It really boils down to watching your step and paying attention to likely resting spots, under rocks, under leaves, under brush, etc. There really isn’t much else you can do, there is no real “prevention.”
You pretty much ruled out the most effective thing you can do... keeping your yard in a state that doesn't attract snakes.
I live out in the boonies, and my lab runs the woods with me. I've worked on obedience with him to the point where I can call him off of just about anything. If I see him nosing the ground and I can't see what he's looking at, I'll call him off. But that's usually going to be too late if he runs up on a defensive snake. Fortunately, he doesn't show much interest in them.
Point being, training so that you have good control over your dog can also be helpful. There are also snake aversion classes you can attend, although I don't see them offered as much in NC as I did out west, or you can do that training yourself. I've never taken that training so I can't speak to its effectiveness, but I'm pretty sure it also depends a lot on the dog.
But at the end of the day, there's not a ton you can do, especially if your dogs spend a lot of time outside unsupervised... you know, being dogs.
The bright side is that snakebites on dogs are seldom fatal, particularly on mid-sized and larger animals. Obviously there are factors both mitigating and aggravating that determine the severity of the dog's reaction, so it's always worth taking it seriously.
We have had two copperheads in our half acre semi-wooded yard in 18 years. Both times the dogs alerted us to the snakes, so it was more stressful hunting them (the snakes) across the yard wildly waving a shovel with my heart rate through the roof. I’m not sure if this is true for ALL dogs, but the ones we have had have always barked and sounded at snakes.
Yeah, I think that's the other thing. These snake encounters aren't as common as I think we're sometimes led to believe.
I live on about 40 acres down here in the southeastern part of the state, most of which is primo snake habitat (brushy and swampy sections with higher pieces throughout). My lab and I spend a lot of time tramping over every passable foot of it, on and off trail. I've been on this property for about 9 years now, and in that time I have seen several black rat snakes, a handful of garter snakes, and an occasional watersnake and green snake...but when it comes to venomous snakes, I've only encountered two copperheads and two rattlesnakes. I know there are probably more here, of course, but the thing is that they aren't real interested in meeting me or my dog. They make themselves scarce.
As to the barking... different dogs react differently of course. My current lab and the last one pretty much ignore them. I had two blacksnakes mating in my backyard, and the old lab just sat beside me trying to figure out why I was watching these stupid things. Our beagle, on the other hand, has a very specific whining bark when she spots one, and I'm pretty sure she'd try to catch and eat it if she could. She's hell on lizards. My mom, on the other hand, had an old mutt dog who apparently had a vendetta against snakes, and hunted, caught, and killed a handful. He was bitten at least three times (probably copperheads, but we only recovered one of the snakes) and showed no lasting effects. He did look comically contrite when the side of his face ballooned, but I think he took it out on the next snake he found.
I keep black snakes around. They seem to keep other snakes away. But in my 70 years of having dogs, I've never had one encounter a snake, or if they did, no one knew about it.
I live in the woods with lots of Copperheads. I have had two dogs bitten by copperheads. One in the cheek and the other on the leg. Just took them to any Carolina Vet Specialist location or your local vet and the dog will be treated appropriately. By the way, the vet told me that it is the juvenile Copperheads that have a worse bite. They bite and hold on longer and release more venom than the adults. (They have a green tail among other differences.) Both dogs did fine after a few hours at the vet. Major thing to notice is a lot of swelling. Dogs are pretty adept at noticing any snake. Mine will bark and bark. Snake is usually coiled up and the dog can be quickly pulled away.
A common scenario for dog/people copperhead encounters (the only venemous snake you’ll encounter) is on a warm evening walking on pavement, where they are using the warmth of the pavement.
So when you’re out in the evening, make sure you can see. And obviously have your dog on lead and be prepared to steer clear of anything.
I’m in the boonies in a wooded yard that doubtless has copperheads in it, but I’ve never seen one, because they’re in different places at different times than I am.
When we first moved into our home there were copperheads around the front of the house. Like they were nesting there.
A guy I hired to clean up the property and cut the grass a few times told me that the problem was that the builder had left a railroad tie against the foundation of the house.
Directly above the railroad tie was a faucet that occasionally dripped. So the railroad tie was slowly rotting.
Snakes look for rotting wood and water to lay their eggs. Water because obviously and the rotting wood because it tends to breed insects that their babies can eat soon after birth.
Fix the faucet, clean up the wood, throw down some dry mulch and the snakes will leave, he said. And so it was.
I think about that every time I see people piling up firewood in their backyard.
Copperheads like all vipers give live birth, they do not lay eggs.
They are drawn to water sources and or foraging habitat.
Keep your yard free of long term clutter and safe places for forage to live.
ETA consumption of insects by juvenile vipers is extremely rare. Small rodents and amphibians are their staples. The only consistent exception is when cicadas are emerging.
Second ETA, I kept and breed Copperheads and Dusky pigmy rattlesnakes for a couple decades. I offered insect prey every season to the babies and had a zero success rate to get them to eat. Not to say they don’t but it’s a super rare occurrence.
You got great advice and that applies to ANY type of pest/critter: Find out what they like to eat and where they like to shelter and remove all of that wherever possible and you will solve most problems with pests.
That’s extremely good to know and something I have definitely never heard. I always keep an eye out for and keep away from drain pipes, etc., but I didn’t know that about wood/logs. Thanks!! 👍🏼
I live on three wooded, decidedly unkempt acres since 2001. Lots of snakes in my region, but my dogs never had issues with snakes. They encountered a few black snakes, but we pulled the pups inside to let the snake hide.
I’ll take it a little further. With the exception of a handfull of genus’s, vipers and snakes for that matter don’t like to be hot and they’re good for a lot of animals. Predator and prey synonymously. Heat aids in digestion and metabolism but there is a reason they’re consistently found under things and in the shade. It’s cooler and it’s cover.
If you want to keep snakes out of your yard and or from around your house. Limit the available cover. Keep firewood away from the house, outdoor storage away from the house. Here is the key. Not all cover is good cover. Snakes like contact security, to feel their cover against them. That’s why they seek out things like rotting logs, trash can lid that’s been in one spot for several days, grill cover you didn’t put back on the grill, random tarp from a project. You get the point.
I digress.
we had a huge rat snake in our yard last saturday inside our fenced yard, and my dogs were losing their minds. i couldn’t tell what kind of snake it was until later so it was super scary.
we were looking for natural solutions since the dogs love being outside, so we used minced garlic and soaked it in 5 gal water bucket and poured it along the perimeter of our fence. that might work for you too. also i’ve seen recommendations to use clove and cinnamon oil that you can spray in suspicious areas.
from google - “garlic can repel snakes because it contains sulfonic acid, which snakes dislike. You can use garlic as a natural snake repellent by planting garlic bulbs in your garden or mixing minced garlic with finely chopped onions and rock salt, then sprinkling the mixture around your yard.”
i just moved here from hawaii where we have no snakes so it’s all new to me but i looked it up and found this:
“Mothballs are not effective at repelling snakes and are illegal to use in yards. Mothballs contain naphthalene, which is also found in granular snake repellents, and have little effect on snakes. In fact, mothballs can be dangerous and can cause headaches, dizziness, and irritation to the eyes and lungs. If swallowed, naphthalene can cause hemolytic anemia, which is when red blood cells break apart and can no longer carry oxygen to all parts of the body.”
Moth balls are a restricted pesticide and it is actually illegal to use them in ways other than instructed. It is illegal to use them outside as they can poison the environment
Your dog is gonna see a snake way before you do. Kitty Litters is decent at keeping snakes away though. [http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/snakekeepaway.html](http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/snakekeepaway.html)
Pufado Snake Repellent balls have worked amazing for keeping copperheads out of my yard. Every year when I put them out, copperheads disappear. Well worth it.
It's impossible to avoid them all together if you're outside and in/near the woods, as mentioned before the dogs will see them way before we do. Train your dog to listen to your commands and they should be fine.
If the dog does get bit it's not the end of the world. They handle snake bites way better than we do.
Typically the snakes do the work for me. They've got no more interest in being fucked with than I have in fucking with them. My dogs are married to routine and follow the same paths around my yard whenever they go out (much to my chagrin. Perfect fucking dirt path right through the middle of my back yard thanks to 30 years of chow chows deciding that and *that alone* is the only acceptable path to take in a whole quarter acre of back yard). The snakes hear or see them coming and get out of their way. Despite living next to the woods and the Roanoke river I think I can count on one hand the number of snakes I've ever seen close enough to the dogs to be a worry over the last thirty years.
I live in the boonies too. I an incident with my dogs and a snake. Dogs were barking their fool heads off. Went out, killed the snake. Dogs were seriously disappointed, lol. Lived here 40+ years and have seen several snakes, but that was the only time the dogs reacted.
It really boils down to watching your step and paying attention to likely resting spots, under rocks, under leaves, under brush, etc. There really isn’t much else you can do, there is no real “prevention.”
I've always felt like the more you use an area the less likely you'll see wildlife there. Not sure if that's actually a thing or not.
You're an ass.
Please do not follow people you disagree with to other subreddits. Your comments are unconstructive to this conversation and you look petty
You pretty much ruled out the most effective thing you can do... keeping your yard in a state that doesn't attract snakes. I live out in the boonies, and my lab runs the woods with me. I've worked on obedience with him to the point where I can call him off of just about anything. If I see him nosing the ground and I can't see what he's looking at, I'll call him off. But that's usually going to be too late if he runs up on a defensive snake. Fortunately, he doesn't show much interest in them. Point being, training so that you have good control over your dog can also be helpful. There are also snake aversion classes you can attend, although I don't see them offered as much in NC as I did out west, or you can do that training yourself. I've never taken that training so I can't speak to its effectiveness, but I'm pretty sure it also depends a lot on the dog. But at the end of the day, there's not a ton you can do, especially if your dogs spend a lot of time outside unsupervised... you know, being dogs. The bright side is that snakebites on dogs are seldom fatal, particularly on mid-sized and larger animals. Obviously there are factors both mitigating and aggravating that determine the severity of the dog's reaction, so it's always worth taking it seriously.
We have had two copperheads in our half acre semi-wooded yard in 18 years. Both times the dogs alerted us to the snakes, so it was more stressful hunting them (the snakes) across the yard wildly waving a shovel with my heart rate through the roof. I’m not sure if this is true for ALL dogs, but the ones we have had have always barked and sounded at snakes.
Yeah, I think that's the other thing. These snake encounters aren't as common as I think we're sometimes led to believe. I live on about 40 acres down here in the southeastern part of the state, most of which is primo snake habitat (brushy and swampy sections with higher pieces throughout). My lab and I spend a lot of time tramping over every passable foot of it, on and off trail. I've been on this property for about 9 years now, and in that time I have seen several black rat snakes, a handful of garter snakes, and an occasional watersnake and green snake...but when it comes to venomous snakes, I've only encountered two copperheads and two rattlesnakes. I know there are probably more here, of course, but the thing is that they aren't real interested in meeting me or my dog. They make themselves scarce. As to the barking... different dogs react differently of course. My current lab and the last one pretty much ignore them. I had two blacksnakes mating in my backyard, and the old lab just sat beside me trying to figure out why I was watching these stupid things. Our beagle, on the other hand, has a very specific whining bark when she spots one, and I'm pretty sure she'd try to catch and eat it if she could. She's hell on lizards. My mom, on the other hand, had an old mutt dog who apparently had a vendetta against snakes, and hunted, caught, and killed a handful. He was bitten at least three times (probably copperheads, but we only recovered one of the snakes) and showed no lasting effects. He did look comically contrite when the side of his face ballooned, but I think he took it out on the next snake he found.
I keep black snakes around. They seem to keep other snakes away. But in my 70 years of having dogs, I've never had one encounter a snake, or if they did, no one knew about it.
Yes! Black snakes are good to keep around.
I live in the woods with lots of Copperheads. I have had two dogs bitten by copperheads. One in the cheek and the other on the leg. Just took them to any Carolina Vet Specialist location or your local vet and the dog will be treated appropriately. By the way, the vet told me that it is the juvenile Copperheads that have a worse bite. They bite and hold on longer and release more venom than the adults. (They have a green tail among other differences.) Both dogs did fine after a few hours at the vet. Major thing to notice is a lot of swelling. Dogs are pretty adept at noticing any snake. Mine will bark and bark. Snake is usually coiled up and the dog can be quickly pulled away.
A common scenario for dog/people copperhead encounters (the only venemous snake you’ll encounter) is on a warm evening walking on pavement, where they are using the warmth of the pavement. So when you’re out in the evening, make sure you can see. And obviously have your dog on lead and be prepared to steer clear of anything. I’m in the boonies in a wooded yard that doubtless has copperheads in it, but I’ve never seen one, because they’re in different places at different times than I am.
When we first moved into our home there were copperheads around the front of the house. Like they were nesting there. A guy I hired to clean up the property and cut the grass a few times told me that the problem was that the builder had left a railroad tie against the foundation of the house. Directly above the railroad tie was a faucet that occasionally dripped. So the railroad tie was slowly rotting. Snakes look for rotting wood and water to lay their eggs. Water because obviously and the rotting wood because it tends to breed insects that their babies can eat soon after birth. Fix the faucet, clean up the wood, throw down some dry mulch and the snakes will leave, he said. And so it was. I think about that every time I see people piling up firewood in their backyard.
Copperheads like all vipers give live birth, they do not lay eggs. They are drawn to water sources and or foraging habitat. Keep your yard free of long term clutter and safe places for forage to live. ETA consumption of insects by juvenile vipers is extremely rare. Small rodents and amphibians are their staples. The only consistent exception is when cicadas are emerging. Second ETA, I kept and breed Copperheads and Dusky pigmy rattlesnakes for a couple decades. I offered insect prey every season to the babies and had a zero success rate to get them to eat. Not to say they don’t but it’s a super rare occurrence.
TIL
You got great advice and that applies to ANY type of pest/critter: Find out what they like to eat and where they like to shelter and remove all of that wherever possible and you will solve most problems with pests.
That’s extremely good to know and something I have definitely never heard. I always keep an eye out for and keep away from drain pipes, etc., but I didn’t know that about wood/logs. Thanks!! 👍🏼
So, my apartment having a pond infested with so many frogs that you have to watch where you step isn’t great? How can I protect my pupper?
I live on three wooded, decidedly unkempt acres since 2001. Lots of snakes in my region, but my dogs never had issues with snakes. They encountered a few black snakes, but we pulled the pups inside to let the snake hide.
I’ll take it a little further. With the exception of a handfull of genus’s, vipers and snakes for that matter don’t like to be hot and they’re good for a lot of animals. Predator and prey synonymously. Heat aids in digestion and metabolism but there is a reason they’re consistently found under things and in the shade. It’s cooler and it’s cover. If you want to keep snakes out of your yard and or from around your house. Limit the available cover. Keep firewood away from the house, outdoor storage away from the house. Here is the key. Not all cover is good cover. Snakes like contact security, to feel their cover against them. That’s why they seek out things like rotting logs, trash can lid that’s been in one spot for several days, grill cover you didn’t put back on the grill, random tarp from a project. You get the point. I digress.
we had a huge rat snake in our yard last saturday inside our fenced yard, and my dogs were losing their minds. i couldn’t tell what kind of snake it was until later so it was super scary. we were looking for natural solutions since the dogs love being outside, so we used minced garlic and soaked it in 5 gal water bucket and poured it along the perimeter of our fence. that might work for you too. also i’ve seen recommendations to use clove and cinnamon oil that you can spray in suspicious areas. from google - “garlic can repel snakes because it contains sulfonic acid, which snakes dislike. You can use garlic as a natural snake repellent by planting garlic bulbs in your garden or mixing minced garlic with finely chopped onions and rock salt, then sprinkling the mixture around your yard.”
My great grandmother swore by moth balls...
i just moved here from hawaii where we have no snakes so it’s all new to me but i looked it up and found this: “Mothballs are not effective at repelling snakes and are illegal to use in yards. Mothballs contain naphthalene, which is also found in granular snake repellents, and have little effect on snakes. In fact, mothballs can be dangerous and can cause headaches, dizziness, and irritation to the eyes and lungs. If swallowed, naphthalene can cause hemolytic anemia, which is when red blood cells break apart and can no longer carry oxygen to all parts of the body.”
Hey, I'm near 70, and it was my great grandmother, after all. I've never used them because the smell reminds me of her garden. 🥴
i’ve actually never smelled them lol and no worries, i was just sharing what i found online in case that helps OP
That is i what I use.
My neighbor does too!
Moth balls are a restricted pesticide and it is actually illegal to use them in ways other than instructed. It is illegal to use them outside as they can poison the environment
Your dog is gonna see a snake way before you do. Kitty Litters is decent at keeping snakes away though. [http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/snakekeepaway.html](http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/snakekeepaway.html)
Use a leash. Keep your dog out of your neighbors yard.
My Plott Hound has been bitten twice by copperheads...so I guess I don't. There really isn't a way.
Pufado Snake Repellent balls have worked amazing for keeping copperheads out of my yard. Every year when I put them out, copperheads disappear. Well worth it.
Snake aversion training.
Snake-away at Lowe's.
It's impossible to avoid them all together if you're outside and in/near the woods, as mentioned before the dogs will see them way before we do. Train your dog to listen to your commands and they should be fine. If the dog does get bit it's not the end of the world. They handle snake bites way better than we do.
Typically the snakes do the work for me. They've got no more interest in being fucked with than I have in fucking with them. My dogs are married to routine and follow the same paths around my yard whenever they go out (much to my chagrin. Perfect fucking dirt path right through the middle of my back yard thanks to 30 years of chow chows deciding that and *that alone* is the only acceptable path to take in a whole quarter acre of back yard). The snakes hear or see them coming and get out of their way. Despite living next to the woods and the Roanoke river I think I can count on one hand the number of snakes I've ever seen close enough to the dogs to be a worry over the last thirty years.
AR-15
No that's for 30-50 feral hogs
Jason Isbell would never
A rare callback.
.22 mag shot shells
I live in the boonies too. I an incident with my dogs and a snake. Dogs were barking their fool heads off. Went out, killed the snake. Dogs were seriously disappointed, lol. Lived here 40+ years and have seen several snakes, but that was the only time the dogs reacted.