TexasCHLforum.com

flintknapper wrote:

Kenneth77 wrote:

Maxwell wrote:

Kenneth77 wrote:Was cleaning up this weekend and found this little guy under some old boards and i thought at first cotton mouth but he didn't seem angry like they usually are and also did not have have the bright white mouth when he struck once so i put him in the creek and let him go on his way.

It was very calm snake he was more interested in getting away than in me and only stuck at me twice because i had a shovel in its face , the few cotton mouths i have been in contact with where totally different they was coming at me fast

Kenneth, you did the right thing....and I applaud you for not summarily killing it. Though that snake is a reasonable representation of a medium size Cottonmouth, it lacks the 'pit', I can see even from the photo...it has a round pupil, as you noted it did not have a white mouth. The tail is too long and slender and the snake is flattening its head to make itself look bigger.

Still, I would not blame anyone for killing that particular snake based on a 'first impression'. You exercised good restraint and clearly have respect for the ecosystem and creatures not causing any immediate harm. Good job!

I try not to kill any snakes even venomous ones, if I can help it. We even relocated some copperheads from our campsite at summer camp a few years ago. The camp had a mini hepertarium set up in their nature center area, and allowed us to place three of them in terrariums for the duration of the camp. This allowed the scouts to see the various snakes in the area and be able to identify them. After the week was up, the snakes were moved to areas away from camp so as to avoid any meet ups with future campers. They had also had someone catch a western diamondback which was, at the time, thought not to inhabit that part of Oklahoma. There was quite a variety of snakes there including water snakes. We never saw any moccasins, but we were told they had been found there.
My wife, on the other hand, is not a fan of snakes, and feels that the world would be much better off if they were eradicated. I remember when my son was about 2 I was building a fence and he was "helping" by pulling his wagon with tools and materials for me. I came upon a corn snake under some leaves, picked it up,and was showing it to my son when my wife arrived on the scene. I think if she could have found a willing police officer she would have had me arrested for child abuse. (After she stopped screaming of course)

SewTexas wrote:I wouldn't have said anything, I would have screamed it loudly until someone came running

Yeah, I have told Mrs. Jusme that they can't hear, so screaming at them has no effect.

I had a dog that got bit twice last year by a copperhead, I didn't find him the first time but a few weeks later when she got bit again, I found him beside my AC condensing unit. He was only about 10" long, but he was scrappy. I took all of the fight out of him with a shovel.

Kenneth77 wrote:Well i killed two copperheads weekend before last and there was a big old grass snake that i didn't know under the sheets of old underpinning and it went threw and it him so i had to kill him and that made me mad at myself so i don't like killing something that is good to have a round . After looking around some at different pics i really think it is a water snake so i am not concerned about it being venomous. Thanks for all the input .

They are good at keeping mice and rats away,they eat frogs and lizards too. That's why they hide under boards and brush piles because that's where their food sources are. If you pick one up they become pretty docile once they are held properly. The big one I caught wrapped around my arm and sat perfectly still for a long time while kids came up to see him. I let him go into the lake where we were camping, and he swam away. But if Mrs. Jusme had gotten her way, he would have been buzzard food.

Pariah3j wrote:

Watersnake does seem plausible after seeing this picture. Never seen a snake flatten it's head out to make itself look poisonous like that before. I've seen some darkly colored Copperheads before - I've heard they look that way right before or right after shedding their skin(can't remember which it was).

Yeah, lots of water snakes get killed because they are mistaken for moccasins, due to the whitish yellow around their mouth, and that is probably a defensive adaptation on the species to scare away potential predators. It doesn't help their cause with people because they inhabit the same places as moccasins. They get to be a lot bigger than copperheads or moccasins, I caught one a few years ago that was over 5 feet long. I took him to Mrs. Jusme to show her how pretty he was, but she has a whole different view of attractiveness in nature.

Kinda hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like the outer part of his mouth is yellow which would be a common water snake. I think the head shape looks triangular but may be that he has puffed his neck out slightly to give the appearance of a venomous snake. They will strike at you if cornered but they are not dangerous. JMHO based on the picture.