Fully acknowledging that snakes are good for the environment, I don't want poisonous ones in my garden, and I don't even want to see the ones that are not. Let them do their good work behind the scenes unnoticed by me.

Like you, we once had a dog that was bitten by a poisonous snake, in her case a rattlesnake. I've never seen a dog so sick, or in so much pain. It happened just as we were headed out of town for our daughter's wedding. We had to leave the dog at the vet hospital hoping that she would survive until we got back, which fortunately she did. That was our faithful Freya.

Our new dogs certainly lack the good sense to leave a snake alone. I tried getting the older one the rattlesnake vaccine. Unfortunately not all dogs can tolerate it and he was one of those. Since my two dogs are related, I did not even try with the second one. We'll just keep our fingers crossed. There is rattlesnake avoidance training but we have not tried that. I suppose it would be a good idea.

Rosefolly

I'm with y'all, I don't mind the non poisonous snakes but I don't want to see them either. We have friends that own ranches in central and west Texas were rattle snakes are more prevalent and they all send any new dogs to rattle snake school, they have non poisonous snakes that are around and when the dogs try to approach them or sniff they get a shock ( they put shock collars on them), and the dogs learn to not approach any snake. So far none of my friends dogs have been bit but then again there is always that first time.

Erasmus I'm glad you didn't wreck your car, I know I would have been freaking out lol!

In the U.S. you can identify a poisonous snake by its triangular head which is shaped that way to accommodate the long fangs. Non-poisonous snakes have smoothly elongated heads. Rattlers have overlapping scales on their bodies whereas non-rattlers don't. We allow both of them to survive on our property since rattlers are becoming very rare here. I had two extremely close encounters with a Southern Pacific rattler, which is extremely poisonous, and the dear snake did not bite me when he easily could have. They're great travelers and we haven't seen either of the two we spotted for some months.

That's funny, Ann. Ingrid, I always thought that the head shape was different in poisonous snakes too, but when I went to the Eastern Snakes Forum the owner had posted the following: A note about head shape in snakes: Head shape is a totally useless character for identifying a snake, and has nothing to do with whether the serpent is or is not venomous (poisonous). Many harmless snakes, especially when young, have rather large heads. Please describe color, pattern, markings, and habitat where the snake was found. The shape of the head will not help us in any way. Thank you.

So this is what one guy says, probably a knowledgeable herpetologist, I am not sure. The thing about some of the identifying characteristics of poisonous ones, such as vertical pupils, little pit between the eyes and nostrils, the way the scales are arranged near the tail underneath...all these are hard to see well unless you get too close. I think copperheads are pretty distinctive..they have an hour glass marking and most are pretty tawny. The babies have bright colored tails, green I think. Copperheads bite more people than most other snakes. They blend in well with fallen leaves , so that plus fact that they are looking for winter homes now makes me have uncomfortably " raised awareness" about them.

The owner of this snake forum I mentioned says some of these non poisonous snakes are sweet little things. Maybe when you know what you're doing and are comfortable handling them you can see aspects of their "personalities" that other people don't see. I mean, maybe there is some sweetness to them! I don't know!

He does say that there's a snake ID forum on Facebook. I don't do Facebook but I do know the Eastern Snake Forum was not helpful to me when I was anxiously trying to ID the thing. I let it go because I didn't think it would survive long in the glass jar. Just dumped out a flour jar and put him in it.

I saw some snake repellant at Lowe's the other day...don't know if it works.

We saw more snakes that usual this spring, but I haven't seen any recently. Luckily, none that I saw were poisonous. (I took photos, and researched the ID's).

I will add that this is also a good time of year to be aware of bees and other stinging insects... they are quite active in the fall here, and probably elsewhere.

Virginia

We possibly have vipers locally, though I've never seen one on our property, and I don't worry much about them. They have the triangular head (and I'm choosing to ignore the expert's comments on identification!). We do have a resident population of what I've figured out are whip snakes: long, slender, whippy things that can get quite large, even up to six feet. We found a skin once that was 5'3". These live under the terrace and we've often encountered them sunning themselves on the road below the terrace and even on the terrace itself. They always startle me. But then I startle them: they get out of my way as hastily as I get out of theirs. They're not aggressive, only biting if cornered, and are interesting. I think of them as tutelary animals, in some fashion, a sign that the ecology of our property is in tolerable health with room for all.

I've been around rattlesnakes for many years (including having some in cages in my living room in my misspent youth) and can say categorically that they can be recognized by the shape of their heads alone. I'm not familiar with copperheads, however. I just read today that a lady waiting for a table in a restaurant was bitten repeatedly, and that's about the last place you would expect to find one. She said it was incredibly painful and it took her three months to recover. I understand that copperheads are grumpier than rattlers and since I'm not familiar with them I would not tolerate one on my property, although I would try to have it removed without killing it.

As far as I know, vipers are the only poisonous snakes in Italy, or at least in Tuscany, where we live. I see them all the time at my land, and I do kill them if I can, because they are dangerous; I think their bites can be fatal,and I don't want to encourage the population. They are quite small,and dull in colour, so there is definitely a risk that a person could stick their hands into the face of one of them, and the snake bites back out of fear. The big, impressive, spectacular snake is called a "biscia"; they are harmless. Just goes to show; you can't judge character on the base of looks, lol. The biscia LOOKS scary, but isn't; the viper looks insignificant, but is very dangerous!

From what I hear the small copperheads are more dangerous than big ones. Big ones know to conserve their venom for killing prey so supposedly they don't give you the full dose. Little ones don't hold back.

I tried to get the full name of the " snake expert" I was quoting but so far have not found it or learned anything about him. I did google using a triangular head to ID poisonous snakes and found the following article: http://www.livingalongsidewildlife.com/2014/05/a-triangular-shaped-head-does-not-mean.html

What I'm thinking is that most poisonous snakes in the US have triangular heads except the coral snake. But some non-poisonous snakes also have triangular heads. A young snake might not have developed their head shape as much but could be poisonous. So it seems like it is not always something to rely on. It is one factor to consider.

You're probably right erasmus. I've seen so many rattlers that one look makes my brain go into overdrive. It's a matter of taking in the entire snake, from the rattles at one end to the keeled scales and the typical shape of the head at the other. I've seen about seven species of rattlers in the wild and they all have that triangular head. However, having read the article I can see there are a few non-venomous snakes that have somewhat triangular heads. It's really the entire snake you have to consider.

Ingrid, you're a snake pro! I'm new to country living, new to snakes, I think they're garden snakes the ones I saw in the lawn. I have been wearing rain boots over there when mowing, don't want to step on any, snakes I know they're good for gardens......have to google poisonous snakes, I am not sure if we have them here up north.

summer, I don't know where you live, but if it's in a cool area your chances of encountering snakes of any kind are more limited than in the warm states. Snakes are cold-blooded and get chilly very quickly when the ground is too cold. They seek refuge in underground burrows, much to the discomfort of burrowing mammals. If you're doing something noisy like mowing the lawn snakes sense the ground vibrations (they're deaf) and will try to get out of your way. Still, best to be careful when you're outside and it's warm.

Thanks for the info. We had a hot late summer this year by the Great Lakes in ny/pa, the temp was near 90's after everyone closed their pools. I am learning how to deal with wild animals little by little, it's totally different than the suburbs. Lol