Its snake season.
Due to our winter being warmer, the snakes are in abundance.
So far, 1  small copperhead,  1  green tree snake, 1 eastern king snake have been seen recently
on my place. This is really unusual to see this many already.
Best thing to do is remove all tall grasses where they hide and be on the look out where you
step. According to what I read online, this is very wide spread in the south east.


Doug

Same thing in CA - now that weather is warm.

There are a lot of pros and cons to living in the north, but not dealing with rattlesnakes while walking your dog at night is a huge pro. Sadly I am now in snake country. I have not had a summer in places like this yet, so I am not exactly looking forward to it.

We don't typically have rattlesnakes much, but have coral snakes everywhere. I'm in a semi-rural area, but they're frequently sighted in our neighborhood. I saw 6 last year, none so far this year. I think the really wet spring last year brought them out more than normal.

Also, have plethora of scorpions and huge Texas centipedes. I'll honestly take the snakes over the others.

We have timber rattlers here but have never seen one.
Copperheads are the highest by percentage of snake bites around here in South Carolina.
And they blend in so well you can not see them unless your looking for them.
I hope it helps even if only 1 person does not get bit by being aware.

Doug

edit
Im looking for bird shot for my carry weapon.
No 357mag with bird shot?
Its got to be out there, wife needs a round or two in hers too.

Copperheads are very common around here, but at the house we have always killed the venomous snakes and let the black snakes and garter snakes and other nonvenomous ones go on their merry way, and I think because of that, It's been many years since I've seen a venomous snake around the house.  I've seen garter snakes(maybe the same one) four times so far this spring.

snakes are valuable predators in the ecosystem.(You don't want hordes of mice nibbling your tree trunks do you?)  Some people would be upset to know that we kill any of them, but we don't want venomous snakes around where we live and I think letting the nonvenomous ones roam free is a happy medium.

king snakes kill Poisonous ones, I wont kill
green tree snakes eat insects, I wont kill
copperheads are a different story.

Doug

Snake boots, Snake garters, and plain ol big rubber work boots help.

Didn't one of our members get bitten, probably by a copperhead, while working on his fig trees last year? Or was that a member from the other place. Regardless, please be careful!

CliffH.

Copperhead bites destroy tissue around the bite, leaving really bad scars.
If the person was bit by one of these, we would have seen pictures of a bad wound.

Doug

copperhead bites

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVvFmowxZzREAHxgnnIlQ?p=copperhead+bites&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&fr2=piv-web&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

Did a quick search. It was our Dennis (aka Snaglpus) who was bitten last summer.

I'm a herpetologist (reptiles and amphibians) by education. Snakes, even copperheads etc. are pretty important to the local ecosystem, and provide us with a lot of pharmaceuticals for a lot of different ailments.

For those that kill them: I'm not going to tell you you're a terrible person or anything, but I will say that the vast majority of snake envenomations in the US are from people who are purposely putting themselves in close quarters with them - e.g. trying to kill them. Their nervous system is such that the can still bite and envenomate even after being decapitated.

That said, it's a really good idea to keep the grass down in places you'll be working and wear close-toed shoes - but snakes like copperheads will give dry bites (e.g. wont inject venom) oftentimes if they're just trying to scare you away and don't see you as a big threat.

jestep - Coralsnakes are venomous, for sure, but they have small, fixed fangs - in other words, they aren't hinged/collapsed in their mouth like a copperhead or rattlesnake's fangs - so they can't bit through most close-toed shoes and gardening gloves.

@JoshHolbrook 

Absolutely. I don't kill coral snakes or honestly really anything, snake or otherwise, unless absolutely last resort. I let a 12" centipede go 3 times and caught it in my living room the next day each time...

 

Admittedly that one tested my resolve in this department, but I'm probably one of the last people on earth that's an enemy to snakes and other predators. As far as coral snakes, I just put the dogs inside and let them go on their way.

I understand the willies around centipedes! No species are known to be deadly venomous, but they just look like they'd give a nasty bite.

If you're in South Florida (where I used to live and do research) you've gotta watch out for these guys (me with a 14.5 footer):

That would take a hollow point.
I'm sure the eco system can handle me removing a few dangerous snakes
on my wee 2.3 acres.
I believe the overabundance of snakes this year is weather related.

Doug

While I'm on my soap box, the invasive iguanas are a horrible nuisance down there too, but from what I read, you can't even fire a gun of any kind in most cities and communities in the state.  The only thing you can use is an air rifle, and if you don't kill them instantly on the first shot, they'll charge you with animal cruelty.  

Give me a break!

The iguanas are all over the place, they were everywhere when I was down there, and had dug holes everywhere.  They are out-competing the native and precious key deer(officially endangered) for food and to top it all off, they carry salmonella!  

It just gets me so riled up that the laws protect these invasive species!

In many states, feral hogs are a huge problem, and they are open season year-round and you can use whatever legal weapon you want, and it's still not enough to keep them under control.  Of course, huge hogs are much easier targets than snakes and iguanas, but you get my point.

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box. I didn't mean to derail the discussion.

EXTERMINATE THE INVADERS!!!

Yeah, I was the lead author on the study that originally looked at pythons' effects on mammals (look up "Holbrook and Chesnes Pythons on google). It's not good news, but there are worse invaders in the Everglades. Bounties cost money, and there are likely in the order of hundreds of thousands of pythons in SFL - The Water Management district is trying it out, but it's not going to be cost effective. The biggest problem to controlling them a little bit better is the federal government, at this point - Because all wildlife is protected in National Parks, so are the invasive Pythons. Only those with permits or letters of authorization can remove them from inside the national park, which is 1.3 million acres of prime Python habitat.

On the iguanas, they're not really a big problem in terms of the ecology (except in the Keys)- they thrive in disturbed habitats: canals, yards, etc. and drop off pretty quickly once you get to more pristine functioning ecosystems (e.g. the everglades). They're mostly just a problem for people's hibiscus (and, full disclosure, I'm sure they'd eat a fig if they could.) Key deer eat out of people's garbage on Big Pine - they wont be wiped out anytime soon ;-) They're like racoons in their range.

I don't mind the discussion derailing! - invasive species are fun to talk (and gripe!) about. Probably the biggest invasive problem in Florida are plants, Tegus and feral cats.