PA has over 20 kinds of snakes but only 3 are poisonous: the Northern Copperhead, the Timber rattlesnake and the Massasauga rattlesnake.

The first summer we spent at our place in the PA mountains we saw baby rattlesnakes. My husband was spreading wood chips with a pitchfork and was quite surprised when he discovered 2 little ones warming themselves in the mulch pile. That was 12 years ago and luckily we haven't seen any more.

We've never seen a venomous snake at our home in NJ, but there are rattlesnakes and copperheads here too.

We have a few rattlesnakes in the limestone bluffs along the Mississippi River not far from here. We use to see alot more when I lived and hiked in New Mexico. It's a harsh ecosystem there. Everything protects itself; snakes, scorpions, tarantulas.

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Ron

We have a big 'ole king snake I just dare anyone to kill. It eats all the poisonous snakes. Before the king snake came to us we had copperheads and rattlesnakes. Thank goodness we haven't seen any of those in several years. The king snake is now about 6 feet long. I hope he hangs around for a very long time.

What state/area do you live in? We had Timber rattlers in CA in the Mountains where we live, but they are very shy and do not go around people much. They prefer the bushy mountains and are much darker that the one you pictures, in fact almost black which make them harder to see. We only killed one in the 15 years we lived there. We did kill several of the regular diamond backs and my neighbors killed many of the mojave green rattlesnakes, which is a pit viper, but to my knowledge are only located in the Antelope Valley. I took several courses on snakes and learned how to avoid them, watch for them etc.

We live in an area where our backyards all view a small lake. It is a private lake owned by those whose boundries enter the water. Many years ago, it was a watering hole for all the cattle headed to the Swift plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards. It is Trinity River fed, and quite large now.
There have been many snake sightings. My DH killed a 4 ft snake in our fenced back yard several years ago, and it had several feet of tail missing from an earlier escape from a shovel. This happened while I ran to the store one day. He had to shoot it several times to stop it from lunging at him. Not an easy task for a one armed guy with a backyard full of dogs.
I have had to call animal control on several occasions,when snakes were inbetween my dogs and the back door, and they are here within minutes. They know this area and how dangerous it can be when the weather gets warm.
Sadly, I believe, I lost one of my older Lhasa's from a snake bite. He died so very suddenly, that I could have been nothing else. I believe he met his fate when he crawled under his doghouse to cool off.
I hate snakes, and have found the cats playing with babies, INSIDE the house in the middle of the night. Yuk.
When the neighbors shoot them, they typically hang them from a stake in full view as a prize catch for all to see.
Not of all of the animal lovers would agree to this, but they are very aggressive, and, I am sorry, but the only snake I like, well.....is a dead one.

We have removed all the bush landscape close to the house, as it seemed to be an ideal hideout for snakes every year.

Now, can we talk about tarantulas? I do catch and release them. So I am not all about the kill, I promise.

Trin

I found my little garden snake when I was out earlier. I forget, what kind it is, but Jerry checked it out last time I found it (and we had it in a jar till we knew).

I just got in, and found this on the puter for weather advisory:

Hazardous Weather Outlook
Short Term Forecast
Tornado Watch
Wind Advisory

Guess, my timing to come in was great. ;)

Moni

My son who passed away last may, lived in the high desert and when a rattler ( I don't know what kind) would be in the yard, he could tell because the dogs had a different bark when they spotted a snake. Brian would pick up the snake with a reach-thing, put it is a covered cooler and drive it out into the desert and let it go.He said the snakes ate the mice and the mice in that area carry some kind of a virus that would make a human very sick if bitten. Dottie

When we moved here 30 years ago, the telephone company installer said that he grew up on the hill across the canyon from us here in Southern California. He said our new neighborhood was known locally as Rattlesnake Hill.

I did see two rattlers. One was that first month on the stucco wall above my doorbell. Killed it with a shovel after sweeping it into the yard. Thank goodness we had just moved in and I had the broom on the front porch for all the dirt our kids tracked in from the yard. The other was several years later, 5 feet long and stretched out in the mid day sun along a 2 inch shadow of a wall next to the sidewalk. I was going for a walk and high stepped it to get out of there fast.

Dotmom, sorry about your son. I guess you are coming up on the one year anniversary of losing him. Did you post here about it? I think I remember, but maybe it was someone else.

Anyway...what a good man he was to relocate the snake. I think snakes are wonderful animals and always feel bad when people say how they hate them. Of course, I would not want a rattler outside my back door.

I saw one type of king snake. We startled it and it kinked about every 5 or 6 inches. Really looked strange. I saw an adder when I was a little girl and thought for sure it was a cobra. The head spread like one. I didn't know I could run so fast.

I don't mind snakes at all unless they are poisoness. DH killed two copperheads the year of 9/11. The first we found under the deck on the concrete, then a few hours later another was in almost the exact same spot.

I had a friend who was bite on the leg by a Copperhead. She had a long and rough recovery.

I would never harm a non-poisoness snake and I wouldn't harm it if I wasn't sure.

I haven't seen an posionous snakes in WI, but we do have rattlers in limited locations.

Growing us as boy in southern IL, we did encounter copper heads and cotton mouths/water moccasin. It is my view that a water moccasin is the more dangerous of the two because they are feisty and will stand their ground - may not retreat when approached by a human - and if you did not see it - too bad. One day while strolling a river side, I came up on a water moccasin that was 'fishing' for frogs in a stagnant, small pool of water. As I approached, the snake turned toward me, assumed a strike stance, and gave no warning. To me, this was dangerous - what if I had not seen the snake?

There are several other snakes in that region that are not posionous, but can give one a startle or be a nusiance. One time we found a big black snake that had raided a hen's nest in the hen house. He had swallowed 5 eggs. You could count the eggs by counting the lumps along his body.