Braving the wilds of Cary

JoeMiller — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:54:25 +0000

Curiously, when Marcy suddenly sounded like Curly in “We Want Our Mummy,” I thought back to a phone conversation we’d had last fall. I was on the Appalachian Trail, she was in our Cary backyard. I was in the wild, she was in suburbia. I was lounging at my campsite in the woods having tea, she was trying to figure out what to do with the four-foot copperhead sunning on our back deck. Subsequent Googling suggested that the sizable snake was likely a pregnant mama looking for a place to hunker down for the winter after giving birth — to as many as 14 slithering offspring. Marcy’s yelp this suggested that she had found said offspring.

Humina-humina-humina …

We see you.

Sure enough, under the sixth of 10 wooden steps leading up to the pool was the distinctive desert camouflage of a curled copperhead. Marcy had made it up to the fifth step and was going for six when she noticed a portion of the snake where her foot was headed.

Humina-humina-humina …

Once we’d retreated to a safe distance and the adrenaline had settled, Marcy let it be known that she’d like the snake gone. I looked around; she was addressing to me.

She had a point. We have kids, after all, and while the copperhead’s bite usually isn’t fatal to people, it can cause a world of hurt, destroying tissue and causing infection. According to the N.C. State Cooperative Extension Service Web site on copperheads, “North Carolina has the dubious distinction of the most venomous snake bites of any state in the U.S.” However, in the very next passage, “Many of these bites could be prevented by avoiding the snake instead of trying to kill it or pick it up. Avoid Copperhead snakes! Allow it to go on its way undisturbed.”

Live and let live!

Mama, last fall.

The news got evening better: “All the snake species tested have had the same initial response to human presence. If given the opportunity, they escape …”

But then, the site added, most venomous snakes will give a warning if they feel threatened: the rattlesnake raises its rattle and gives a shake, the cottonmouth opens its mouth wide. It’s not a warning that it is about to strike; rather, a warning that it would like to be left alone. The copperhead, unfortunately, is different. “Most copperheads tested have struck out immediately when they felt threatened.”

So … . Any thoughts on how to evict a copperhead? Or 14?

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Braving the wilds of Cary