Recently a large snake has been feeding around the dock of my small pond. It is about four feet long, a dull brown color and has recently become agressive. My pond is within the city limits or I would shoot it. What other means of extermination are available?

Where do you live Gainsville GA? or some where else...get a few King snakes.....they can finish him off..

If I couldn't kill it with a hoe, I'd go ahead and shoot it. Buy some 22 caliber Calibri bullets. They contain no powder and are quiet. I would bet they have a very limited range and have not known of one ricicheting.

I knocked a squirrel out of a tree at 85 ft. using the calibri. Lucky shot? Yep. However, the bullet did its job. They are so quiet that I'm using them on squirrels in my back yard in the city. They have chewed 2 holes in the side of my house. Even with a limited power bullet, I'd follow all of the normal safety rules.

If the snake is agressive he shouldn't be too hard to get rid of. It's the shy ones that are difficult.
A frog gig comes to mind. If you don't have one one can be purchased @ country hardware stores though you'll probably have to furnish your own cane pole. Once you've gigged him it's your choice of terminaiton. Simply holding him under water for 30 min would work.

Is this a water moccosine??

not if it's brown,water mocc.is black,most likely a water snake.

Around my dock/pier which is built from rocks, we have a bunch of water snakes. But man are they aggressive. You can throw big rocks at them when they're in the water, and they just move over a few inches and stare at you with their mouths open. They don't "run away."

I fish from there w/ shiners and minnows all the time so they wait around for a free meal. I guess it doesn't help that I throw them some dead shiners from time to time.

But to James, if you wanted him dead, you could also just use a higher powered bb/pellet gun if you still didn't want to use the .22 as suggested.

Here is a website from South Carolina about snakes. Might help at least identify it. http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/species.htm

Very good site Svoberts!!
Sunil,
Take a look @ the cottonmouth pix. Does that look like what you have? Usually a common water snake will not hold it's mouth open, however that's precisely how the cottonmouth got it's name! Both are agressive.
James,
After the snake is dead, you can positivly identify it as poisonous or not by looking @ it's eyes. All pit vipers in the US have vertical iris's. The only poisonous snake native to the US that doesn't is the Coral snake.

Ric, thanks for the info. as always. I looked at the pics. I'm pretty sure the snakes I have are just water snakes. While they do hold their mouths open, I think they're just wanting me to throw a dead shiner to them. They don't have any fangs.

One of my friends picked one up, and it excreted some kind of stink onto him.

We pretty much just deal with them. When you see one, you can be sure that there are at least five more in the near vicinity.

Sunil , when you mess with him on shore , does he wag his tail like a rattler.

I am a little late on this subject. But You should remember that a 22 caliber rifle bullet can and will travel a mile. And it can and will richochet off of the water, rock or stump. I would op for the 22 caliber air rifle, if you are trying to be quiet about it. Most are single shot, but some have multiple shot capacity, I would invest in one of these for snakes. My neighbor uses a 22 cal. rifle for his snake problem I can always tell when he misses !!!! Just a thought since you may never know where that bullet may land , or wish you never knew. But just in case the 22 rifle is still desired , they do make a 22 cal. snake shot for this gun, it works in pistol or rifle. I have some snake shot for my 357 pistol. And if noise is not a problem a 410 shotgun makes a better weapon to hit a moving target. It has less richochet and distance problems.

Moccosins are brown, and sort of short and stubby. They are a thick kind of snake. The king snake is black and more of a longer type snake. By the way if it is a king snake, you want to keep them!! If poisenous, kill him the quickest way possible...

Ken, No these snakes just stare at you. No tail wagging happening.

i was just wondering , cause i got milk snakes at and around the pond. they excrete stuff to , but when you mess with them they hold their ground and rattle their tails. they move more at night , but i see them early and late. i think snakes are cool and play an important part of the system.

You can tell if a snake is poisionous by the shape of his head. flat in the back nose to a point its poisionous, if its a full diamond its not. Look it up

Is there anyway to treat the Pond to get rid of Water Moccasins???

We have quite a few.

HHodge,

Under the thread entited "HELP" you'll see a topic on geese. One poster believes having geese around has helped keep the snakes under control. Only snakes I have around my area are water snakes, blacks, garters and copperheads (never seen one by the pond).......all non-poisonous except for the copperhead.

Russ

Russ,
Thanks for your quick response. My pond is on a ranch in the Texas Panhandle. I am 90% positive I have Water Moccassins in the pond. Being on a ranch we always watch for snakes. However after doing some research water moccasins eat fish, and I would like to try to protect the fish from the snake.

Is there some way to draw them out so that I can shoot them???

Probably very small snake chaps are your best bet. Buy half as many as you have fish and use only one leg from each per fish. Seriously, though, I don't imagine there is any way to entice moccasins out into the open. In Alabama, at least, if you do see a snake swimming and the snake gives the appearance of being mostly on top of the water instead of at or just under the surface (and especially if the head is out of water while actively swimming), it is almost certainly a moccasin. Water snakes are thinner per unit of length and swim through the water with their heads on the same plane as their bodies. It is important not to count on black vs. brown as an identifying feature. The color of moccasins varies from one to the next and also with age.

In the spring, I used to keep a little 410 in my boat and popped ‘em as I saw ‘em. After April or very early May, they rarely came out into the open. As I mentioned in another thread, now that we have so many geese around, we hardly ever see a snake either in the water or around the house (which is on the shore). We still have to watch where we put our feet, but that is because of the goose's number one product.
Lou

The only possible way I know of to "draw them out" is if you could manage to mimic young birds in a nest or wood duck box. They are attracted to such things.

Over this past holiday weekend, the snakes were out in full force at my pond. Around my pier, there were at least (5) out and visible at one time.

We were sitting there fishing, and I would hit one of the snakes pretty hard w/ the end of my fishing pole. These snakes would just stay there and taunt me to try and beat 'em some more.

As we were leaving on Monday, the largest of the snakes (maybe 3-4'long and 2-3" in diameter) somehow ended up catching a small 3-4" bluegill in the shallows near my pier.

I threw one of my bait buckets, while holding onto the tether, on the snake. I had to land the bait bucket on him three times before he let go of the bluegill. The bluegill did get away.

Prior to this past weekend, I was content to just let these snakes co-exist. Now I think I'm going to have to waste some of 'em.

Live & learn, they along with turtles also eat alot of the same things your fish eat. If you want snakes fine, if you want turtles, fine, I want fish so the snakes & turtles better stay in someone elses pond!

My sentiments exactly, Ric. I keep a .410 with me at pond. My pond was built last summer and stocked last fall and this spring. in the last 3 weeks we have taken out at least 40 various snakes of all sizes. Now I'm also waging war on the turtles. I saw them eating the channel cat fry that spawned. I would rather my bass have them to grow on. The .410 works really well if not too far and is safer than the .22.

Thanks for all the input. I guess I will start getting my 30-30 out when I am at the fishin Hole.

Well I guess I'm a convert now towards eradicating the snakes. My wife's input is pro-termination also.

As these snakes are typically on or around rocks, I thought I would just attach a machete to a long stick and ace 'em that way.

But is there a type of ammo that would be safe when basically shooting at rocks?

Man!! see if you can run across some King snakes some where ad stock them!! Really, I here that these things can put a beating to rattle snakes and water moccosines....I heard of farmers using these beasts to get rid of poisnous snakes.....

I tell you the truth, if one of these poisnous snakes bites one of your kids!! you will take a WHOLE nother view on this pond and lake management thing...I tell you..

If king snake bites, no harm done at all...even the biggest of king snakes are absolutly harmless..

I have been skeered of snakes since I can remember. It is all I can do not to blast a blacksnake. Any snakes I don't recognize or recognize as poisonous become slithering skeet targets for s SS 410. Rattlesnakes are considered endangered in Indiana (I don't even know anyone who has ever seen on in the state) but if one ever comes on my property (and I see it) I will have some rattles to hang over my outdoor bar. "shoot first, identify later"!!

As far as ammo for snakes, the best idea is snake or rat shot in pistol loads. I've seen them in .22, .38, and .45, and I'm sure they come in others. On rocks, anything will (not might) riochett and may put a hurtin' on YOU or someone around you. I have also seen .410 Derringers (really small pistols) at gun shows that would be handy for snakes. At a minimum, wear some sort of safety glasses (many quality sunglasses are polycarbonate.) Solid shot (.22, .38, or .30-30) should not be fired around rocks.

Interesting side note, I saw a 4' snake (king, I think) climb a tree practically straight up, with one small kink in bark, to a limb 4.5' off the ground. I was impressed.

Ain't it amazing the interest in snakes!(yuk) They are, however a part of nature and ya gotta deal with em! The best and safest way to deal with snakes on rocks is probably "rat shot" it comes in a varitey of calibers, from .22 - .44 mag. Always wear shooting/safety glasses when using it around rocks because it to will ricochet even though it has a limited range (5-10 yards)is my rough estimate. I mostly use it at 5-10 feet along soft shorelines. If the snakes are as agressive as you say, they can be caught using a small hook and one of your dead shiners. Just dangle it in front of them, let them bite, give them some line, and then wait, just like worm fishing for bass. Have someone stand by with a shovel handle, and when you pull the snake out give him a liberal dose of oak !!!!! Use to do this when we were kids on the rice farm, just for fun!! Go Get Um!!!

Thanks guys.

I'll have to get some of that "rat shot."

And James, you're right on. These snakes will take a shiner on a hook.

I found a low risk method for catching and disposing of snakes around my pond. Noticed a few about 3 feet long and wanted to find out, like you, if they were moc's or not. They weren't. I used a minnow trap - the one with 2 funnel entrances pointing inward. I put it right at water's edge, so the snake would have to go around it as it cruised the shallows. I placed a small frog inside and a day or so later I had one really mad snake inside. Inside the trap, it's safe to examine it. Mine was a water snake, so he lived. I would think that a Moc would fall for the same bait, but not sure. If so, you can drown it by sinking it for a while, or whatever method you like. Worked for me.
Dave

Yep, I caught three water moc's in one of those little minnow traps once. I whacked em with a stick for a while, then shot them with a 22. Then the Lord called them home.

Or maybe the devil did.

PS
Looks like we have a shortage of the bleeding heart, let them live, they deserve to live types here.

Well Nick, all I'll say is ... some things ya just gotta take in stride.

Since we are going to be doin' a lot of shootin', may I offer that now would be a really good time to get a kid and a shotgun or 22 together? Using all of the commonsence gun safety rules, Let's go shoot! Lots of good things come from this - most important - spending time with them, then working on accuracy, and at the end of it all, a biology lesson on the anatomy of that legless lizard. Great for taking the scaryness out of snakes - makes them an animal just like everthing else and not some monster...even though it is in a way...

Good lord, an aggressive snake is so easy to deal with. Just take a fishing rod with 8-10 lb test line and make a slip knot in the end of it leaving a loop large enough to fit over the snake's head. You can easily snare them with this (or any reptile for that matter)since snakes just don't pay any attention to the fishing line. Then just dump him in a bag cut off the line and take him off somewhere and release him. All the drama with the gun stuff is overkill.

Layton Runkle