Learn The Snakes

[Tennessee Boy]

1 hour ago, fin said:

Someone once said to me you can identify a copperhead by the Hershey's Kisses on its side.

I grew up with that way of identifying them.  In my earlier post I used the term hourglass because that’s what the biologist say.  It looks more like a Hershey’s kiss to me.

[casts_by_fly]

3 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

The best way to identify a copperhead is by the distinctive dark hour glass pattern in its markings which I have circled in the photo below.  These markings are pretty clear in the photo I posted.  There are multiple species of copperheads.  The ones we have are Eastern Copperheads.

 

I agree with you on the on the hourglass markings and maybe it’s just a bad angle on the picture. Copperheads have the hourglass in the dark band, i.e. the dark band is the skinny band and the lighter color is the wide portion. Northern water snakes have a reverse hourglass where they are mostly the dark color and have the lighter color as the skinny hourglass. Looking at your picture, the back of the snake is on the right and the skinny hourglass is in light tan. 
 

https://www.raritanheadwaters.org/2020/06/05/creature-feature-northern-water-snake/#:~:text=Identification%3A The Northern Water Snake,white%2C yellowish%2C or orange.

 

[Woody B]

I see water snakes all the time fishing.   They're really curious and will come right up to or even into a boat.  Many people mistake them for Copperheads.   I've been told that Copperheads will be around water, but don't really like to get in the water.  I don't know if that's true or not.  

 

[Bird]

We have snakes galore here.

This was actually this evening....... black snake invading our privacy.

[dave]

In southern MD, I've heard all my life (I'm 59) water moccasin, water moccasins in MD... 

None in MD.  Brown Water Snake every time.

 

How do I know?  I was fishing on the Northwest River in southern VA.  A Water Moccasin was coiled up floating "on  top" of the water like a balloon.  It was ominous, I will never forget it.  We gave it a wide birth in the boat.

[Tennessee Boy]

@casts_by_fly I appreciate what you’re saying but I got a very good look at the snake.  It had the pit viper head which is completely different from a water snake.  The coloring was very much like a copperhead.  I’ve encountered probably a dozen copperheads in the wild and hundreds if not thousands of water snakes.  I know the difference.   This was the only copperhead I have ever seen swimming in the water.  I was watching the snake and not paying attention to my lure and I pulled it right in front of him and he struck at it.  It appeared that his fangs were stuck in the worm and he could not let go.   He was not hooked.  It was very unusual.

 

[gim]

4 hours ago, Munkin said:

After about 15 minutes I heard 3 shots from his direction a 2-minute pause then 3 more shots. No reason I could think of to have to re-load for 3 more shots so I went to see what up?

Maybe he had 6 Tom turkeys piled up like cordwood. 😂

[Tennessee Boy]

It’s interesting that with all of the outdoor people we have on this forum,  no one has reported being bitten.  I don’t know anyone personally who has been.  When I was growing up we had a lot of snakes and I had a few close calls but never had one get me.  My black lab was bitten on the nose when I was a kid.  The vet said it was a Copperhead.  I don’t know how he knew.

[GreenPig]

Here in Ga. we have 40 nonvenomous snakes and 7 venomous. I can recognize all 7 venomous and some of the 40 nonvenomous. I've seen 9 snakes in the last 7 days. Waded through many a swamps both day and night, sometimes chest deep while hunting and fishing and I've never been bit. I used to catch and handle every snake I ran across, I grown wiser as antivenom is expensive.

[casts_by_fly]

46 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

It’s interesting that with all of the outdoor people we have on this forum,  no one has reported being bitten.  I don’t know anyone personally who has been.  When I was growing up we had a lot of snakes and I had a few close calls but never had one get me.  My black lab was bitten on the nose when I was a kid.  The vet said it was a Copperhead.  I don’t know how he knew.

I’ve gotten nipped a few times. Only non poisonous snakes. Garters and milk snakes for the most part. I’ve handled black rat snakes and water snakes and both will get you good so I don’t take any chances there. Ring necks are so docile that you can just grab them.

 

anymore I don’t mess with any unless they are in the yard. I picked up a pair of tongs a couple years ago when we were getting all of the big ones and use them once or twice a year. I get a bunch of little ones that I’ll pick up with my bare hands and a stick. 

[TnRiver46]

9 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

It’s interesting that with all of the outdoor people we have on this forum,  no one has reported being bitten.  I don’t know anyone personally who has been.  When I was growing up we had a lot of snakes and I had a few close calls but never had one get me.  My black lab was bitten on the nose when I was a kid.  The vet said it was a Copperhead.  I don’t know how he knew.

Somebody has, I posted something years ago like that and someone chimed in being bitten by copperhead 

[Woody B]

I had a friend get bit by a copperhead.  We were clearing land where he was going to build a house.  It was a copperhead.  It left fang marks but he had no problems other than the physical bite.  Dr. called it a "dry bite".  

 

I also had a friend get bit by a pygmy rattler.  He said the bite, at the time felt like someone burning his leg with a cigarette.  He spent a night in the hospital but I'm not sure what treatment he received.  This was in Florida decades ago at Moroso Motorsports Park.  

[Mobasser]

I've seen a lot of snakes, but have never been bitten either. But, I don't try to handle them or mess with them. Just let them be.

[TnRiver46]

I’ve got to side with @casts_by_fly on the trick worm snake , everything about the photo says banded waterssnake to me

 

A good way to distinguish is in the name, the snake on the trick worm has bands almost like bracelets, whereas the copperhead photo posted has overlapping hour glass blotches, but not bands that encircle the dorsal side in rows 

[GaryH]

Friend tearing out old floor in barn in Texas. 
 

[LonnieP]

11 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

It’s interesting that with all of the outdoor people we have on this forum,  no one has reported being bitten.  I don’t know anyone personally who has been.  When I was growing up we had a lot of snakes and I had a few close calls but never had one get me.  My black lab was bitten on the nose when I was a kid.  The vet said it was a Copperhead.  I don’t know how he knew.

I have a friend who was bit by a copperhead about 10-12 years ago. Two doses of antivenom  was 80k at the time.

[TnRiver46]

43 minutes ago, GaryH said:

Friend tearing out old floor in barn in Texas. 
 

[gim]

I pheasant hunt in the fall and on an upland forum, people in locations like Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado often talk about their hunting dogs getting bit by a rattlesnake.  Some of them even get a vaccine for their dog ahead of time which isn't cheap, but to my understanding will at least save the dog's life should they get bit. 

 

They say if a dog gets bit you don't have much time to get to a vet, and in a rural area of upland hunting, that's a problem.  Plus not every vet carries anti-venom either.

[Tennessee Boy]

When my dog was bitten in the 1970s the vet gave her a shot which I assume was anti-venom.  He kept her two days for observation and the bill was in the $200-$300 range.  I remember we paid $70 for her as a pup.  She was a registered black lab. The front half of her body swelled up and she looked like a miniature bull.  She made a full recovery.  
 

My dad had a beagle when he was a kid that got bit twice.  The dog recovered both times without seeing a vet.  He said the dog was so swollen the first time that he could not move.  They had to bring him water.

 

If your dog gets bit the first thing you need to do is take their collar off.

[BayouSlide]

This thread brings up memories. 

 

I don't fear poisonous snakes but I respect them. In bird hunting trips out west I've run into prairie rattlers and let them be if they were no threat to me or my dogs.

 

I know numerous occasions of dogs that have been struck by rattlers or cottonmouths, some numerous times in their lives, to no ill effect except severe swelling. Sometimes all required is a dose of Benedryl and antibiotics. Other cases dogs have died.

 

Not every snake strike contains a lethal dose of venom. But there is always that danger and, as mentioned, preventative snake vaccine is expensive and not always effective. Antivenom after the fact is hideously expensive and not always available.

 

But two years ago, I was hunting in Montana with two partners and we had two dogs in the field. It was a sandy area near a rocky hill and I thought "This looks like a place that would hold snakes."

 

Not five minutes later I heard a buzzing and immediately yelled "Snake" to warn my partners. I saw the coiled prairie rattler probably 10 yards away and my GSP Max was approaching it. Subconsciously my mind determined that I had a split second to safely shoot and took off it's head when Max was less than two feet from it.

 

Reality took hold and we regrouped for a moment to catch our breath and reflect on a way-too-close call and the potential for danger in the uplands. I took no joy in having to kill it, but it was necessary to save Max and, perhaps, the other dog or one of my companions from a possibly fatal or expensive and painful encounter.

[casts_by_fly]

2 hours ago, GaryH said:

Friend tearing out old floor in barn in Texas. 
 

 

How did he get them to all line up like that and stay still for the picture?

 

Also dear god, I will never go into an old barn in texas ever.

[gim]

1 hour ago, BayouSlide said:

Not five minutes later I heard a buzzing and immediately yelled "Snake" to warn my partners. I saw the coiled prairie rattler probably 10 yards away and my GSP Max was approaching it. Subconsciously my mind determined that I had a split second to safely shoot and took off it's head when Max was less than two feet from it.

 

Reality took hold and we regrouped for a moment to catch our breath and reflect on a way-too-close call and the potential for danger in the uplands. I took no joy in having to kill it, but it was necessary to save Max and, perhaps, the other dog or one of my companions from a possibly fatal or expensive and painful encounter.

 

This is the sort of thing that scares the heck out of me.  Luckily, I mostly upland hunt in MN nowadays and its usually not until November when the temps are cooler/colder, so snakes (which are very rare here anyways), are not out anymore.  A conibear/neck hold trap or a snare is the other thing that is always in the back of my mind while bird hunting with the dog.  Luckily, they are also rare.  I've never encountered a trap in 25 years of upland hunting either.  Just the thought of it scares me though.

[Munkin]

Another thing I noticed about copperheads is their tails are stubby compared to other snakes.

 

I have been bitten by small gardener snakes while handling them as a kid. Just felt like a small pinch and did not hurt at all. We use to catch snakes as kids including copperheads and black snakes. 

 

Allen 

[BayouSlide]

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

If your dog gets bit the first thing you need to do is take their collar off.

 

Good advice, and also the correct per-weight dosage of Benedryl to minimize swelling until the dog can get to the vet. 👍

[Tennessee Boy]

A while back I saw a list of snake bite deaths that occurred in Tennessee.  The most common place to get a deadly snake bit in this state is in church.   Almost all of the bites that ended up being deadly happen during religious services.  I’m glad the most dangerous thing we do in my church is eat too much. 😊