Around the house and barn we see common black rat snakes more then anything else. But there is a pond next to the barn and we've seen quite a few cotton mouths too. The pond drains through my yard, and my dogs kill at least one cotton mouth a year.
My oldest dog has been bitten twice by cotton mouths that I know of for sure. We saw it happen the first time and found the snake after she killed it the second time. On another day, my wife and I where sitting on the back porch and the old girl and our big boy took off into the ditch. The each grabbed an end to a cotton mouth and pulled it apart. I had no idea that when a snake is pulled in half that it would make such a loud popping noise!!!!! A year later I found the front half of a cotton mouth in the leaves while cleaning up the porch, so they did it at least twice.
The rat snakes go into the chicken coups and eat the eggs and baby chicks. I've killed them full of both. The cotton mouths tend to stay closer to the water, and it's easier to walk past them and not see them. I did kill one cotton mouth laying on the gravel next to the back door. My wife had walked past it three times before seeing it. She was within 5 feet of it, but it was night time and she wasn't looking down. It wasn't coiled up, it was laying there in an S shape. I guess it was warming itself on the gravel?
I've also ran over them on the driveway several times over the years. If I'm in the Mule, I go back for a gun, I don't like the idea of trying to drive over them in the open sided mule. Usually they are long gone by the time I get back with my pistol. At my big pond, which is a fair distance from the house and my small pond, they are pretty thick. I kill a few every year while mowing. One year I didn't have my pistol with me and I saw a cotton mouth coming out of the water and across the dam. I sped up the zero turn with the intention of mowing over it, but then it coiled up on me and I got scared that it might go over the deck and not under it, so I stopped and went up to the house for my pistol. I never saw it again.
While fishing, I've kicked them out of the reeds and tall weeds along the shoreline. When they swim, they are super buoyant and it looks like they are on top of the water, more then other snakes that seem to be mostly submerged. The copper heads are out in the fields, or under logs. I did have a mating pair under my row boat one year. And another time when I was picking up the row boat to get it out into the water, my wife looked under and yelled out "its huge" which scared me pretty good, but it was just a bullfrog.
I probably kill a couple of copper heads every year. Maybe half a dozen cotton mouths. and easily a dozen or more rat snakes. Over the years, the more I clear my land, and the better I do at keeping it mowed and bush hogged, the fewer snakes I see. I've had hawks and coyotes follow me while mowing and they are usually hunting field mice and rats, but twice I've seen a hawk fly off with a snake.
Last year I bought the bigger tractor and batwing, and my mowing has been a lot better. For the first time every, I was able to mow all of my open areas three times. Before that, I was never able to mow all of my land once in a full year. I think the shorter grass also makes it easier for predators to catch the snakes, and it makes the food source for the snakes harder to survive.
Along that line, I've gone from having just one or two cats, to having 20 cats. During the worse year of snakes, we didn't have any cats, and we saw mice everywhere. Mice love chicken food, chickens sleep at night, mice feed all night long.
More mice, more snakes!!!!
More cats, less mice, less snakes!!!!!
The past year was my best year for not seeing as many snakes as I have in the past. I'm hoping that with more mowing, I'll see even fewer next year.
My go to weapon for killing snakes is a Ruger Security Six 357 with 38 snakeshot and a 4 tine rake. I like the tines so I can get around the snake inside a chicken box and pull it out, then shoot it with the pistol in my other hand. I've also used it for getting snakes out from places I don't want to shoot into, and away from my animals. Mine is very similar to this, but I don't remember paying that much for it. I've had it for a very long time and it's my favorite tool for dealing with snakes!!!
