It's snake time in the garden, be careful.
 

I was in the garden this afternoon and decided to move some folded plastic and row cover I had used earlier in the season. I lifted the top piece and immediately saw a large copperhead under it. I went in the house and got my 22 caliber piston, went back to the garden and dispatched the snake. When I shot the snake, a second copperhead made the mistake of moving so I dispatched it to snake heaven also. Two large copperheads with two shots is pretty good. I had been wondering why my frog friends who usually show up in the spring time have not been around. Now I know they were snake food.

An old wise mans rule of thumb was "if you find one copperhead, another one is close by" I have proven him right in most cases over the years.

I usually have a few non venomous snakes in my garden and I don't mind them, but the copperheads are too dangerous to accommodate.

Be careful and always check the vicinity around the area where you plan on sticking your hand. A big copperhead can ruin your day.

I don't know if the folks who live in the north and northeast have this concern, but in the south and southeast, this is a very real concern requiring careful observation.

Ted

Copperheads ain't no joke. One summer when I was a kid, we were seeing them left and right. I hate snakes!:explode: When I was a kid I nearly decapitated a water moccasin with a .22 rifle from the other side of the pond. I'm still proud of myself for that!

We had the first copperhead sighting in our neighborhood last week. last year was a bad year for them...we saw them many times on our dog walks in the evening, and had a few in our yard. And both Buddy and Mocha have been bitten on walks in years past....we watch for them very carefully!

My son was fishing in a small trout pool last spring when he saw a copperhead swimming in front of him. There was a guy across from him that was reeling in a small trout. The snake swam after the fish and when the guy was going to pick up the fish, the snake bit the fish. The guy cut the line to the fish and said to the snake. "OK, you can have it."

I had a hog nosed snake runn accross my foot last year in the garden.
I was so glad to see a hog nosed snake at my place they are great snakes.
Copperheads!:no:
Worth

Nice thing about the county I live in and the one just south of it, no poisonous snakes... :)

beefsteak,

For many years, I didn't think many venomous snakes were in the North Eastern United States. I was once working around a little town named Painted Post in upstate New York. As I traveled with a resident of the area, I kept noticing a hilltop near the road that was surrounded by a tall chain link fence. I asked the resident what was kept on the hilltop that was so valuable. He said the fence was placed to keep people off the hill and possibly disturbing the resident rattlesnakes. The local species was not on a endangered species list, but local officials felt if they were not protected by the fence, they could be harmed. The really interesting part was the fact that an elementary school sat at the bottom of the hill. The protected snakes could come and go as they pleased through the fence and were often found on the school grounds.

Sometimes it seems we have strange priorities.

Ted

Well I'm glad I don't find those gardening here. I did once try to find a copperhead when I was in snake country though. I was (and still am) greatly disappointed I never found one - it was going to become my hatband. I have some nice rattler headbands and belt, but the copperhead skin would have been soooo pretty...

Ted, I know Painted Post, it isn't that far from where I went to college and when I was there we had a wonderful professor who had a four semester sequence in all things outdoors. He was never known to cancel a field trip and so out we went in snow, ice, rain, hot cold, whatever.

One field trip was devoted to snakes. he took us to a place and said we'd get so many points for bringing back to him what we could catch with our hands; it was called, ominously, snake hill by the locals. And assured us there were no poisonous ones in that place, and there weren't. I dislike snakes, always have and always will, but we were a copetitive group and so out we went like banchees to catch those snakes. I'll never forget it except for the time he took us to a place to see a jumping bog and the rare Trillums there, we had to crawl under a barb wire fence for access, the farmer had given him permission to cross his lands but forgot to tell him he'd moved his bull into that pasture.

Another trip I'll not forget.:roll:

here in upstate NY it's rattlesnakes that are the concern. Most are in the Adirondacks but some are coming a bit more southeast each year and I hear several around me have seen them, but I haven't, just common garden snakes that hang out in the stone walls.

Three years ago my brother was visitng from NC, where he and his family moved several years ago, they have copperheads on his property, and as he sat across from me on the couck he said take a look at your chimney and I almost passed out. The front LV/DR is one huge room, 2/3 of a hexagon with a roof that goes up about 40 ft and that rock face for the chimney is that tall. And going in and out of the rocks was this HUGE snake.

He used my reacher bar to get hold of it, it got loose on the floor, he finally got it out through one of the open sliding doors and flung it into the brook that goes by my home. He said it was a spotted addar. I didn't believe him. When he got home he sent me an e-mail and apologized saying it was a common milksnake, which it was, but the others up here called them spotted addars. Maybe the first time he ever apologized to me.:)

That snake was at least three feet long and a good two inches thick and I subsequently had someone point up the stones, which on the other side are in my kitchen facing the stove and counter. And then going to the basement to check for ingress there. never knew how it got in, how long it had been around eating mice that Orkin missed, ahem, and never want to see one again b'c I can't go very fast with my walker.:lol:

Carolyn,

You must have attended Elmira College. There is also a very good engineering college in that area named Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. A lot of my upstate New York friends graduated from the engineering school.

Did you ever think about mounting a lawn mower engine with the belts and pulleys on that walker? It would probably help you get around faster. :))

Some of my best memories are of time spent in the areas between the finger lakes. The most beautiful and productive family vegetable farms I've seen are there. They used to have little sheds along the highways between the lakes selling their crops in the summer.

Most people think New York City occupies all of New York state. They don't understand, when you leave the city and go upstate, it is full of real country people who I adore. We have a lot of country hicks in Texas, but I think New York state may have more. If you don't believe me, go to a local walmart and just watch for a while. That isn't a derogatory observation. I am proud to consider myself a country hick.

I remember visiting with workers on shop floors in factories who were members of labor unions. In the fall, many would wish for a labor strike so they could go deer hunting. Thats "country".

Ted

Amen to the beauty of upstate NY. I was born in Kerhonson (foothills of the Catskill Mountains) and cried when we moved (I was 5).

[quote=jgaleota;211714]Amen to the beauty of upstate NY. I was born in Kerhonson (foothills of the Catskill Mountains) and cried when we moved (I was 5).[/quote]

And I know where Kerhonson is as well.

Ted, RPI is in Troy, NY at this end of the state about an hour south of me and I'm one mile from the VT border.

And not Elmira College either. I went to Cornell and from Cornell the to U of Rochester Med school for grad work, so I know the finger Lakes region very well.

As in "far above Cayuga's waters there's an awful smell, some say it's Cayuga's waters, some say it's Cornell.:lol:

Leavenworth State park, the other finger lakes. Used to visit them all when at Cornell and taking a course in fermentations, etc., you know, practical labs for wine and beer.;)

I cringe when I see some folks saying they're from upstate NY and they mean Westchester County which is just above NY City.

True upstate NY extends from maybe Albany straight up to the Canadian border via the Hudson River, Lake George, Lake Champlain, etc. areas And it doesn't mean western NY which goes from maybe Buffalo East to Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and then as far East as maybe Schenectady, well, at least Amsterdam.

I'm from TRUE upstate NY and love it here.:lol:

21 years of living up in this area and I think I saw one garter snake and that was at my old house. 13 years in this house and absolutely nothing. I guess that's one good thing about living in this area in a sub-division. Might be the only one!

You know what that means now. I'll go outside to work in the garden and find some kind of slithering monster! Yikes! :panic:

Carolyn,

I usually flew into Buffalo and then would either go to the Olean, Wellsville, or the Painted Post / Elmira/ Corning areas. If you ask the residents which part of New York they live in, they usually replied "upstate New York". I think technically they were more western New York, but upstate sounds more interesting. The other university in the area I was trying to remember, that few people are aware of; is Clarkson. They also had a highly respected engineering program.

Ted

In my parts the only snakes we have are stinky Garter snakes...

[url]http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garter_snake[/url]

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