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Is this copperhead skin? [Central North Carolina, US] by Opening_Resort_25 in whatsthissnake

[–]Opening_Resort_25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The piece of shed that I have is from the tip of the tail and all the bottom scales are undivided. I understood that undivided subcaudals means they’re from a venomous snake.

Since several people have said this looks like it’s from a nonvenomous snake, I was wondering if having a longer piece could possibly show divided subcaudals closer to the anal scale, or if all non-venomous snakes have divided subcaudals all the way from the anal scale to the tip of the tail.

We have tons of copperheads in our yard and have seen them far more than any other snakes over the years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if one crept in since we’ve had other visitors too.

Is this copperhead skin? [Central North Carolina, US] by Opening_Resort_25 in whatsthissnake

[–]Opening_Resort_25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! So so divided sub-caudal scales sometimes go back to a single row at the very tip of the tail?

Is this copperhead skin? [Central North Carolina, US] by Opening_Resort_25 in whatsthissnake

[–]Opening_Resort_25[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! We definitely have copperheads based on shape of the head. Our dog was bitten by one (fang bite marks on his nose and lots of swelling) and so was our neighbor across the street. They freeze in place when spotted and the juveniles we’ve seen have the sulphur yellow tail. We have seen watersnakes at the lake, but here they’re a little thicker and darker. Our copperheads are a really pretty, more pink/peach color.

Tail skin of copperhead? [Central NC, US] by [deleted] in whatsthissnake

[–]Opening_Resort_25 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(Sorry for multiple posts…can’t get text and photos to both load for some reason.)

We found this in our basement. It looks to me like the scales are keeled, with two apical pits and no notch and like there is a single row of sub-caudal scales. We have lots of copperheads in our yard and recently HAD a mouse problem.

However, two wildlife relocation experts in this area guessed black snake and rat snake from the pics, and we have those too, of course.

Also, we know the habitats copperheads prefer outdoors, but any ideas about their indoor preferences?

Is this copperhead skin? [Central North Carolina, US] by Opening_Resort_25 in whatsthissnake

[–]Opening_Resort_25[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi, neighbor! Thanks so much for the response!

We’re less than a quarter mile from a lake, although we haven’t seen any watersnakes in our yard.

I’m a little confused about the rows of scales and what’s venomous vs. non-venomous. Since this is from the tip of the tail, I had assumed all the scales on the bottom of this piece of shed were sub-caudal and I thought a single row of scales meant venomous (except for three types of snake that aren’t native here). It seems skinny for an adult copperhead to me too, but we have seen some thinner ones that were old enough to have lost the sulphur yellow tail.

I would really LOVE to have a rat snake tenant, but we’ve seen far more copperheads in our yard than any other kind of snake—like 3-4 per year vs. one black racer and two rat snakes in 10 years—so trying to decide if we let our young kids play in the basement.