# I Saw a Copperhead (Snake)! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 10, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594 "2010-06-10T00:12:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/61 "2010-06-13T07:09:41Z")
> [@SoulFrost](#): > > Is he ok? Yeah he’s going to be fine, from what his mom says (they live in Tennessee and I only see them every few years, so we’re not super close). ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/62 "2010-06-13T07:27:25Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > Yeah he’s going to be fine, from what his mom says (they live in Tennessee and I only see them every few years, so we’re not super close). I can’t even imagine getting tag-teamed by a couple of hot snakes, even copperheads. I’ve been hit by a spreading adder and by a grass snake, but I don’t think either one of them really had their heart in it. Somebody identify this East Texas snake for me. I’ve only seen one, and my nephew reports seeing another–it is bright electric blue (why the heck would a snake be _blue_, anyway?) They’re fast as hell, too, moving like an arrow instead of with that sidewinder motion. Whatever it was, my cat couldn’t catch it. ---
**Author:** ![CateAyo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@CateAyo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CateAyo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/63 "2010-06-13T15:21:55Z")
> [@SoulFrost](#): > > I can’t even imagine getting tag-teamed by a couple of hot snakes, even copperheads. I’ve been hit by a spreading adder and by a grass snake, but I don’t think either one of them really had their heart in it. > > Somebody identify this East Texas snake for me. I’ve only seen one, and my nephew reports seeing another–it is bright electric blue (why the heck would a snake be _blue_, anyway?) > > They’re fast as hell, too, moving like an arrow instead of with that sidewinder motion. Whatever it was, my cat couldn’t catch it. Probably a blue racer. WARNING-snake picture ahead [http://www.thirdeyeherp.com/spuck/ohio/2006/06ohio2.htm](http://www.thirdeyeherp.com/spuck/ohio/2006/06ohio2.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Beerman1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@Beerman1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beerman1963)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/64 "2010-06-14T02:55:15Z")
Wasps kill spiders. Choose the lesser evil ---
**Author:** ![Lesserboston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Lesserboston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lesserboston)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/65 "2010-06-16T18:57:59Z")
Back to the original post. Copperheads have never been documented north of Blue Hills in MA. They are unprecedented in Waltham. However, I am pretty sure I saw one yesterday in Waltham, MA. Vibrated its tail at me (no rattle on it) and had a triangular head. Markings did not look like a milk snake either. I didn’t get close enough to see if its eyes were circular or cat like (copperheads have catlike) but I didnt want to get too close. This was in Waltham, MA, right near Route 128, in a wooded sloping area near the Cambridge Reservoir. Did not have my camera, but I will next time I take that path. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/66 "2010-06-16T19:11:08Z")
> [@Lesserboston](#): > > I didn’t get close enough to see if its eyes were circular or cat like (copperheads have catlike) but I didnt want to get too close. I have the same problem with serpent identification. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/67 "2010-06-16T21:20:40Z")
> [@Spavined\_Gelding](#): > > In the bad old days of the Johnson Administration Copperheads and Cottonmouths were a royal pain at Ft. Leonard Wood, on the northern edge of the Ozark Plateau in Pulaski County, Missouri. > > Before we could send recruits into a bivouac area the cadre would beat the grass and bushes with fire beaters (a piece of rubber on a broom handle) to scare the snakes out of the immediate vicinity. On the Big Piney River Impoundment the Cottonmouths would casually swim right past fishing boats. A friend of mine would routinely carry a .410 shotgun to deal with them. He kept shells in his tackle box right along with the plastic worms. I don’t remember either species being any more than two feet long. > > On both species the shape of the head clearly distinguished them from rat snakes – that and the froth of bubbly salvia that the Cottonmouths sported all the time. > > We had our share of Diamondback and Timber Rattle Snakes, too. Fort L. Wood must be the snake capitol of North America. None-the-less, I don’t remember more than two or three cases of snake bite in the 18 months I was stationed there. That’s really interesting. My dad was stationed there in the late 50’s and that was the thing he talked about most. He said the snakes were freaking everywhere. I always thought he was exaggerating, I guess not. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/68 "2010-06-16T21:50:28Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > My brother (age 15) was bitten by two of them just last week. I think he stepped where several of them were and startled them. He was at camp at the time. I don’t think he was being stupid, just walking. I’m sorry to hear it. Was he envenomated? Like I said upthread, copperheads sometimes have a reflexive warning strike, with little to no venom injected. I hope he’s OK. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594/69 "2010-06-17T01:16:57Z")
> [@Lesserboston](#): > > Back to the original post. Copperheads have never been documented north of Blue Hills in MA. They are unprecedented in Waltham. > > However, I am pretty sure I saw one yesterday in Waltham, MA. Vibrated its tail at me (no rattle on it) and had a triangular head. Markings did not look like a milk snake either. I didn’t get close enough to see if its eyes were circular or cat like (copperheads have catlike) but I didnt want to get too close. This was in Waltham, MA, right near Route 128, in a wooded sloping area near the Cambridge Reservoir. Did not have my camera, but I will next time I take that path. Global warming sending the Copperheads into deepest Yankeeland. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-saw-a-copperhead-snake/542594.md?page=3)