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panzerkeil302 · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 2182

doing a little landscaping in my yard yesterday, and this nice fellow decided to join me...

http://us.share.geocities.com/zupiezales/DSCN0185.JPG

http://us.share.geocities.com/zupiezales/DSCN0187.JPG

http://us.share.geocities.com/zupiezales/DSCN0188.JPG

http://us.share.geocities.com/zupiezales/DSCN0189.JPG

http://us.share.geocities.com/zupiezales/DSCN0190.JPG

The tail extends to 5ft...I nearly jumped a country mile and had a heart attack before I whacked it with a hoe.

Anybody have any idea what kind of snake this is????

donaldan · Joined: 01 Jul 2001 Posts: 1881 Location: Ft. Myers, FL

Don't know what it is but it is probably a garden variety snake. Sorry to say, you killed a very useful critter. They are good in keeping vermin population in check. Garden without a snake is paradise lost.
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Don

panzerkeil302 · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 2182

From what I've seen online, it's a copperhead..

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/copperhead.htm

did I mention that I nearly crapped my pantyhose..

panzerkeil302 · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 2182

just got an email from an expert...could be a "Brown Water Snake"

did I mention it was 5 freakin feet long

Henry · Joined: 03 Apr 2001 Posts: 2878 Location: NYC

Why am I not surprised. Not a reptile fan. However, the constrictor snakes are very useful. They eat mice(s) and other vermin. Keep disease down. Here, in the Southwest this is extremely important.

Why didn't you ask for ID, Panz? Take a moment. Communicate. Establish a dialogue.

Now...a few years ago I had a similar incident with one similar looking item snaking its way around my garage. I shat white and turned green. The markings indicated a rattla. But no rattles. I had no idea. So I ran to get a hardy shovel and wacked it. Well...I learned something then and there...a snake, when wacked, takes a wacking and keeps on and on and on. That poor thang just wouldn't take no for an answer. Eventually it did. And the ravens had dinner.

So when I returned to NYC I went to the Museum of Natural History, to the reptile exhibits and tracked the species down. Seems I wacked a harmless to humans and very helpful to humans Bull Snake. Markings similar to rattla. Very similar. However, a good lad. Whoops.

How to tell the difference. Subsequently learned...a venomous, poisonous snake has a triangular head. Not a round, sweet, smiley head but a pointed and triangular head.

Always look down when walking anywhere here. My cousin in Tucson had rattlas...no ambiguity...on two occasions in 2 different houses there.

She called animal control or the police. They bag the bad boy and release it elsewhere.