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Yesterday afternoon, I was doing some more clean up in my back yard - I am a bit slow in getting things done this year, but making progress slowly but surely.
I still had some raking to do by the back fence (six foot privacy fence), but decided to get the weedeater out and take care of the trimming first (Thank God!). That is when I found him/her/it slithering next to the fence in a leaf pile. Perhaps the weedeater stired it up.
I have lived here for about twenty years, and have encountered many typed of non-poisionous varieties - which I usually just leave alone. If it's not hurting anybody, why bother it? Unfortunately, the one I found yesterday, was a three foot copperhead, the first poisionous variety (and certanly the largest) I have seen in a long time.
Since I have a seventeen year old chow with poor eye sight, I had no choice but to kill the creature with a shovel (only thing I could find). It put up quite a fight striking at me and the shovel.
I was later told by a neighbor, who positively identified the snake as a copperhead - dull tan/brown leaflike pattern - that if there was one, there would be others! Wonderful!

Does anyone have any ideas what I could get to keep such creatures out of my yard? There is a feed store type business down the road, that sells traps (the humane kind), etc. but being Sunday, it was closed.

Hmm to keep a copperhead out one would need to keep its prey out. A pretty tough thing to do.

My advice is to keep your dog away from leaflitters and any place a copperhead might hide. Perhaps a leash that doesnt go far enough for the dog to be able to reach where the snakes would most likely be.

If you havent seen a copperhead in the 20 years of your living there and your dog is 17, i would just keep doing what you have been doing. It may just be an isolated incident. Check the yard for any snakes that may be out in the open and keep the dog restrained from covered areas.

Good luck to you, your dog, and the copperheads

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

Did some checking for you.

This looks like the snake in question

There are actually two species, closely related, and both with somewhat variable colour patterns, and both dangerous to humans (and presumably lethal to your dog if your dog is bitten).

However, there are two things that snakes look for when picking a garden. Food and undisturbed places to shelter.

Remove both, and you remove the incentive for snakes to visit your garden.

Copperheads eat rodents and frogs. So if you have a rodent problem, that's one reason your Copperhead came a-calling. Now while having one of these around your property is somewhat unnerving, it's actually doing you a favour if it IS eating rodents, because it's removing from your property creatures that could pass on some unpleasant diseases to you and your family. If you have a pond, and that pond is regularly visited by frogs, again, there's a reason for the Copperhead to pay a visit.

Undisturbed hiding places are also something that will make snakes feel welcome. Normally they don't like being around humans, and try to go from A to B with as little human contact as possible. But, if we humans provide them with nice dens to lurk in, they'll move in and set up home. So, make sure that your garden sees lots of disturbance, and snakes will go and look for somewhere more appealing to visit.

Oh, and attacking a Copperhead is something I would hesitate to do in future, as you've probably found out that when they are attacked, they respond vigorously and tenaciously. If cornered, they'll fight to the death. Most venomous snakes will put up a fight in such circumstances, but Copperheads have a particular reputation for bravery. If you're going to do this sort of thing regularly, perhaps you should renew your gun licence and obtain a decent shotgun!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Depending on what part of the US you reside in, the snake could have very well been out searching for water as well as for food. Several areas of the Southeast are just starting to come out of some near record drought conditions. Some home improvement centers (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc) sell "Snake Repellent"...some sort of powder or spray that snakes are supposedly driven off by. I afraid I have no personal experience with it so I can't say whether it works or not. I think all species of rattlers can be aggressive when provoked...I found a ground rattler (a pygmy species, generally less than 12" long) in my Grandmother's garage last spring. I was just going to scoop it up and throw it out into the woods at first but it kept coming back towards me and striking at the shovel so I whacked it's head off.

Calilasseia,
I live just outside of Fayetteville, NC. We were recently annexed, and there is a building boom going on in my area - a new housing development and appartments, less than a mile, and Cliffdale road was just widened to five lanes.
There is a lake about six miles from us and a small swamp between me and the lake.
The copperheads here are a sub-species of the one you pictured. They are a much duller coloration, with an hour-glass shaped pattern.
I think it came in through a gap where one of the boards in my fence is coming loose. I an going to see about having the fence repaired. The feed store should be open today, and I will see if they have anything. If not I will run to Lowes. With my dog, I may not be able to use repellant, however.
I really do not like killing snakes, and I know it was just hunting for it's dinner, but we have a lot of young kids and pets in my neighborhood. I grew up in Texas, south of Dallas, and am quite familiar with the western diamomd back. I saw a lot of them as a kid. A baby side winder made its way into my mom's living room (by way of the window air conditioner) and I had to kill it with a shoe - think I was about fourteen at the time.
Our pistol (RG-66, 22 magnum) was locked up, but I have it out where I can get to it in a hurry now.
I had a terrible time with mice last year, so I should have been prepared for the snakes, I guess. I should have the rest of it raked and cleaned out by this weekend. I have a pile of bricks I need to get rid of too. I cut down all the daylilies in back, but I worry about my back deck - which is only enclosed with plastic latice, easily accessible to a copperhead.
Thank you for your advice!

For someone unused to handling snakes it probably is better to use a gun than a shovel,most people are bitten while beating snakes to death, and its fairly justifyable to kill them if they takeup residence in your garden, since they are both a highly toxic and notably aggressive species. As previously suggested though, it is better to make your garden a hostile environment for them, key among the prerequisites is denying them shelter and food, namely rodents and frogs. And be dead careful when lifting sheeting or similar from grass or out from under stuff when cleaning your garden.Use a long stick or a garden grabber to lift and take a look underneath before you move things.

Personally id be out there with a grasper and a bag and transport them to the nearest swamp once caught, but thats herpetologists for ya!

ps Don't everybody go around smacking snakes in the head with shovels now,its a ) dangerous, and b) with a few exceptions most snakes are very peacable creatures that really dont deserve to get killed for paranoia sake. Copperheads are an exception though,they are aggressive, but even then most of them give you fair warning before being forced into a bite.The brightly toned mouth interior is the warning, and take my advice, take a step or two backwards if you see it! Strike range on a big copperhead may be four feet or more, so keep your distance, and remember your shovel might not be four feet long!

Its probably better to call animal control than take them on yourself.Your not protecting your family if you end up bitten! Most people survive haematoxic bites, but that lands you with a huge hospital bill, a hell of a lot of pain, and maybe some totally permanent tissue damage. Some people however react badly to the poison, and may go comatose or die before a day is up, even with medical treatment, and even the horse serum antivenin used to combat the snakebite has a high allergy rate, and allergies to horse serum can be lethal in themselves.Often people develop horse serum allergy after the initial injection, meaning they can never be effectively treated for snakebite again, so basically you shouldnt push your luck. If you do go after a snake, never do it alone, and if you are bitten, immediately take a seat, stop going after the snake and remain as calm as possible. Try not to react to the pain and definately stop all exercise, running about and walking around will help transport the toxin to your lungs , heart, and brain.The other person must call for aid. 80% of people in the US are bitten while attacking a snake.

All in all its much better to call a nutter ...ah ..erm snake proffessional to deal with the problem.

This evening, I went out with my hammer, drill and a big box of decking screws, and fixed the fence on the side where I killed the snake. Nothing can get through there now. I think my problem was that I waited so long to start on my back yard cleaning. My husband had a stoke last year and with his doctor appointments, surgery on his shoulder in March, physical therapy, etc. I just have not had the time or energy. Once I get the fence on the other side of the yard repaired, I should not (hopefully) see any more snakes. I was told, the one I killed, was about a year old. If it had been fully grown, I would have had a much more serious problem.
I bought some snake repellant at Wally World and put all around my flower beds in the front yard. It does not smell that bad at first, then it gets old in a hurry. I think it will work, it sure worked on me!

its fairly justifyable to kill them if they takeup residence in your garden, since they are both a highly toxic and notably aggressive species.

Poor snakes - they have no concept of human property rights

Plenty of things in this world will kill you

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

No way would I advocate the killing of snakes normally, but cottonmouths can be dangerous to be around, most snakes are not though, and venomous or not are usually beneficial to have around.When as a kid staying in africa we used to get cobras, mambas and puff adders and gaboon vipers, but generally if you dont bother them, they dont bother you. I was 5 years old at the time and I used to move puff adders off the driveway with a big stick so that my dad didnt run them over, nobody really batted an eyelid, thats just how life was.Equally my dad shot two cobras in the spare bedroom and a huge python on the veranda because they were dangerous to me and the dogs, one because of sheer size and the other because of temperament.Theres no need to persecute snakes, but take no risks with the more dangerous ones. Personally I wouldnt kill them at all, but then I dont have kids running around my backyard. I guess its what youre willing to risk. I think the point is to avoid confrontations with snakes really.

When I first saw the copperhead, I was wearing flip-flops. I made a dash inside to grab my boots, but my husband had to go see the snake for himself. I could not find the key to the box the gun is kept and he had already wandered out the door. His attempt to kill it with the shovel, only served to aggravate the snake, since he has no strength in his left arm, and I had no choice but to take the shovel away from him and kill it myself.
I would not have killed it if it had not been dangerous. It was coming after us by that point. Thank God the dog did not get out! My husband has to walk with the assistance of a cane, and would not have been able to outrun it.
The neighbor who lives on the side, I believe the snake came from, has two tiny dogs and young children. He has a chain link fence with a lot of pinestraw (and really needs to clean up over there), over the fence. We did have a forrest behind us, but the owner had the trees cut down and sold them to a paper mill. Now is is branbles, weeds and saplings.
At least it is gone, and hopefully we won't see any more. The fence on that side is now tighter that Fort Knox.I did some more work on it this afternoon.

All i can say is lucky your not in Australia, last year i was out running with my best mate in the local park when we jumped over what appeared to be a "stick" on the ashphalt running track. upon closer inspection it appeared to be a king brown! one of the most highly venomous snakes in australia if not the world! needless to say robbie and i have never run so fast in our lives! all this 20min from Melbournes CBD!

i'm no "snakeologist" but i'm told that king browns will kill you in like half an hour!

though i do feel sorry for the yanks who put up with rattlers i hear there highly posionous!

on another note do all americans have guns? and is it such a good idea to go fireing them in Your garden?

"on another note do all americans have guns? and is it such a good idea to go fireing them in Your garden?"

Rest assured, not all of us own guns, and after a recent gun-involved incident at our school, I doubt I ever will.

Cottonmouths are not very dangerous snakes, at least compared to other vipers. Envenomation by a cottonmouth rarely elevates to more than localized pain and swelling around the bite.

In most cases, it is not even necessary to seek emergency medical attention.

I've moved several rattlers away from my house, and not once have I ever thought of killing them. Snakes play an extremely valuable role in most ecosystems, both as predators and prey.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Like everything else in this life. Know what you are doing.

Given that there are a few herpetologists here, and that some may be veteran snake keepers into the bargain, once again, we're back to the old chestnut that creatures are principally dangerous if you fool around with them. Treat them with respect, don't behave like food around them if they're big enough to eat you, and try to behave as little like a threat as possible if they're capable of biting back.

If I lived in a part of the world where something like a Copperhead was likely to turn up in the garden, my approach would be to find someone versed in snake handling and acquire some tuition - FAST.

At times like this, I'm glad that I live in the UK, a country that has possibly the most benign wildlife you'll find anywhere. Plenty of cuddly small mammals, lots of birds with nice plumage or lilting songs, but precious little in the way of things that are likely to kill you. Unless you're stupid enough to pick toadstools and eat them.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002