By Crystal McGough, Editor of The Trussville Tribune
Snake season is now in full swing in Alabama, and each year, from April to September, social media is flooded with posts and photos from people who have encountered a snake, whether it be in a local park, on a favorite walking trail, or even in their neighborhood or home.
We’ve all seen these posts in our social feeds, ranging from requests for identification, to warnings for people to be careful, to boasts about having killed a snake. The comment sections are every bit, if not more diverse, full of conflicting information that includes both correct and incorrect ID’s, suggestions to kill it or “burn down the house,” recommendations for relocations services and more. How is a person to know what to do?
Hi, I’m Crystal McGough. Many people reading this may already know my name through The Trussville Tribune, for which I’ve worked in various capacities over the last 13 years and am now the editor. A few things you may not know about me include that I’m a passionate follower of Christ, a homeschooling mother of four, a novice herpetologist (someone who studies reptiles and amphibians) and a lover of all animals, with a special place in my heart for the scaly kind.
I have also been trained by two of the most highly qualified snake experts in the state, Alabama Herpetological Society founder Raymond Corey and Auburn University biologist and herpetologist Jimmy Stiles, on how to catch and relocate native snakes, including venomous species.
First and foremost, I want to get the word out to those in The Tribune coverage area that I am here to help if you encounter a snake. But more importantly, I’d like to answer a few common questions surrounding snake encounters and offer additional resources that should be useful this summer (and in the future) when and if you do see a snake in an unexpected location.
Some questions that may arise when you encounter a snake may include:
- Is the snake I saw poisonous/venomous?
- Are my children and pets in danger?
- Isn’t the only good snake a dead snake?
- Won’t my family and I be safer if I kill it?
First of all, out of 43 species of snakes in the state of Alabama, only six are venomous/medically significant to humans. Of those six, only four exist within The Tribune coverage area. Those are the Eastern Copperhead, Northern Cottonmouth, Timber Rattlesnake and the rarely-encountered Pygmy Rattlesnake.
Everyone – and I do mean EVERYONE who is old enough to learn the difference between dogs, cats, tigers, lions, etc. – should be able to accurately identify the venomous snakes in their local ecosystem. It really isn’t hard to learn, and once you know which ones to keep a safe distance from, you can then develop an appreciation or at least an understanding that any others you encounter are nothing to fear.
While I’m not going to get into the technicalities of snake identification here, I will say that head shape is probably one of the worst ways to attempt to identify a snake. The majority of our local nonvenomous species are able to flatten their heads into a distinct triangle shape – sometimes even more triangular than a viper’s head – when they feel threatened or scared, which results in harmless, beneficial animals getting misidentified and killed, and could also result in someone trying to pick up a venomous species whose head does not appear quite as triangular as one of a nonvenomous snake they saw previously.
In short, unless you’ve studied herpetology to any degree, you should probably just forget everything you think you know about snakes and their identification, and join groups like Alabama Reptile and Amphibian ID & Education, Alabama Snake Identification and Alabama Snake Identification: Discussion.
For many people, though, it doesn’t matter what kind of snake it is; they don’t want to see any snake hanging out around their home or neighborhood. But living in the South, snakes are a fact of life (and truth to be told, it often seems that those who actually want to see wild snakes stumble across them far less often than those who don’t).
If you do encounter a snake, first things first, please don’t kill it. Killing snakes does not make anyone safer; it only creates an illusion or false-sense of safety. Snakes don’t like hanging out where humans hang out, so if you’re seeing one, it’s probably following a food source such as harmful, potentially-disease-carrying rodents. Kill one snake – especially a harmless one – and another, potentially venomous, snake may take its place. Or worse, you could be left with a rodent infestation, a flea-infested home, or even a house fire caused by rats and squirrels getting into your walls and chewing on your electrical wires.
The simple fact is, once you see the snake and the snake sees you – and you are both aware of each other’s presence – no one has to be in any danger. The snake doesn’t want an interaction with you any more than you want one with it. You can each go your own way and chances are you will never see that snake again, as it will soon move on to chase after another food source.
In fact, once you know it’s there, attempting to kill the snake increases your chances of being bitten. If you are not OK with simply leaving it where it is, you can spray it with a water hose from a safe distance to encourage it to move on, or call a professional snake relocator like Alabama Snake Removers, or feel free to text me at (205) 261-9331 or send a direct message to my Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/crystal.mcgough.12.
If you enjoyed this column and would like to see more content like this from the editor, please let me know by emailing news@trussvilletribune.com, Subject: “Attention Editor.”