There’s a Suborder Serpentes club?
Why was I not notified?
[is there a Boidae division?]...;D
I know I’ve never seen that beautiful snake here in W.MD.
The grandest thing I’m likely to see is an especially nice Corn or Milk snake..or if I’m really lucky, a particularly great little Ring Neck.
Usually it’s just Garters, Racers and Rats..the letter two of which is usually smashed on the road...:(
The Copperheads and Rattlers stay politely up on the mountains.
[well, except for the baby Copper I kept in a jar for a week when I was a teenager...I told my dad it was a Milk snake and he hates/fears *all* snakes and never checked to see what it really was]...;D
It was his and y neighbor’s fault for the mouse plague we had several years ago.
They so successfully eradicated every snake in the area [including the Garters that hung around in my Willow trees] that the mice just took over]
They finally got the *huge* Rat Snake that’s been here for at *least* 20 years last summer.
I found his decapitated body in the stream bed beside my lane.
That was so sad.
“Snake” [yes, how original] was at least 7 feet long and as big around as Coke can.
He was very beautiful, in his own plain-black-wrapper sort of way.
Every year the Garter snake that lurks near my Koi pond leaves its shed on the rock beside my back door.
Far as I know, since Snake got killed, she/he’s probably the only snake left on the property.
[well, *outside* of the house, anyway]....>:-)
As an aside from, my friend in central VA found an albino Rattler in the woods near her house last summer.
I’m still ragging her for not catching it.
It would be worth a fortune....LOL
Sorry to hear that your neighbors have eradicated the harmless snake population ...I can understand killing a poisonous snake in an area where it is likely to come in contact w/humans or pets ...although, personally, I would choose to relocate it to a remote area if possible. Unfortunately most people can't tell one snake from another; so, naturally, they kill them all our of fear.
I try to let my neighbors know I will gladly be the “go to guy” to remove any snakes from their premises ...usually it's too late, though, by the time I find out someone has already killed another “copperhead” ...last one turned out to be a beautiful young eastern kingsnake; how they thought that was a “copperhead” I will never know ...same/same w/northern brown snakes/ring-necked snakes/mole kingsnakes ...all “copperheads” to the locals.
We have quite a few eastern hog-nosed snakes in the area ...I've caught several in the yard ...last one was a neat melanistic specimen which I relocated to a wooded area on Ft Lee (local Army Post) where I figured he'd have a decent chance for survival. We also have eastern rat snakes, northern water snakes, brown water snakes, garter snakes and rough green snakes ...also saw what was left of a rough earth snake my younger brother killed in his yard down in Chesapeake ...had never seen that species in the wild before (or since). Technically, there are cottonmouths in the local part of the Appomattox River and Copperheads are found throughout most of VA ...I've never seen either in the local neighborhood or the local park that borders the Appomattox. I have seen both species when out in the woods or fishing; but, most of those were down in the feeder creeks on the west bank of the tidal portion of the James River ...cottonmouths are quite common on some of those brackish feeder creeks ...have seen groups of them sunning on logs together down there.
Sounds like a very large rat snake that you had in the yard ...probably consumed a lot of rodents to get that big. Too bad about her ultimate fate ...life's tough if you're a snake.
Be careful w/those “hot” herps ...I leave them to the pro’s; and even they usually get “nailed” eventually. I'm sure you have probably seen photo's of necrotic hands/feet after a bite from a pit viper. I value my extremities waaaay too much to want to expose them to that possibility ...and of course people do die from snakebite or anaphylactic shock from a reaction to the antivenin.
Good luck w/your herping ...and stay safe!