Backyard Landmines
“Backyard Landmines”
I love snakes. I love venomous snakes. But…there’s something unnerving about finding them when you’re not looking for them. Today while mowing some spots in my back yard, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A HUGE adult southern copperhead slinked out of my periphery and was disappearing into my wood pile. I killed the lawn mower and grabbed a small (too small) stick. Just as I went to chase after the copperhead, at the very last second, I instinctively looked down.
Two inches from where my right foot landed was a perfectly camouflaged smaller, probable male, copperhead snake. This smaller male was more than likely the mate to the behemoth I just saw. I jumped back, corralled my dogs inside, and threw on a pair of snake boots. I grabbed my trusty snake hook, a potato rake, and a five-gallon twist top bucket. I made my way back to the site of the attempted snake copulation and began to tear into my wood pile. Once I got to the bottom of the pile, I saw the fold of a rust-colored coil. Just as quickly as I saw it, it disappeared again.
Hyper vigilant adrenaline was coursing through my veins. Each time I stepped and air blew up my leg from my snake boots I would get goose bumps. I was on high alert. Every crooked stick in my yard became a snake in waiting. I kept repeating the mantra in my head “if you build it, they will come,” considering the only reason I have woodpiles in my yard is for this very reason (although non venomous snakes would have been more my intent, I digress). Creating habitat for the sole purpose of attracting wildlife, well, attracts wildlife.
A curious male five-line skink made its way across my yard and joined the melee as I continued to churn up wood chips and detritus dwelling insects for him. With my nerves frayed during the hunt, every crunch and rustling leaf from the skink made me hyper focus on my surroundings. Finally, I found the smaller copperhead and scooped it onto my trusty snake hook and pulled it away from the wood pile. With the lid already off, I put the snake into the waiting bucket. Spinning the bucket’s lid tight and placing it securely in the shade, I continued my hunt for the larger of the two serpents.
Ten or fifteen minutes ticked by as I tore my way all the way to the dirt beneath the crumbling woodpile. I kept wondering if maybe in all the excitement that she moved away to one of the other piles nearby, and almost as if by magic she appeared. It was like the snake just materialized in front of me. I clumsily scooped a coil first with the potato rake and then I tried to coax her out with the snake hook. We did this back-and-forth capture/evasion dance for five or so more minutes. Since I had pulled all of the logs every which way, it was an unstable mess; and not the ideal scenario to capture a venomous snake. I finally got her clear of the wood pile and over to the bucket. I set her down; spun the lid; pulled her back; spun the lid; pulled her back. Getting her into the bucket proved just as exciting as the initial capture.
This “who’s on first” act went on comically for a few more minutes until I was able to open the lid fully. The other snake lay coiled in contentment in the bottom of the bucket. As I plopped his lover in with him unceremoniously, I chucked as I thought of the scene from the movie “Animal House” where the girl falls through the roof and the young man exclaims “thanks God!” I can imagine the young male copperhead had that same moment of jubilation when the female landed on him in the bucket. I snapped a few voucher pictures and spun the lid tight.
As I sat on my front porch letting my heart rate slow and wiping sweat from my brow, I wondered what I was going to do now. The reality is I love these animals and have no problem with them living in my yard, but it was a reminder to keep the areas I plan to recreate in clear of debris and perhaps a reminder to mow more frequently in my “dead zones.” I had never really been on this end of a snake relocation and battled thoughts of being a hypocrite as I desperately tried to practice what I preach in regards to living alongside maligned wildlife. A few nearby sites popped into my mind and I decided the best recourse would be to relocate these gorgeous snakes to a safe, but close, location. I wanted to keep it close enough that I wouldn’t disorient the snakes too bad but far enough away to escape the reach of angry homeowners.
People often ask me how to rid their property of snakes, and my answer is to simply do the opposite of what I do. If you DON’T want wildlife on your property, then simply mow your grass low, don’t keep brush piles, debris, wood piles and other places that snakes and other wildlife will take refuge in. In my case, I have slowly over the years created areas in my yard that receive little management in the way of typical suburban manicures. I have areas I only mow a few times a year, I have multiple wood piles, stacks of brush, rocks and other such things in my yard to promote wildlife. Just this year alone I’ve found somewhere around 5 species of snakes, a few species of lizards, a box turtle, and 3-4 species of frogs in my back yard. It’s by design. Repeating my prior mantra, if you build it, they will come, and they do.
I ended up taking the venomous lovers a little over a mile down the road to an area devoid of people and pets to an area with likely more adequate habitat. Now they can go on benefiting the environment with less of a threat of less sympathetic neighbors. Life is an adventure and sometimes you don’t have to even leave your yard. These snakes aren’t villains, they didn’t want to hurt me. They just want to live and thankfully for them it was someone like me who found them. Until the next backyard adventure…
Statistically speaking people only get bitten when they are trying to kill or relocate snakes. Their nature is to use their excellent camouflage to just hide, or get away. Flight often far precedes fight for most snakes. It is best to just let snakes go on their way. If you are unfamiliar with a snake species DO NOT try to handle it. Stan Lake has been working with snakes for over 25 years.
If you haven’t seen our “Ain't No Copperhead” Video be sure to check out this fun little video about all the misidentifications we get every year with people assuming any snake with a pattern is a copperhead.