Community Corner

Loudoun's Snakes Should Raise Caution, Not Fear

A Lansdowne resident killed a 2-foot copperhead in his backyard this weekend.

As summer sets in and exploring becomes a favorite outdoor activity, residents should remain alert when disturbing certain areas, even in their own backyards because of the potential for dangerous creatures. That doesn’t mean it’s not OK to go outside; it just means resident should be cautious.

Earlier this week, John Andrews – a local developer, former school board chairman and a candidate for school board this year – spotted and killed a poisonous copperhead in his backyard along Canoe Landing Court in Lansdowne.

“I have a garden and I’m watering the plants and I see something move,” he explained. Once he identified the spotted serpent, he recalled a previous incident.

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“My daughter got bit, by a baby one in the front yard,” he said referring to an incident a year earlier, when his daughter was 5. “It won’t kill you, but it causes severe agonizing pain. It was terrifying in the emergency room.”

A website for U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service offers information about copperheads on its page about the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky and confirms Andrews’ assertion: “Copperhead bites are painful, but rarely pose a serious threat to human life.”

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By the next day, Andrews said, his daughter’s finger had turned black and was bent out of its normal position, requiring physical therapy. He said a neighbor found a snake in a much pile and other neighbors have found baby snakes, most believed to be copperheads.

So, when Andrews saw the 2-foot snake, “I whacked it in the head with a shovel and threw it in the woods,” he said. “The buzzards came and got him by the next day.”

Angela Joynt, of the newly named Loudoun County Department of Animal Services, confirmed the species and offered some tips to keep such creatures away from your home.

“The snake in the picture is indeed a copperhead,” Joynt said in response to an email inquiry. “Snakes tend to hang out in tall grass, brush, woodpiles, and outbuilding.”

Because they often feed on large amounts of rodents, Joynt said, ridding your yard of certain items might help keep such snake prey away.

“If the residents keep the area clear and rid of garbage or bird feeders, which attract mice and other rodents, this should reduce the attraction of snakes, both venomous and non,” she said.

According to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the USDA website, mice are copperheads’ primary prey, but they also eat lizards, small snakes, frogs, small birds, large caterpillars, cicadas and other insects.

The USDA website described the copperhead’s primary habitat as “wooded hillsides with rock outcrops above streams or ponds.”

Copperheads bask “during the day in spring and fall, becoming nocturnal as the days grow warmer,” according to that website. “Favored summer retreats are stonewalls, piles of debris near abandoned farms, sawdust heaps, and rotting logs, and large flat stones near streams. In fall, copperheads return to their den site, often a rock outcrop on a hillside with a southern or eastern exposure.”

The VDGIF website suggests copperheads often twitch their tail rapidly when alarmed, while the USDA website states, “Young copperheads twitch their yellow-tipped tail to lure prey.”

Besides finding snakes in your backyard be aware when hiking or strolling next to streams and or along trails.

“I think most people don’t know there are these poisonous things out there.” Andrews said.


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