2022 Snake Spotting Thread
- Thread starter Sasquatch
- Start date
The #1 community for Gun Owners in Texas
Member Benefits:
Fewer Ads! Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership Discuss anti-gun legislation Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses Discover free outdoor shooting areas View up to date on firearm-related events Share photos & video with other members ...and so much more!
Member Benefits:
Was walking our lab/shep girl yesterday afternoon and spotted this lil guy over by our well head. Looks to me to be a plain belly water snake, but I'm not 100%. They must range a good bit from water - because its over 100 yards to the closest body of water that has full-time water in it (a small creek that runs south of our property)
Didn't have rat snake markings. Lil guy was scared - he was flattening his body & head trying to look scary and venomous, but his jaw line & eyes belied his nonvenomous nature. Looks well fed for a short snek.
Dumb Dora Doggo didn't even sense him or see him. He finally decided to nope out, she heard rustling *then* decided it needed investigation.
After walking her, I took our newest lil pupper out. He's 16-17 weeks old. He wanted to follow the scent trail of the big doggo I'd just walked, we got by the car port and he picked up on the snake straight away. Sniffed around where it had been laying, then wanted to follow where the snake had slithered off to. Found it hiding in a roll of fencing at the back of the car port. I didn't let the pupper get close, I don't want the dogs messing with snakes if I can help it, nor hurting a friendly non-venomous rodent control specialist. He's the only dog we've had so far that actually has responded to a snake.
The boy I had to put down a few months back damn near stepped on a copperhead one night that neither of us noticed until we were just a big step away from it. He never did react to that snake.
Didn't have rat snake markings. Lil guy was scared - he was flattening his body & head trying to look scary and venomous, but his jaw line & eyes belied his nonvenomous nature. Looks well fed for a short snek.
Dumb Dora Doggo didn't even sense him or see him. He finally decided to nope out, she heard rustling *then* decided it needed investigation.
After walking her, I took our newest lil pupper out. He's 16-17 weeks old. He wanted to follow the scent trail of the big doggo I'd just walked, we got by the car port and he picked up on the snake straight away. Sniffed around where it had been laying, then wanted to follow where the snake had slithered off to. Found it hiding in a roll of fencing at the back of the car port. I didn't let the pupper get close, I don't want the dogs messing with snakes if I can help it, nor hurting a friendly non-venomous rodent control specialist. He's the only dog we've had so far that actually has responded to a snake.
The boy I had to put down a few months back damn near stepped on a copperhead one night that neither of us noticed until we were just a big step away from it. He never did react to that snake.
Yellow belly racerWas walking our lab/shep girl yesterday afternoon and spotted this lil guy over by our well head. Looks to me to be a plain belly water snake, but I'm not 100%. They must range a good bit from water - because its over 100 yards to the closest body of water that has full-time water in it (a small creek that runs south of our property)
Didn't have rat snake markings. Lil guy was scared - he was flattening his body & head trying to look scary and venomous, but his jaw line & eyes belied his nonvenomous nature. Looks well fed for a short snek.
Dumb Dora Doggo didn't even sense him or see him. He finally decided to nope out, she heard rustling *then* decided it needed investigation.
After walking her, I took our newest lil pupper out. He's 16-17 weeks old. He wanted to follow the scent trail of the big doggo I'd just walked, we got by the car port and he picked up on the snake straight away. Sniffed around where it had been laying, then wanted to follow where the snake had slithered off to. Found it hiding in a roll of fencing at the back of the car port. I didn't let the pupper get close, I don't want the dogs messing with snakes if I can help it, nor hurting a friendly non-venomous rodent control specialist. He's the only dog we've had so far that actually has responded to a snake.
The boy I had to put down a few months back damn near stepped on a copperhead one night that neither of us noticed until we were just a big step away from it. He never did react to that snake.
My dogs, mostly German shepherds, killed moccasins. Never found any other kinds and never a sign of being bitten.
They liked to catch rabbits as well. They’d keep and hold them until we came home then get excited and lose them. They would catch them again and repeat. Show offs.
Those doggone pooches always get it in the face or the paw. Thankfully they’re not like people and some Benedryl usually takes care of it. Hope your buddy is AOK!Our black lab got bit last night. Didn't see the snake. Swelling is going down. Pup learned a lesson.
Sent from my moto g power (2021) using Tapatalk
Alpha.Geek
Active Member
I am new to the green side of Texas, so not sure about wetland-snakes...
Cottonmouths display fangs, it seems?
They make any noise at all prior to striking, like rattlers do (or even hiss as a warning)?
Cottonmouths display fangs, it seems?
They make any noise at all prior to striking, like rattlers do (or even hiss as a warning)?
Last edited:
Water moccasins, black moccasins, or cottonmouths as they are called do not signal before striking.
Neither do copperheads or coral snakes warn so to speak.
Rattlesnakes do but not always.
Coiling is a defensive posture but is employed circumstantially.
I have known of people who abandoned perfectly good boats at a moccasin dropping or climbing in.
I have read and heard accounts of moccasin balls or masses during mating season and even human casualties though I’ve never had the pleasure.
Albeit controversial, I have witnessed aggressive behavior in moccasins. I have witnessed the same in supposedly docile
nonvenomous snakes as well.
Oh, I hate snakes.
My yellow belly racer friend made an appearance again yesterday, though he didn't intend to.
Was continuing my brush clearing operation, found him coiled up at the base of a tree. Couldn't see his head - he was intentionally burying it under his body, while kinda puffing or flattening the body up to look bigger than he was. Used a stick to gently pick him up and move him along - I was trying to run a saw thru nearby brush, didn't want to hurt him. Did want to make sure it was the same snek, or at least same kind, and not a spicy-boi.
He did live to see another day, and hopefully eat a few mice/rats/squirrels/copperheads.
Was continuing my brush clearing operation, found him coiled up at the base of a tree. Couldn't see his head - he was intentionally burying it under his body, while kinda puffing or flattening the body up to look bigger than he was. Used a stick to gently pick him up and move him along - I was trying to run a saw thru nearby brush, didn't want to hurt him. Did want to make sure it was the same snek, or at least same kind, and not a spicy-boi.
He did live to see another day, and hopefully eat a few mice/rats/squirrels/copperheads.
Darqhelmet
You had one job, one.
I keep a big burn pile away from the house and let the grass stay longer out in that pasture. Scalp it close to the house and it seems to keep most of them away. I end up with about two snakes a year on the patio. The mutt kills anything he can catch the lab is stupid and never even sees them. Luckily for me he hasn’t been bit yet. I did have a copper head come after me while weed eating the culvert last spring. He met his end on the weed eater. I need to get my 410 out.
Eastern Hog Nose Snake
No pix - yesterday in prep for the boy's birthday shindig, something told me "mow the pasture" - since the kids were no doubt going to use it in their nerf gun war. They did. I am also glad I did. I scalped it pretty good. Saw a king snake, mowed over a baby copperhead, and saw the tail of an unidentified snek shrink into the leafy debris on the edge of the woodline.
King snek was no concern, was happy to see him. The copperhead was concerning, given the young kids that'd be running about. I saw the snake right as I was driving over the pile of dead grass he was sunning on. I did *not* see him escape the mower deck. Figure he probably got chopped up & flung out at high speed. Was a lil guy, 10, maybe 12 inches with the green tail.
King snek was no concern, was happy to see him. The copperhead was concerning, given the young kids that'd be running about. I saw the snake right as I was driving over the pile of dead grass he was sunning on. I did *not* see him escape the mower deck. Figure he probably got chopped up & flung out at high speed. Was a lil guy, 10, maybe 12 inches with the green tail.
Only problem with shredding and not finding the parts is the head can still envenomate if stepped on, picked up, or eaten by doggo if contact is made with the pointy parts.
Wife keeps telling me about all the rattlers being seen.
Next door app.
I imagine a few are rattlers.
More than likely, most are harmless.
Every picture she's shown me was of a bull snake or a racer.
Next door app.
I imagine a few are rattlers.
More than likely, most are harmless.
Every picture she's shown me was of a bull snake or a racer.
Folks who never experienced it don't believe a copperhead will chase you.
When I was kid (back in the day of no-such-thing as a power mower) mowed the 2 acres around the house with a push mower, and used it to shred the aggressive copperheads, a common occurrence.
Spring 2019 here at the lake house, before I rocked over a certain flowerbed, killed 13 copperheads in that area.
