Snake With 3 Letters

Snake With 3 Letters – Everything to know about copper snakes and other venomous snakes – how to spot them, how to avoid them, what to do if you (or your pet) is bitten, and much more.

Every summer – in fact, starting in spring and lasting until early fall – people around here know they should start looking for copperhead snakes, the most common venomous snake in North Carolina.

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There is no need to panic about them. It’s just a moment to be more mindful of where you step (especially in flip-flops), so you might not reach for the weeds and bushes with your bare hands and keep an eye out for nosy dogs.

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Copper snakes are found throughout the state and are the only venomous snake you are likely to find in central North Carolina. They like our long summers and humid weather.

And since it’s always a good time to learn more about the wildlife we ​​share our spaces with, here’s what you need to know about copperhead snakes, where they’re most likely to hang out, and of course, how to avoid them. .

Copper snakes are brownish gray in color with an hourglass-shaped pattern on the back, which resembles a Hershey’s Kiss.

Newborn or very young copperheads will look like their parents – except they will have a bright yellow or greenish-tipped tail that darkens quickly. Adult copperheads grow to about 3 meters in length.

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However, Talena Chavis, owner of NC Snake Catcher (facebook.com/ncsnakecatcher) in Cary, told The News & Observer in a previous report that it can be tricky to rely on tags alone, especially if you haven’t seen many copperheads in person or you just caught a glimpse of it.

“There can be a lot of variation in color and pattern with spots and smudges between kisses,” Chavis told The N&O.

A copperhead snake looks at the Museum of Nature in Charlotte, North Carolina, Tuesday, August 17, 2010. AP Photo/Chuck Burton

▪ Debunking Venomous Snake Myths #1: A commonly shared advice is that most venomous snakes have a triangular or diamond-shaped head, while non-venomous snakes have a tapered head. However, some non-venomous snakes (such as a rat snake) can mimic the triangular shape of venomous snakes by flattening their heads when threatened (to avoid becoming another animal’s prey), so you can’t just go for the head shape.

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▪ Destroying the Venomous Snake Myth #2: Another tricky but often shared tip is to check the pupil shape. Venomous snakes are said to have oblong pupils that look like a slit in the center of the eye, while non-venomous snakes have a round pupil. In fact, according to a document on the NC Wildlife website, a snake’s pupils can dilate like humans’ and can look around. The best way to tell if a snake is venomous is to know which venomous snakes are common in your area and what they look like.

If you see a snake in your yard and you’re not sure if it’s a snake (or another venomous snake), Chavis recommends taking a photo (from a safe distance) and having your identity confirmed by an expert.

In addition to professional relocation services and yard inspections and appraisals, Chavis can identify snakes from photos sent to 919-867-0173. Chavis says that all snakes she captures are humanely relocated to an area where she is allowed to release them.

According to the Carolinas Poison Center in Charlotte, copperhead bites can be “severe,” but they’re usually not as bad as bites from other North Carolina venomous snakes. About half of all copperhead bites result in only mild swelling and pain, according to the center.

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The center says it receives about 10 times the number of snakebite calls than all other snakes combined.

“Antivenom is not always necessary to treat a copperhead bite, but it is important to be evaluated by a physician experienced in treating venomous snakebites to make that determination,” said Dr. Eugenia Quackenbush, an emergency physician at UNC Medical Center. The News & Observer.

While copperhead bites are rarely fatal to people, it’s best to be careful when working or playing outdoors, especially in areas where snakes are more likely to hang out.

The best way to avoid being bitten by a copperhead is to understand their habits and recognize that they can be found anywhere there is potential habitat.

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▪ What snake habitats are favored? Copperheads love pine straw, dry leaves or shrubs, or dense, low-growing ground cover such as English ivy. They also love wood piles and dry pile walls, which are edge walls that are essentially stacked pieces of mortar-free slate – these crevices make great homes for prey.

Jeff Beane, herpetology collection manager at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh, told The News & Observer in an earlier report on snakes: “Common sense things like not putting body parts in places you can’t. see, don’t walk barefoot at night, don’t walk barefoot in dense vegetation, use a flashlight at night, don’t put your hands under piles of wood, watch what you’re doing all the time, watch where you put your hands and feet, you’ll avoid vast majority of bites. ”

▪ Where is the snake’s fang? Copperheads (and other snakes) love to eat rodents, shrews, lizards, snakes, frogs and salamanders, and even insects such as large caterpillars and cicada nymphs. So know that anywhere you can see these creatures, you can also see a snake.

▪ Be more cautious at night. Copperheads are active during the day or night, but are mostly nocturnal during hot weather, says NC Wildlife, so be extra careful at dusk or dark. If you take dogs for a walk, try to do so before dark, and if you need to run out at night to take out the trash, skip your flip-flops and wear shoes that cover your feet.

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▪ Just leave them alone. While many bites occur when someone inadvertently places a hand or foot near a copperhead, NC Wildlife notes that a large percentage of bites occur when a person is trying to kill or remove a copperhead.

“Admire them from a safe distance and leave them alone,” Beane said. “Many bites and other injuries occurred as people tried to kill snakes. No one was bitten by a snake while being left alone.”

If leaving it alone makes you nervous, you can always call a professional wildlife relocation specialist to remove the snake from your yard.

Copperhead chicks are mostly born in late August or early September, but some may hatch in mid-August or early October, Beane said.

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“Time, geography, region and other factors can influence the exact time of birth,” said Beane. “But usually the last days of August and the first days of September are the peak for copperheads.”

According to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, females can have one litter per year, and litters can range from 2 to 18 snakes, which are 8 to 10 inches long when they are born.

You will often hear that a bite from a copperhead baby is more dangerous than an adult bite because the baby cannot control how much venom it uses.

Beane confirmed that young copperheads may be less likely to control or retain the amount of venom they inject, but they also don’t have as much venom as a mature snake.

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▪ Defensive bites vs. bites in search of prey. A copperhead bites for two reasons: to kill and eat prey or to defend itself.

Beane explained that upon reaching prey to kill and eat it, a baby copperhead will inject as much venom as needed to achieve that goal. When a copperhead bites a human, this is a defensive bite, and the snake will likely not use as much venom in these cases (or sometimes no venom at all).

“It’s not advantageous for snakes to waste venom – it’s metabolically expensive to make, so they don’t want to bite anything but prey,” Beane said.

Beane notes that whenever a snake bites, it is an instinctive response and that the snake does not “reason”. But because a snake’s number one reason for biting is to kill and eat prey, snakes only bite people in an act of self-defense, Beane said.

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▪ More concentrated venom? Beane told us that a newborn’s venom “may or may not be a little more concentrated than an adult’s”, but that since a larger snake has much more venom to inject, the larger snake would likely make up for any differences in venom. chemical composition.

Also, Beane said, a larger or more mature copperhead has longer fangs, which can penetrate a sock or thick fur, so it has more “delivery ability” than a juvenile snake.

▪ Baby copperhead bites are not that common. Most copperhead bites in humans appear to be from adults, Beane said.

“I don’t hear a lot about people being bitten by newborns,” Bean said. “Personally, if I had to choose to be bitten by a newborn copperhead or an adult, I would choose one.

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