I dont normally do snakes ,but I am going to a home tomorrow where according to her description there are 3 or 4 young copperheads in a closet of a home. I dont have tongs ect, all I have is boots lol. Any advice on capture and removal would be GREATLY appreciated.

Get some tongs!

Why wouldn't you charge enough to buy tongs?

If you get bit, will the sale of this job cover your medical expenses?

Tongs are a must for those not comfortable handling reptiles.

Now that said for copperheads a hook is the better tool. Being smaller and lighter they ride a hook better, all you really have to do is to lift them just enough to clear a bucket. They also do not react as badly when lifted by a hook as when pinched by a tong.

I really much prefer hooks to tongs since every time I've tonged a hot I get some sort of objection from the snake. The most memorable was a large timber that I tonged to far back and the tong locked up and would not release. When that happened the timber made a go for me and since there was more of the bad side of the snake on one side of the tong than there was handle I let him have the tongs and had to get clear. Were it not for a hook he would still have those tongs to this day.
With a hook I can get a handle on most any snake and get it clear to a nice level playing field without major bad reactions.

David,

I like your thoughts on the hook versus tongs, bought a hook for next year, seems most folks agree that once you are
into it a bit, the hook is better, I use the "gentle giant" tongs right now 60" pair but have seen with a long branch how
diamondbacks don't react the same way as when you put a bit too much pressure on with the tongs, more like they are
just crawling over something in the natural world.

Definitely agree with everyone though, tongs or hook should be a no brainer for venomous snakes. Not even close
to the most expensive piece of equipment I have, but the most expensive mistake I could make would be trying to handle
without them and being bitten.

Midwest tongs, WCS (wildlife control supplies), the list goes on, and on......

Justin

If markings are black/squareish on grey background, they are black rat snake young.

Even when young copperheads are grey/black, they still have HOURGLASS shaped markings.

Most of the public don't know this.......

I, too, like a hook at times but it'd be wise to invest in tongs, so you'll be covered in all situations.

One thing I don't think is taught enough is the one third rule that applies to North America's hots. Generally speaking our pit vipers, we only have one other non pit viper hot and it can not "strike" like a pit viper, can only make a determined strike from a prepared coiled position and only do so for aproximately a third of the length of their body. Any strike from a non coiled prepered position is more of a reflex and even shorter in reach. Since even the largest of our vipers rarely even approach the six foot mark we can safely say that as long as body parts do not come within a two to three foot range of the beast then a bite is not possible. Remeber this and use tools of the appriate length and when restraining a hot with those tools the upper third is the part you want to be working on.
Since most all of our hots fall under the six foot mark and with a proper front third grasp with tools should be used then the length of your tools should be in the thirty inch range or longer. The shorter tools require more finesse as you are that much closer to your one third safety factor and for most work IMO the standard 40" tools are perfect. Again JMO but the longer than 40" tools play more on the fear factor than actual need unless your extractions are being done under conditions that require the length. I could see the use of a 60 incher inside an attic for instance but on flat level open ground no. I also have a use for the ultra short 24" tools but only for those tight spots insides homes like closets and cabinetry and never on hots unless they are very small hots.
The biggest limitations I have found using hooks is mass. The larger bodied snakes do very poorly trying to balance on a single 3/8" titanium rod and do not do well being lifted by a single hook. Use two hooks, one under the front with the other supporting the weight at the rear or even better for those needing more control a lightly applied tong up front with a supporting tong or hand at the rear.
The same applies to a lesser degree to our larger colubrids such as the common rat snakes but they will often use the hook itself as a support and coil around it. Caution, they are also more prone to use the hook as a means of escape and come at you. Fortunately being non vemomous that does not worry me but it can be very unnerving to the less confident. That is why for the big non venomous snakes my use of the hook is limited to either pinning or moving them to a more advantagous position until I can get a hand on them.

Good tips David!

I like my 60" for probing in crawlspaces and under porches and decks but agree, 40" would be fine and logical for most.
I don't get big diamondbacks like eastern NM and west TX, ours tend to be 36-42" max and most people see are in the 18-24"
range.

What I have noticed though in my region is that rattlers don't rattle often enough, have had some very close and have completed
the whole removal process on many without any rattle whatsoever, which most folks rely on when speaking to me. I always hear
"oh they rattle to let you know they are there," not true with most I see unless they are "hot" and irritated too!

Justin

Justin, I've heard a theory being posited about on that. Supposedly the rattling is being bred out of them as snakes that rattle freely are easily found and eliminated by humans. While I do not know of any data to support this claim there is also a similar theoretical claim made about the wild turkey and the amount of gobbling on hears on hunted and non hunted lands, which I tend to give some credence to based on personal experience. It may also be an example of learned behavior as well, who knows.

Have heard the same David, we have a great book written by herpetologists here in NM that I use as my reference.
There are discussions about certain rattlesnakes doing as you said, gravid females for example were less likely to rattle
which to me shows clearly they are trying to avoid detection.

Since most of my calls are in urban/suburban foothill areas, with more than 30+ years of selective pressure, why not?

I definitely feel often we overlook how quickly animals learn, now how that is passed on, all that great genetics stuff
or learned behavior, is where the interesting part happens, just happy to get to see so me of it in action.

Another great example is how gopher snakes will readily shake the tip of their tail and flatten their head into a triangle
to mimic rattlers.

How did that start? What it does though to them often is make them get the shovel because folks believe they are the
real deal!

I spend more time saying please look at its tail from a safe distance and if you don't see any rattles and the snake is
more than 8 inches long, you've got a non venomous snake (at least where I live).

Though with exotics, I suppose caution is the better part of what I should use always, though I never encourage anyone
to pick up a snake themselves if they can't send a pic by phone or text to help me confirm what they are looking at.

Speaking of turkey and such, I remember a whitetail buck that was near my friends house back in NY, it would lay down flat
in the corn stubble, neck outstretched as trucks slowed (road hunting). Again, who is going to pass on the genes, that guy
or the guy standing up saying "look at me, look at me!"

Lol!

Makes me enjoy what I do even more to see these adaptations at work!

Justin

Thanx for all the help very good info . jackie

Well,rdfxtrap, how'd it go and what kinda markings?????