Copperheads-Interesting Article

Selling lawnmower tonight

Burning all of my oak trees first thing tomorrow

got damn, I am not sure whether I am happy that I read that or not....

Damn, that's cool.

I've never seen a copperhead at night. I didn't realize they were nocturnal.

Oh, it's true. But I never tied the cicada emergence with the venomous snakes.

I will preface by giving a description of the surrounding area where I live.

I live in town. No two ways about it. I'm at the entrance of a cul-de-sac neighborhood. Across the street is the T-ball field. Behind it is the grade school. My property is one acre. Front half where my house is, by the road, slightly sloped, fenced, lawn and 19 white oaks, a cottonwood and an elm. Back half is steep and sandy, thick oaks, hackberries, mulberries, redbuds, dogwoods and many other trees. Very dense leaf piles and substrate as well as deadfall. The back part of my property is the edge of town. Nobody owns behind me as it is all city land.

So naturally, the back half is an environment very conducive to snakes and other wildlife. Hell, I have deer hop the fence after dark to frequently feed on fallen acorns.

Last year around this time, I found two copperheads and a pygmy in the back yard in a 3 day span, which I captured and relocated. Did the same with a pygmy that my wife found on the front porch when she stepped out to smoke. I immediately made a rule for the kids to avoid the back yard after dark, without exception, once summer hits. I thought about making a rule to leave the porch light on no matter what after dark, but since I know doing that will attract bugs and other things that in turn attract snakes, it's now just a rule to turn the porch light on before stepping out, and immediately turn it off when coming back in.

Fast forward to this year, last weekend. We had been very dry for a month. Two separate rain storms hit last weekend that brought our parched earth nearly 7 inches of rain. On the 4th, after dark, the kids popped fireworks on the concrete driveway and in the road in front of the house. As I was watching them, I was also walking the yard and looking for anything interesting like I always do.

I found a cicada larva which had emerged and was crawling next to the driveway. I relocated it to the nearest tree, which it quickly ascended. This prompted a search in which I located three more emergelings and assisted them to trees. I figured the rain softened the ground enough to stimulate the little critters into action.

The search, however, also turned up a 13" copperhead at the side yard by the neighbor's driveway, as well as a pretty big 15-16" pygmy beneath the biggest oak in the back yard. After reading this article, I believe this to be no coincidence.

In my area, the pygmys dominate, but the copperheads are here too. I wouldn't hesitate to deduce that the little rattlers have also keyed in on the cicada emergence.

Thanks for sharing, OP. I have bookmarked your link and plan on letting the wife and kids read it in the morning, in hopes that it helps them better understand why I don't want them running around the yard after dark. Showing them two venomous snakes in buckets that I had captured in the yard while they popped fireworks should have been enough... but teenagers just know better

I live in southwest Texas. I just have to look out for rattle snakes. Those bastards will scare the frick out of me My rattle snake awareness is good. My buddy's mom found one In her laundry room in town. I suggested moving. LOL. I can deal with them just not in my house. Of course I'm sure there is one close right now. frickers.

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I found two copperheads and a pygmy in the back yard in a 3 day span, which I captured and relocated.

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You mean you relocated them to the afterlife??

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You mean you relocated them to the afterlife??

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No. I only take a life if it's necessary in self defense or for eating. Except for ticks and mosquitoes. Frick ticks and mosquitoes or anything else that wants to make a meal of my blood. That counts, right?

I have only seen a huge group once in my life. In high school we were gigging around a pond and found a patch of the bank covered in them. I almost shat my pants when we ran into them.