You’ve Heard of Buffy the Vampire Killer
A week after dreaming that I was pinned under a large snake that I had to struggle to get out from under, I killed a copperhead. It took over an hour and involved a yardstick, the leg of a kitchen chair and lawn clippers. I was home alone and, after letting out a girly scream when I spotted it in a hallway, I watched in fear as it slid under the kitchen base board heater. Because it’s poisonous I knew I couldn’t loose track of it if I wanted to continue to live in my house. I had to stalk it.
But it took its time to poke out its head and plan an escape, so I ran to the computer and pulled up some google images. My suspicion was confirmed. Then I read:
A Copperhead snake bite needs medical attention, is extremely painful, and may cause extensive scarring and loss of use. Many people are bitten while trying to kill or handle the snake. Don’t take chances — avoid these snakes.
I would have loved to avoid this snake but it was in my house and I couldn’t be sure it would find its way out. It’s venomous. It has fangs. I felt like it was it or me. I called Joe and left a message. Then I waited.
The snake’s first two attempts at escape and my first two attempts to catch it failed. It slithered back under the heater each time. At one point, exhausted, I laid on the kitchen table with my flashlight while waiting to try again.
On the snake’s third attempt to leave the safety of the heater, I lowered the boom and the battle between us ensued. By the time Joe came home the snake was 90% dead and it was a pretty gory sight.
“I need a new name, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” I told him. We decided on “Colleen the Copperhead Crusher.”
October 1st, 2011 11:16 pm
Good Lord! How really scary/frightening…! You were very Brave, Colleen…I know it would be Gory to read, but how did you finally kill this critter?
October 1st, 2011 11:27 pm
I thought my second sentence about the yardstick, the leg of a kitchen chair and lawn clippers would get the picture across. Basically, I banged it and directed it with a yardstick, caught it under the leg of a chair to hold it still and tried to cut its head off. I managed to cut part of the tail and hurt it enough but the head never came off.
October 2nd, 2011 4:42 am
omg, you are amazing! i would have been scared to death and calling everyone i knew! 2 friends of ours in GA thought they had copperheads on their property this summer. when the snakes got onto the patio leading inside they killed 2. afterwards they and some neighbors got a better look and called in an expert to look at them who decided they were a different kind of snake, often mistaken for copperheads.
do you often find snakes on your property in summer? i have never seen one out here, thank goodness, but saw plenty in GA.
October 2nd, 2011 5:20 am
I rarely if ever kill snakes! This is one of those that is on my “To Kill List!” Good job!
John
October 2nd, 2011 11:39 am
It was my first time even seeing a copperhead, although I know they exist here in Floyd and my husband had seen them under the black plastic in our garden. For me the experience was surreal and kind of a medicine, like facing a fear in a dream, an antidote for fear and a strengthening of my own capability (which I frequently have doubts of).
It was definitely a copperhead, confirmed for me by internet photos and Joe. I looked at pictures of the snake that is often taken for a copperhead too.
October 2nd, 2011 11:55 am
It is unfortunate that it had to die…they say a good way to get snakes in the warmer weather is to put down a wet or damp towel and they will crawl under it and then maybe with gloves you could have gathered the whole thing and tossed it outside, but it was probably cool weather and that is why it came inside…or you could have gotten a shotgun. I cannot imagine how terrified I would have been home alone with that in my house. Our natural fear of snakes is most overwhelming.
October 2nd, 2011 12:12 pm
I didn’t feel I could risk catching it to put it outside (although I considered it). That is how most people get bit. A shotgun crossed my mind but then I thought of the damage that would have done to my kitchen. So I went guerrilla low tech. I was scared but more scared at the thought of it being in my house somewhere and turning up at some other time…in my bed or something like that!
October 2nd, 2011 7:53 pm
Wow. That is one of my worst fears, a snake in the house. You were brave to take it on!
October 2nd, 2011 8:02 pm
Ahhhhh. I wasn’t able to picture what you actually did with these implements, so your description really gave me The Picture!!! Thank You!
Like I said, you are Brave!
October 2nd, 2011 9:12 pm
How scary is that!!
You totally deserve your new name.
October 4th, 2011 10:22 pm
Dear Crusher:
Congratulations on conquering your fear and meeting the snake challenge head-on!
As a fellow blogger, I wonder if a tiny part of your thought process compelled you to kill the snake because it would make a good blog post?
Anyway, thanks for visiting my site and commenting on my Shadow Shot!
October 4th, 2011 10:32 pm
Not a chance on thinking about a blog post for this. I didn’t even want to take a picture with it until my husband insisted and suggested I write about it. I said to him, “you’re such a backseat blogger!”
October 5th, 2011 6:18 pm
OMG!! Coll, I never knew. This is pretty scary and you were so brave. xo
I really like your new name and love you!
October 5th, 2011 10:17 pm
[…] It was a good weekend. I killed a poisonous snake and had a […]
November 2nd, 2011 10:53 pm
[…] I already killed a copperhead in my house. Do I also have to fight off a bear? Apparently and according to the bear scat […]
December 5th, 2011 12:11 pm
[…] a couple times a year. The mice are a nuisance but knowing they’re in the house is nothing like finding a copperhead on our rust-orange carpet like the one I found in the fall when I was home alone and had to kill it […]
December 7th, 2011 8:57 pm
[…] on interstate 95 from Massachusetts to DC ten years ago took about five years off my life but killing a poisonous snake that got in my house added a […]
January 12th, 2012 5:01 pm
Hey Colleen the Copperhead Crusher, thank God you weren’t harmed! It’s still a good thing that venom from copperheads is not deadly, and when people die from Copperhead Snake bites it is due to an allergic reaction. People who are weak, or either very old or very young may however experience a significant impact on their body function from a Copperhead Snake bite. Source: copperheadsnake.net
January 26th, 2012 1:13 am
[…] I had a dream about the copperhead I killed in the fall. In the dream it morphed into a Native American woman in buckskin who, after […]
September 24th, 2012 9:33 am
If this helps everyone concerned…..I can assure with out the shadow of any doubt (with thirty years of Herpetological field experience) The snake pictured here is not a Copperhead. It is a merely a color variant
of the common Red Rat Snake or Corn Snake pending your geographical location. The snakes are often of different colors and and pattern variations but are clearly noted by belly patterns visible on your animal. The length to girth ratio is not even close to the skinniest of Copperheads. The pattern on the animals back does conform to any Copperhead I have ever seen in nature or documentation.
Here is the ugly part. The common Rat snake can play a healthy part in your environment. Albeit they are generally unwelcome in our homes — as their name implies — they are primarily rodent eaters. Naturally, if this animal is present, he is there because there is a food source and they do not eat vegetables. I suppose the choice is for the homeowner. This particular animal will rattle his tail, strike feverishly and might even bite if approached with intimidation — but in most cases,
if gently handled this animal will climb onto almost anything presented to it slowly and are the most common of all snake pets — they grow to become very docile within minutes of contact. Their bite is harmless and painless and the one pictured is a juvenile, they grow to around 5 ft. in length and can consume over a hundred rodents in a single year. Not judging you or anyone on this topic — just trying to help inform.
September 24th, 2012 5:04 pm
All I know is that I looked it up and it looked like a match, I know we have copperheads in our area, it had a pointed kind of head (which I have heard poisonous snakes have) and I didn’t want to take any chances, since it was in my house.
April 20th, 2014 1:27 pm
I wish you’d just called animal control and have them remove it without killing it. You risked injury to yourself and you killed an animal that didn’t mean you harm.
January 29th, 2016 2:34 pm
That’s absolutely a baby rat snake. Entirely harmless and beneficial if nothing else. Do more research before you kill snakes. Thanks.
January 29th, 2016 9:54 pm
It had a triangular head like venomous snakes do. We do have copperheads here in Floyd.
March 12th, 2016 8:57 pm
I believe you’very made a common mistake as so have I, the dead snake you hold in your hand is a Eastern Rat snake juvenile (aka baby Black snake) the snake you killed is as harmless as a dog.