re: The Herpetology Photo Thread (Reptiles & Amphibians)

Throughout my youth I never handled venomous, though both my father and my uncle did (both were bitten at least once). I never felt the risk was worth it since I pursued dentistry as a profession and needed my hands. Been retired a while now. First I handled was a copperhead around 10 years ago, and that was just a one-off. It was the first one I had seen and just had to catch it. Never handled another for the next 10 years.

Then last year I moved onto some land in Folsom, and started running into lots of cottonmouths on the trails my family uses. I won’t kill them, but won’t leave them on my trails.First one I caught, I just carried him on my snake hook. The next one I ran into, I didn’t have my hook so I decided to pin him with a branch and pick him up. Didn’t give it much thought. The real turn came when I ran into the third one. I thought long and hard about whether I should grab him or just try to carry it with my hook. I had to carry him across a small creek and thought I risked losing him off the hook, so I went with the grab. For some reason, after that one the thrill became too much to resist. I enjoyed the risk.

Had that big weekend where I caught cottonmouths 5 days in a row (plus the copperhead), but I haven’t been out in over 3 weeks since then. Finally made it out today and only saw 2, but I just had to catch one. It started out as catching the ones on my trails to relocate them, but now when I find them on the creek behind my property (where I’ve seen 60+ this year and where relocation isn’t necessary), I just can’t resist the urge to handle at least one each trip. I’m comfortable enough with them now that I don’t really find it that risky. I use an elastic pinner that offers a reliable pin (and doesn’t hurt the snake), and with the proper grip they aren’t biting you. Probably.

Here’s the one I caught today...

No problem. This year I’ve handled around a dozen cottons plus the copperhead. Going after more copperheads soon, and also hope to catch a canebrake rattler in the near future.

Speckled King?

Found this guy near my compost bin. Let him go by the pond.

The garden is always full of anoles. I rarely get good photo ops with these guys, though. This one was in my cantaloupe vines that are starting to climb my fence.

Had back to back nights with 10 green snakes each night. Met up with a guy and hit around his house the first night then my house the next night with equal results. More greens in 2 nights than I’ve seen in the rest of my 56 years combined.

…in true OB fashion, all 20 of these green demon spawn were properly identified as GDGM (goddamngreenmambas), gathered into a pile, and burned en masse with fire.

Thanks - went again last night by my house and caught 6 more greens.

I have found that to be absolutely not true. I have handled dozens, and maybe bitten twice. I can give you multiple species where the bite % would be 100%.

Out of the 26 we caught the past couple weeks, I think we had one or maybe two biters. Plenty of them like to musk you, but not nearly as bad as ribbon snakes. Every one of those little frickers has to musk you. The most ornery snakes I’ve encountered are racers - almost all of those bite. Last bite that really made me take notice was a big diamondback water snake a couple weeks ago. They have something in their saliva that makes you bleed more. I hadn’t been bitten by a big one in quite a while and was a little surprised how long the stinging sensation lingered. Still not nearly as bad as a wasp sting though.



Obligatory foot in picture.

I’ve never herped in their range but they are high on my bucket list. Eventually I’ll make a road trip to try to catch one.