MY FIRST COPPERHEAD!!

[brandywine]

Quote:
If you live in Massachusetts, that was not a copperhead.

Dunno why your dog died, but if it was my dog, and I didn't know why it dropped dead, I'd pay for a necropsy. Blaming a nonexistent poisonous snake a month after the fact is convenient, but not convincing.

Most likely you had a milk snake. Nine times out of ten when someone screeches "copperhead," I find a milk snake. Unfortunately, it's frequently a dead milk snake.

As yours did much bluff striking, it's possible it was a hognose snake, which puts on an impressive display with lots of hissing and striking. As do northern water snakes, which have an aggressive temper. Copperheads do not. They get out of dodge given half a chance.

 

[Gatekeeper]

I for years have had a King Snake on my property I also have Rat/Chicken snakes. We also here in Louisiana have coral, copperhead and Cottonmouths. I for one would never hurt a snake especially a King Snake that wards off deadly snakes.

I relocate rat\\chickens - the King Snake is a welcome addition - the vipers I call George Washington, HISTORY!

Gate

 

[buck-wild-chick]

it's been a couple years since we had to kill a water mocosin.. scared the crap out of me... If it is a poisonous snake you should kill it .. Its a danger to you, children,pets,and chickens. Or if you can catch it , and release it far from people.

Good snake story below...

But Like the other day i was reaching my hands in the schrach bin, and scooping the corn out and throwing it to my chickens... 2 mins later my mom runs out screaming ( snake, snake,snake) so I run back in there and look through the corn and find a rat snake. He was huge !! I took him in the woods and realesed him near a corn field.. Happy snake.. lol

 

[HeadHen]

Quote:
I very much disagree. I walked past a copperhead on the well worn paths of my property without knowing it was there and it went to great lengths to get me. We were in a wooded area and my dogs had just run past it (a few feet further away then I was) as I was walking past the snake it held it's ground (it was completely hidden in the brush and had plenty of brush to slink away into) then struck me on the inside of my ankle after I had already past it. Since I was pregnant I had to go to the ER, it got infected, etc and made for a miserable experiance.

 

[chickenfanatic]

Quote:
cause they make nice hatbands hahahahahaha

 

[dogzrule5]

The morning of my copperhead experience, I did some searches on the web about them. More people get bitten by copperheads than any other snake b/c of their aggressiveness according to several sites.

It does state that if they aren't surprised, they may go the other way, but usually they coil and strike w/o any warning.

 

[bdagenais]

Quote:
I haven't had any problems with snakes but do have some rats (fruit rats) showing up in my new coop. We had issues with them last winter showing up under our home and trying to nest behind our fireplace and in the walls. We tried everything we could think of to get rid of them. There's nothing like laying in bed at night and hearing rats destroy your home from the outside in. I even called in my regular professional pest control service I use quarterly for inside/outside our home. They could not help either. When the weather warmed up they left and have not been back. But not before killing about 9 rats. Thank you Lord!!! This summer we updated the skirting on our house from the vinyl siding to actual cement board that has been placed a minimum of 6 inches in the ground to prevent any unwanted access holes to the underside of our home.

Now I have these pests in my coop and feed room. I expected to have them. I am just curious as to what kind of mixture you make with sugar and plaster of paris to get rid of the rats and how effective it is. I don't want to take a chance of attracking rattlers or pigmy rattlers to my feed room. I live in Florida-They are plentiful here. There is TOO many places for them to hide and my kids are in there all the time getting treats for our horse and chickens. Not to mention I have 60 more day old chick coming in 3 weeks. Is this plaster and sugar mixture something they eat and then go away to die? I would prefer something of this nature to prevent dead carcasses to be available in the coop/feedroom so no snakes are attracked to the area.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ladysonja]

Quote:
Cooperheads, Water Mocosins, Cottonmouths and Rattle snakes are very dangerous. Their babies are more dangerous than a full grown.

To our BYC reptile lovers, these snakes are not friendly to anyone, are aggressive and take no prisoners!

People here seem to know the difference between a good snake and a bad snake...

I, for one, do not know the difference between the ones I listed above and as far as I am concerned any snake is a dead snake... UNTIL I know better.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Hmm... and people ask why I choose to live in upstate Ny.
With the crazy cold and long winters...
I live in the forest and have two great cats that keep my snakes few and far between. We have no worries here about poisonous bugs or snakes. I let spiders live in my house. I found a baby snake in my house and brought it to the woods. Here in the north, we live together without fear of these critters.
Get caught in a snowstorm without a shovel and your screwed!

 

[Cheryl]

most people post they have built their first coop, got their first egg, hatched their first chick!!!! But your first copperhead!!!!! YUK!