You know...I've never seen but one of these in the wild. I often think it's their terrific camouflage though and they're probably all around me :(

Because it has been dry I have had some leaves fall off the trees. They are the exact color of my dry leaves.

They also have a strong musky smell when aggravated they don't like a low cut lawn because they can be seen easily you must have a lot of mice around or something they like to eat. When I was a boy we lived by the rail road tracks and saw copper heads often among the rocks even the track crews would tell us of all them they would see and refuse to cut the brush along the tracks there they would have to bring heavy equipment instead of man power but we rarely ever had them in the yard but 50 feet away they were thick

In the day they are in the brush and they come into the yard in the evening. I have thirty acres and my yard is in the middle of it. There are woods and weeds around my yard. They are on short cut grass when I see them. I had one come in my back door once. It couldn't get anywhere on the tile floor. I have killed lots of them and have only slightly detected the smell. Stink bugs and squash bug are much more potent. They will rattle their tails if they are on dry leaves you can hear them. One time I had a riding lawn mower that had things wrong with it. It sat in the grass and the weeds grew around it with mowed grass all around. My other mower quit so I tried to get the weedy one going. The bolts that held the battery cables were rusted. I could not get the wheel off to take the flat tire in. I hammered and filed and cused. I worked on it several days then one day when I was pounding a copperhead crawled out from under it. I am sure it had been there all along. They aren't aggressive but will bite if you step on them.
edit I thought about what you said about food. I do spray under the elm about cicada emerging time. I don't spray everywhere. I think the house lights are attracting insects and the insects attract toads. I have turned off all lights except where I am. My kitchen window has no curtain and light is going out there. I have frogs because my yard is wetter than the field.

This post was edited by helenh on Tue, Jul 29, 14 at 23:02

Frogs = food