Cottonmouths

Interested in how far north anyone has seen a cottonmouth?

Use to trap south of Little Rock and would see them on a regular basis during warm spells.

we have some in parts of KY.

Furthest north I’ve seen them is around ft. Leonard wood MO.

They're in Southern Ill, and there are places in W. Kentucky that will freak you out.

Around here people claim common watersnakes are cottonmouths. People are certain they're really cottonmounts and they're venemous. The adults look extremly similar, and have a sour attitude. But they're just water common snakes.

Compare cottonmouths to some of these common water snakes

I've grabbed many water snakes where I had to check the eyes to see its not a cottonmouth, but no, I have never seen an actual cottonmouth other than in captivity.

Well someGuyInKansas this is your lucky day. You have my cordial invitation to come on down to Murphy's pond, and the Benton bottoms in Kentucky to get to see, touch, and stare into the elliptical eyes of a beautiful genuine cottonmouth.

No charge, and once you smell them (before seeing them) your going to fall in love, Lol.

Seriously, if you ever want to wade into a hundred of them, we can make it happen.

If it’s aggressive it’s a water snake. If it’s nonaggressive it’s a cottonmouth. I see more cottonmouth’s on dry land away from water down here than I see near the water.

I'm in Georgia and I've never seen one. In our state they're mostly in the southern half. They do come up to the southern parts of metro Atlanta and go all the way up the western side of the state. Most people around here mistake water snakes for cottonmouths. A lot of the state doesn't have suitable habitat for them.

^ All true.

Mike C
If ya need any, lm pretty sure Bossman, Varmint Shooter or l can surely spare a few to send ya!

I get several each spring in my yard. I'm about 40 miles north of north Carolina border. I have a creek that runs thru my property and there are some big ones by the creek.

ky_coyote_hunter, I have no doubt they exist in high numbers in some places. Just not around here.
I think I'll pass on your offer though. Thank you for keeping them all. I'm ok with the people around here being wrong.

Here's Evan Coppage in the Benton bottoms...Been stepping around this concentration my whole life.


[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/ZZF3MpDInLY?si=wfNzhobxpOq5rR-4[/video]

This picture clearly shows why they are called cottonmouths.

Keith

That one there looks like it has been brushing the teeth with Crest .dem teeth is white as they can be. If I steeped on him I could turned brown. We sure have our share of them here. We have some with a head big as a turnip root.

…. Now thats some snakes right there partner

You betcha Savell, gets a little sporty after dark. Lol.

Dang

You want to find a cottonmouth, grow you a field of watermelons in south Arkansas and when picking time comes you will find out what one looks like. They love to hunt bugs and mice under the Watermelon vines.

Someguyinkansas, same thing here. Most see a northern water snake and assume it’s a cottonmouth but the are not this far north.
We have some copperheads and timber rattlers on our corner of state, but very few of both. Massassaga rattlers are more common around here.
Out west of here it is prairie rattlers.
But no cottonmouths.
Jim

Holy crap!

And there I was complaining about the several I see.

You must have a different CM than further south.....different demeanor between the Eastern CM & the Florida CM.

Exactly opposite here......the aggressors are the CMs.

Rarely see them on dry land, but then again....there's more wetlands and swamps down here than Worth County.

Lol, don’t need ANY. Saw enough to last me a lifetime. When we first started trapping in Arkansas, my wife picked up a book on snakes native to the state. It said that cottonmouths could grow up to 4’ in length. Never learned how to post pics, but I have one of the wife holding one up that is every bit of 5 foot.

I was never in Arkansas in the summer, but all the farmers I trapped for told us about how aggressive they got in the summer.

You know, below zero all winter really isn't that bad. I would lose my mind with that many snakes.

I've fished few places you better get out before dark, but it was still like running the gauntlet trying to walk out!

I've held one someone killed in Southern Indiana.

I've heard in extreme se KS near Baxter springs there are a few. I wouldn't know

Pretty much have the place to myself ha,ha... Those snake handling preachers won't touch those woods!

..Look up Murphy's pond, Ky....One of the heaviest concentrations of cottonmouths in the country....I take people to the location of that video first to prepare them for Murphy's pond, or they're gonna lose it & freak, Lol.

Nah, you wouldn't lose your mind, it builds character.
..Kinda like running from them bears up North!

Does that mean we'll no longer be expecting you?

Here's the video



Keith

Even the snakes in the YouTube video aren’t aggressive. Most all I encounter just open their mouths and show you their namesake. Only had one strike my boot and that’s because I accidentally stepped on it. As soon as it struck it got the heck out of Dodge. I think most Cottonmouths people think are aggressive are just trying to get away and the easiest path is where the person is.
In a boat Cottonmouths swim by. Water snakes want in the boat. We’ve fished in the bank of the river and cottonmouths swim right beside us and never act aggressive.

Come on down closer to the Florida line and I'll show you how these other cottonmouths act.

When my dad was in the Navy he fished a bunch of different places in the Carolinas. He said if you were in a boat they might come over to investigate. But not really aggressive.

He said a couple times they got their fishing boat stuck on things. He said if you jumped out of the boat they would only then get angry and aggressive. Once you got back in the boat they would go off on their way and not bother you. He said he learned real quick how to play Jesus and run on water to get back into the boat.

…. Ride on over to East Texas …. They’ll break into your house around here

Savell, they’re just hot and thirsty. Get rid of the AC and beer and they’ll stay where they belong.

… if you ever rode over here … you’d likely be sexually assaulted by a cottonmouth while an armadillo rooted it on

…..cottonmouths eat live deer and steal old people’s social security checks in these parts

… but with all that being said

…. If you ever see me tangling with a cottonmouth… you better jump in and help that snake

…. Cottonmouths around here have been known to take down grown brahmer bulls and rob liquor stores

… cottonmouths are designated as a terrorist organization east of the pecos river

… I once saw a cottonmouth burn an American flag while stealing a poor kids lunch money

They must make copper heads look like red blooded patriots and rattlesnakes look like good neighbors.

Got a cottonmouth story.

A guy and his wife were wading in the James River above me 10 miles or so. Guy got out knee deep in the river and got bit twice by a cottonmouth.
They never figured out if he had been bit by one snake or two. Anyway, guy hobbles out of the water and the wife helps him in the car and they go home. He was on parole and pharmaceuticly enhanced at the time so didn't want to go to the emergency room. Also, they didn't have insurance. So,he went and took a nap and didn't wake up.




Below is out of the Missouri Conservationist:

Cottonmouths live in southern Missouri

As the weather warms up, many snakes will be moving about, and in southern Missouri, cottonmouths can be found along streams, ponds and lakes. Cottonmouth bites are rare in Missouri, but a Nixa man died in 2015 after having been bitten twice by a suspected cottonmouth while wading in the James River.

A toxicology report later determined the man also had a potentially lethal level of the narcotic Oxycodone in his blood at the time of his death.

The Missouri Department of Conservation notes that harmless and nonvenomous water snakes are often mistaken for venomous cottonmouths.

Our first quail hunt this year (Nov) we had a dog tangle up with 2 Cottonmouths. He was bit 3 times. He was back hunting in January. It was a rough few days at the beginning, but he made it.
All I know is it hit hard. I drug him off the snakes and in less than a minute I was having to help him to the wagon. We met the managers wife halfway and she was going to transport him to the vet. In just a few minutes time I had to carry him from the wagon to the truck. The vet had to carry him from the truck to the office.
What’s even crazier is the Summer before he got bit on the head by a baby Cottonmouth that made it into his kennel and was just given some Benadryl. Apparently head bites are better for a dog than leg/body bites even though his head swole up twice its normal size. Since he has a thing for snakes he’s now designated a late season dog vs early season, lol!

Had a neighbor back in the 70's who got bit by a cottonmouth while bowfishing.....Layed him up for a while but he recovered well, and soon got to stirring and started clearing out a thicket near his home.....Got bit by a copperhead!

Tough neighborhood, Lol.

Here ya go mike.

We used to be covered up with cottonmouths. Below is one at my basement door. Then the alligators got thick and the snakes, beavers, and nutrias basically disappeared.

My sons used the work the rice fields here in Arkansas. You learn to spot them real quick when handling levee gates!

That’s a bigun!

I live in Benton and have been told this is where the old landfill is located. It's part of the Clark's River National Wildlife Refuge now. I grew up in this area and cottonmouths are a part of daily life here.

That's true Pappy T....My grandparents lived up over the hill from the old S curve, not far from Boyce Claytons place.

The Briensburg & Benton kids used to tromp all over back in there hunting, fishing, frog gigging....Can't believe none of them were bit, or at least never heard of anyone getting bit.

That camo is no good!

Thanks Ack

Note the look on her face, she has always had a phobia about snakes. When she said she had to to get a picture of her holding it up, I couldn’t believe it.

She found a garter snake in a slop boot once. Thought it was a stick in her boot and dumped it on the floor, screamed, grabbed a hammer, and turned that snake into a grease spot on the basement floor.

Our cottonmouths aren't black like that. I think we have the Eastern aka Florida variety. Some of them have a really bright and colorful pattern.

I found this on the a-z-animals site.



"Also known as Florida cottonmouths, eastern cottonmouths are venomous pit vipers indigenous to the southeast regions of the United States. They are typically near the Florida Peninsula and Georgia. They are highly distributed in Florida, including the upper Keys and extreme southeastern Georgia, but spread into other parts of Georgia, southeastern Virginia, and the Carolinas. Some say the Florida cottonmouth is distinct from the eastern cottonmouth. However, their territories blend as well as their characteristics."

I see them pretty often hunting in the N 1/3 of Mo, up to Alton, Ill and the Mo/Miss river confluence.