Copperhead Got Away

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Perks said:

I've heard the baby ones are more dangerous than the adults. Something about not modulating the venom dose when they bite.

Do be careful.

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You know what? I just looked it up and apparently that's not true. Yokels telling me tales.

Copperhead got away? Call Dick Tracy!!!

aliajohnson said:

It was my understanding that with an adult you might receive a dry bite--happened to my younger brother twice--because they don't want to waste the venom on something they can't eat. .

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Brown snakes do that here, in Queensland. We are a bit less fortunate than you appear to be. It's against the law to kill a snake, even a poisonous one. The fine is in the thousands of dollars. I haven't killed any on purpose, of course - just a coincidence that one just threw itself under my spade while I was digging.

Do be careful. A copperhead's bite won't kill you, but for a while, it can make you wish you were dead. A neighbor was bitten and he complained of feverishness, general pain, and the headache to end all headaches. If I'd been there, I don't think I would have taken a second to apply the hoe or spading fork. I would have done it out of instinct. I don't kill black snakes, I once caught a garter snake and tried to keep it as a pet, but I kill almost everything else that goes slithering by. I don't care for snakes in general.

Buy yourself a pet mongoose and release it in the stable. I love snakes but, hey, sometimes they can be problematic.

We enjoy the friendly Rattle Snake down here in Okieland. I generally let all critters go their own way, but not that one. If he stays where he belongs, he's safe. If he comes into my territory, he's a dead mofo.

Eep!! We went to the snake pits on mother's day to see the red sided garter snakes, which was nifty, but they don't bite.

Hope you get him next time!

I had a baby copperhead in my garden once. Didn't know what it was (was new to the area, never had seen one) and I was in my flipflops shooing it away. It wasn't aggressive at all, thank goodness for me. I have no idea where it eventually went. It wasn't scared of me as I tried to shoo it off, but it left later, on its own time.

In CO I had a baby rattle snake in my kitchen, and I had toddlers running around the house at the time. That snake was very aggressive and striking constantly. Killed that one.

When we were camping, we ran into a water moccasin. Kept our distance. Scary. And both in CO and TN we've seen lots and lots of non-venomous snakes.

Out here it is something like a $2,500 fine if you kill a snake and a year in prison because it is considered poaching. And the baby vs adult snake bite, it's not true that babies are more venomous, but it is true that they deliver all the venom they've got if they bite you and adult can control the venom release and deliver a dry bite.

It's rare for a copperhead bite to be fatal but it can happen; it did in my area to a woman picking berries quite awhile ago. I have had several friends who were bitten - one married couple who were both bitten at different times during the same summer. Both were pretty sick but recovered.

I live in town now but when I lived for more than a decade out on a rocky Ozark ridge, I killed many copperheads, large and small. Most with a hoe.

I like telling this story, it makes me sound more manly.

When I was travelling in Oz, I worked for a while on a massive farm in Queensland, doing all sorts of odd jobs. They grew, amongst other things, sugar cane. Before they harvest the cane, they burn the field and one of our jobs was to retrieve these big plastic mats that they used to direct the irrigation water.
Underneath these mats, it was nice and cool in the heat of the day, and snakes loved to sit under them. The big ones usually heard us coming and legged it (urr...bellied it?), but the babies hadn't learnt. Often we'd pull up one of these sheets and find a couple of baby brown snakes sitting there.
Anyway - actual, if paraphrased conversation with John, the most Australian bloke I've ever met.
Me - So, how poisonous would you say these things are?
John - Well, if one of the babies bites you, you're really gonna regret it for a few days.
Me - Oh....What about the adults?
John - Oh, if one of them buggers gets you, you have about forty minutes to get to hospital.
Me (paling slightly) - Er...or what?
John (big grin on his face) - Or you're dead.

Still, we happily carried on yanking those mats up. It was a dangerous job, but someone had to do it. :
Then there was the day we uncovered one of these baby brown snakes, and John starts poking it with a stick - "Look, he's harmless really". I'm sure you're right John, but I'm going to stand over here in case momma comes back. Waaaaay over here.

I encounter snakes daily where I live in SE Mo. Mostly harmless but everynow and then I find a cotton-mouth and I don't fool w/them unless it is being aggressive...then it has to die (sadly) but its me or them and I choose me...

...I am not really afraid of snakes unless one startles me then I scream like a wild-banchie and run like a track-star~~~~~ "Run, Forrest, Runnnnn...."

aliajohnson said:

That's a fantastic story. And it does make sound like all man. Particularly this part--

JimmyB27 said:

. . . but I'm going to stand over here in case momma comes back. Waaaaay over here.

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Seriously, I can't imagine doing that. It seems like you'd get hot and tired quick, and then it would be just so easy to become sloppy and careless. Then you're counting down those forty minutes. Yikes.

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Well, y'know, I have to put that bit in so I don't intimidate all the other guys with my extreme machoism.

Oh. A snake.

Snakes are cool.

Much good luck, Alia. I hope you find it before it finds you.