to scrape a hole, slide the head in and cover up and tamp.
Six is the best haul we have ever made. We have killed a few in the yard, typically right after the alfalfa gets knocked down, and only twice have we run into them in the pasture when not specifically looking for them.
Helped son and his old prof set up a base camp for an archaeological field school over at an old1830’s era plantation site between Brenham and Navasota about 10 years ago. That place was crawling with copperheads. Never seen the likes of them. One student got bit on foot one evening after lights out on way to the head. It was on ground in their awning by cot. Fuggers were everywhere!!!
Last edited by kaywoodie; 06/07/19.
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
We lived in a development up on a rocky ridge a while back. Every year in April I would start killing them like that and see them dead in the road. They den up like rattlers.
"In October the Copperhead retreats to its underground den to hibernate until late February or early March. Dens are most often in rocky hillsides with southern or eastern exposure to the sun. These "snake dens" will be returned to year after year and may contain a large number of snakes. In late summer through mid-October, between 1 and 14 young are born alive rather than hatched from eggs."
For several years I got to see where a den of garter snakes would emerge from on my place. If they'd been poisonous it would have been hair raising. When I had a pond built, one side of the dam ended up covering the eastern facing hillside of the hollow almost exactly where the den was. I've not seen them since.
My Dad's best friend's house is on the side of a ridge. When I was a kid and we'd visit in the hot of summer he'd take us (and everyone there) out to the middle of the rural road that ran in front of his house as it was getting dark. In a flashlight beam you could see copperheads all over the ground on the side of the road opposite of his house. Most of them were small, ~12 to maybe 24 inches. You could watch them eating cicadas....I had no idea snakes ate bugs. He never killed them unless he found them on his house side of the road. He said it was very rare to ever see one in the daylight but they came out every night when the cicadas were present. Anyone watching always stayed in the road so you could see where you were stepping.
Met a guy at the vet whose little mutt's been bitten several times, but he takes her hiking up in the rocky VA hills near Sperryville. Pretty expensive exercise. Have yet to see one here, though they're certainly a possibility. Could be the ratsnakes keep them at bay.
It seems that copperhead populations are on the rise. I suspect when large populations are gathered in a small area like Barry pointed out that they are actively mating. I used to live near dredge spoil ponds where I would walk my dog. I rarely saw any snakes. One night when I was frog gigging I saw 30+ snakes, and they were all Cottonmouths. The next day I went back to see if I could show my daughters. In one small pond probably 30x30 feet there were 15-20, many in a ball for lack of a better word. I never saw another one out there after that.
