We get all sorts of critters at the farm: foxes, snapping turtles, blue herons, deer, you name it. We also get snakes. Usually these are black rat snakes or black racers, but occasionally we get a copperhead.

Copperheads are one of the few species of poisonous snakes in North Carolina, although their poison is so mild that no one in North Carolina has ever died from a bite (and the only fatalities from copperheads tend to be the very young or very old, or people who receive multiple bites from different snakes at the same time). It is supposedly still painful, though, so I’m hoping to never experience it first hand.

A couple of years ago the dogs came across the largest copperhead I’ve ever seen. I swear this thing was easily six feet long, although my friend David likes to point out that the record is around 52 inches. I was torn about what to do. I don’t like killing snakes, even poisonous ones, but with the dogs and horses hanging around I couldn’t leave it alone.

So I found a forked stick and decided to try and catch it. I did manage to accurately pin its neck, but the thing was so large that it took of and broke the stick in the process.

I have the occasional nightmare about that snake. While I meant it no harm, I could easily see it biting me just for spite, and there is a part of my brain that thinks I could become the first person killed by a copperhead bite.

We never saw that one again, so the process is usually to leave them alone until they go away. Unfortunately, for the last week or so there has been a small one (about 15 inches long) hanging around the house. At this time of year they are nocturnal, and the dogs have developed a very identifiable “I found a snake!” bark.

Monday night they started barking right up next to the house, so I decided once again to try a catch a copperhead. I used the following procedure:

Using a broom with small bristles (basically a brush on a stick) I pinned the snake so I couldn’t get away. I could apply pressure without worrying too much about harming it.

Then, with gloved hands, I grabbed its tail and gently pulled it back until its head was under the brush. I could then hold it behind the head so it couldn’t bite me.

I took it way down the street and dumped it in the woods. So far it hasn’t come back.

It was pretty weird. Most of the snakes we have around here are constrictors, and when you catch them they curl around your arm. This one just hung there.

I got to face a fear this week, so perhaps I won’t have any more nightmares about copperheads. I’m not so sure I’d be as eager to try this with a cottonmouth or a rattlesnake, though.