water moccasins-learn something new every day.

[barnetmill]

Likely makes no difference relative to being bitten by one of these:

where used to be according to the taxonomists that deal with american pit vipers, three subspecies of water moccasins or cottonmouths if you prefer.
Well now there are considered to be be two separate species:
Agkistrodon piscivorus (Lacépéde, 1789),[42] northern cottonmouth[46]
Agkistrodon conanti Gloyd, 1969,[44] Florida cottonmouth[46] (south Georgia and Florida peninsular
Subspecies and taxonomic changes
I am not sure if there are any differences relative to being bitten by them. And the closely related copper head that was also thought to have three subspecies is now said just to be Agkistrodon contortrix

For many decades, one species with three subspecies were formally recognized: eastern cottonmouth, A. p. piscivorus (Lacépède, 1789);[42] western cottonmouth, A. p. leucostoma (Troost, 1836);[43] and Florida cottonmouth, A. p. conanti Gloyd, 1969.[44] However, a molecular (DNA) based study was published in 2014, applying phylogenetic theories (one implication being no subspecies are recognized), changing the long-standing taxonomy. The resulting and current taxonomic arrangement recognizes two species and no subspecies. The western cottonmouth (A. p. leucostoma) was synonymized with the eastern cottonmouth (A. p. piscivorus) into one species (with the oldest published name, A. p. piscivorus, having priority). The Florida cottonmouth (A. p. conanti) is now recognized as a separate species.[45]

[Finster101]

I have learned and so have at least three of them that they cannot outrun a zero-turn mower.

[36g]

I would suspect that as time goes on additional subspecies will be recognized. That seems to be the general rule with any variety of living things (and some non-living things, such as politicians of certain characters...)

[HWooldridge]

One of the few venomous North American snakes that will turn and chase those who get too close. I shot one coming at me out of a creek - I had a 44 mag, made a nice round hole in his head.

[derek45]

I've read on the internet that it's not legal in some areas to shoot them.

. . . .if so, . . . aim for their hat

[barnetmill]

One of the few venomous North American snakes that will turn and chase those who get too close. I shot one coming at me out of a creek - I had a 44 mag, made a nice round hole in his head.

The ' snake experts' will lecture you up and down that water moccasins will not attack you. I have had two women that I respect as competent observers with one of them being one of our foremost environmentalists of our region and the other a good observer tell me that have seen water moccasins leave the water to rush at people that had hurt them by throwing things or shooting at them. I trust what they said. Other people that I know say they have had them come towards them. Never had it happen to me yet, but I always take care when I am around them.
They can be bad news for a water skier.

[GhostHawk]

A long long time ago this Minnesota farm boy managed to get himself a winter vacation in warmer climates, and a job, all rolled into one.

Local boy who had moved away was home for the holidays, was looking for cheap help to help him feed, exercise and train 14 retrievers.
Something like 11 Black labs, a yellow, a Golden and a chessy. We left early Jan from near Mound Minn, and in 3 days we were in Pensacola Fl. where he had a friend we could stay with for a bit while we figured things out.

After 6 weeks of training (Both me and the dogs) We started hitting retriever field trials all across the south.

I believe it was a La swamp, west of kenner (West side of NO) I was some 60 yards from the boss, knee deep in swamp. Armed only with a bag of dog decoys and a 22 blank pistol gun. Gig was upon signal, fire the blank with my left hand, and hurl a dummy into a specific location.

So boss gets me all set, understanding what is supposed to happen. Goes to get the first dog.

I see a snake swimming on my left. It is going to pass within 5-10 feet in front of me. 22 blank gun is pretty much worthless. Dog dummy is a 3-4" plastic covered retrieving dummy with maybe a foot of rope on one end. I am determined to sell myself dear.

Boss walks out, gives me the high sign, nada. Nothing, no movement, no shot, no dummy. He starts jumping up and down waving his arms. Still nada.

Eventually the snake disappears. I walk to the boss. Said 2 words. "I quit"

Walk to the truck, get a drink, have a smoke. By this time the boss has cooled off, figured out something has happened.

Eventually I tell him the story.

I suspect it was my air of total shock and white face that convinced him.

"What would it take for you to go back to work?"

Today? ain't happening. Tommorow, I'd have to be armed with something better than a blank pistol gun.
We packed up and he went and bought a cheap .22lr revolver with 2 kinds of ammo, one being birdshot.

3 days later one of our dogs did a 400 yard blind retrieve, stepped on the bird, and took 3rd place. He was sold for stud a week later.

Was quite the adventure for a Minnesota boy, learned a lot. Did not make a lot of money but did not spend any. End of the trip I got a 150$ check and we parted on good terms. Rather not ever be knee deep in a swamp and see another cottonmouth though.

[HWooldridge]

The ' snake experts' will lecture you up and down that water moccasins will not attack you. I have had two women that I respect as competent observers with one of them being one of our foremost environmentalists of our region and the other a good observer tell me that have seen water moccasins leave the water to rush at people that had hurt them by throwing things or shooting at them. I trust what they said. Other people that I know say they have had them come towards them. Never had it happen to me yet, but I always take care when I am around them.
They can be bad news for a water skier.

The one that came at me was hiding in a brush pile next to a small creek. I had been considering walking out onto the pile to jump across the water when he came boiling out. I stepped back 2-3 steps and he kept advancing with his white mouth open until I popped him. On another occasion when I was about ten years old, my uncle and I caught one in a minnow seine and he came after me once he was free of the net. My uncle smashed his head with a rock that happened to be on the river bank.

The average person can obviously outrun one on flat ground but you always seem to find them when you can’t easily get away.

I’ve killed many more rattlesnakes than cottonmouths but the rattlers will only chase when cornered or thoroughly provoked, and they will turn tail and scoot if there is any way to escape. I have watched them coil and rattle then drop out of the coil and slither off with me giving up no ground.

[Kosh75287]

Water Moccs & Copperheads are two species of north american pit vipers that I will fire on, upon sighting them. They have no sense of retreat, and are QUITE ill-tempered. Letting them live just makes them someone else's potential problem.
I'm wondering if the taxonomic similarities mean that anti-venins are interchangeable, or at least have therapeutic overlap. Mercifully, they appear not to have developed a neurotoxic component to their venoms, a la the Mojave rattlesnake, which seems to interbreed with other similar pit vipers.

[DougGuy]

I lived on Sioux Bayou down on the Mississippi gulf coast in 1980, a friend's house on stilts, it was right in the marsh no kidding. We used to throw kitchen scraps over the back rail and I guess it attracted plenty of hungry marsh critters.

This white haired elderly black man used to come sit on the bank just around the bend with his can of worms and fish, one day he was leaving in a hurry, eyes wide open, he said "I'm near in my 80s and there's a cottonmouth down there biggest I ever seen!"

About a week after this incident, I was getting out of the shower, nothing but a pair of cutoffs on, and this girl that stayed there a while called me over the back rail to show me the snake.

There it was, all coiled up and sunning him/her self, and I could tell it was huge, it's coils easily as big as my forearm. I put on my boots, went down the stairs and under the house I grabbed a hoe and a machete post haste and came upon the snake straight forward, not wasting any time, I got to him before he was ready to strike, and I hit him behind the head with the hoe blade, then lifted him up with the hoe and chopped the head off with the machete. The head and about 6" of it's neck went down in the marsh grass and was biting at the grass, venom just squirting out of it's fangs. Was quite the sight to see!

Meanwhile the part I didn't tell was that while I was launching the frontal attack on the snake, I was rapidly sinking in the mud up above my knees, less than 3' from the snake. If I didn't get him, he'd a for sure got me.

I worked my way up out of my boots and laid on the mud and pulled them up, then took the snake and hung his head in the branches of a tree by his fangs, there were 2 fangs on each side, the frontal most one was the big one, easy 1 1/2" long, there was another lesser fang behind that on each side. I skinned him out and the hide, minus 6" of head and neck, wrapped halfway around an 8" creosote piling all the way from the fascia board to the ground, almost 8' so this snake was probably 8'3" or thereabouts. The hide was a FOOT wide when skinned.

Most cottonmouths I have ever seen, and I seen a LOT growing up down there on the coast, even the biggest ones are no more than 5' - 6' at the most, and nowhere near big as a man's forearm. That old black man was right about how big the snake he saw was, and he was right to get the hell outta dodge when he did.

[barnetmill]

I lived on Sioux Bayou down on the Mississippi gulf coast in 1980, a friend's house on stilts, it was right in the marsh no kidding. We used to throw kitchen scraps over the back rail and I guess it attracted plenty of hungry marsh critters.

This white haired elderly black man used to come sit on the bank just around the bend with his can of worms and fish, one day he was leaving in a hurry, eyes wide open, he said "I'm near in my 80s and there's a cottonmouth down there biggest I ever seen!"

About a week after this incident, I was getting out of the shower, nothing but a pair of cutoffs on, and this girl that stayed there a while called me over the back rail to show me the snake.

There it was, all coiled up and sunning him/her self, and I could tell it was huge, it's coils easily as big as my forearm. I put on my boots, went down the stairs and under the house I grabbed a hoe and a machete post haste and came upon the snake straight forward, not wasting any time, I got to him before he was ready to strike, and I hit him behind the head with the hoe blade, then lifted him up with the hoe and chopped the head off with the machete. The head and about 6" of it's neck went down in the marsh grass and was biting at the grass, venom just squirting out of it's fangs. Was quite the sight to see!

Meanwhile the part I didn't tell was that while I was launching the frontal attack on the snake, I was rapidly sinking in the mud up above my knees, less than 3' from the snake. If I didn't get him, he'd a for sure got me.

I worked my way up out of my boots and laid on the mud and pulled them up, then took the snake and hung his head in the branches of a tree by his fangs, there were 2 fangs on each side, the frontal most one was the big one, easy 1 1/2" long, there was another lesser fang behind that on each side. I skinned him out and the hide, minus 6" of head and neck, wrapped halfway around an 8" creosote piling all the way from the fascia board to the ground, almost 8' so this snake was probably 8'3" or thereabouts. The hide was a FOOT wide when skinned.

Most cottonmouths I have ever seen, and I seen a LOT growing up down there on the coast, even the biggest ones are no more than 5' - 6' at the most, and nowhere near big as a man's forearm. That old black man was right about how big the snake he saw was, and he was right to get the hell outta dodge when he did.

Wow, I have never seen one longer than three feet. Five foot is huge and I have no idea just how old that snake was that you killed.

[r80rt]

My son is a surveyor and had to do a little swamp work, here are some belly scales he found last summer. It must have been a dandy cottonmouth.
Attachment 302623

[36g]

My experience with Cottonmouths is zero, water snakes however... When I was a kid growing up in Southcentral Kansas, we'd go wading in the Arkansas River. Usually it was knee deep or a little higher and if it hadn't rained recently the water was relatively clear. Would take the firearm of interest along just for some plinking. I remember one occasion where we had been wading and shooting carp when we came across some common water snakes and opened up. Normally snakes would dive and swim away. Not these. They dove and swam towards us underwater. It's amazing how fast you can move backwards in knee deep water while emptying a 1911 on advancing snakes. Ultimately the concussion from those 230 grain FMJs hitting the water did the snakes in. Was a bit of an eye opener however.

[barnetmill]

My experience with Cottonmouths is zero, water snakes however... When I was a kid growing up in Southcentral Kansas, we'd go wading in the Arkansas River. Usually it was knee deep or a little higher and if it hadn't rained recently the water was relatively clear. Would take the firearm of interest along just for some plinking. I remember one occasion where we had been wading and shooting carp when we came across some common water snakes and opened up. Normally snakes would dive and swim away. Not these. They dove and swam towards us underwater. It's amazing how fast you can move backwards in knee deep water while emptying a 1911 on advancing snakes. Ultimately the concussion from those 230 grain FMJs hitting the water did the snakes in. Was a bit of an eye opener however.

Some water snakes have blood anticoagulant in their saliva.
google snipet: Northern Water Snake has a reputation for a bad disposition and can give severe repeated bites if threatened. Its saliva contains an anticoagulant to promote blood loss. All our snakes do have numerous teeth to hold their prey, but they don't chew their food.May 17, 2015

[Milky Duck]

A long long time ago this Minnesota farm boy managed to get himself a winter vacation in warmer climates, and a job, all rolled into one.

Local boy who had moved away was home for the holidays, was looking for cheap help to help him feed, exercise and train 14 retrievers.
Something like 11 Black labs, a yellow, a Golden and a chessy. We left early Jan from near Mound Minn, and in 3 days we were in Pensacola Fl. where he had a friend we could stay with for a bit while we figured things out.

After 6 weeks of training (Both me and the dogs) We started hitting retriever field trials all across the south.

I believe it was a La swamp, west of kenner (West side of NO) I was some 60 yards from the boss, knee deep in swamp. Armed only with a bag of dog decoys and a 22 blank pistol gun. Gig was upon signal, fire the blank with my left hand, and hurl a dummy into a specific location.

So boss gets me all set, understanding what is supposed to happen. Goes to get the first dog.

I see a snake swimming on my left. It is going to pass within 5-10 feet in front of me. 22 blank gun is pretty much worthless. Dog dummy is a 3-4" plastic covered retrieving dummy with maybe a foot of rope on one end. I am determined to sell myself dear.

Boss walks out, gives me the high sign, nada. Nothing, no movement, no shot, no dummy. He starts jumping up and down waving his arms. Still nada.

Eventually the snake disappears. I walk to the boss. Said 2 words. "I quit"

Walk to the truck, get a drink, have a smoke. By this time the boss has cooled off, figured out something has happened.

Eventually I tell him the story.

I suspect it was my air of total shock and white face that convinced him.

"What would it take for you to go back to work?"

Today? ain't happening. Tommorow, I'd have to be armed with something better than a blank pistol gun.
We packed up and he went and bought a cheap .22lr revolver with 2 kinds of ammo, one being birdshot.

3 days later one of our dogs did a 400 yard blind retrieve, stepped on the bird, and took 3rd place. He was sold for stud a week later.

Was quite the adventure for a Minnesota boy, learned a lot. Did not make a lot of money but did not spend any. End of the trip I got a 150$ check and we parted on good terms. Rather not ever be knee deep in a swamp and see another cottonmouth though.

oh boy Im pleased we do not have slippery slithery things over here.... eve nthe thought of them gives me the heebee jeebees.....and Im so pleased your story ended well,I thought a dog or two was going to recieve fatal nibble.... THAT would bother me more than myself....

[CastingFool]

I was flying out of the mountain ranger camp in Dahlonega, GA when I spotted some movement along a shallow creek that ran along the landing strip. It was a water moccasin, and appeared it was ticked off at the huey taking off. It reared up and opened its mouth, revealing its white mouth. It was the first and only time I've seen a water moccasin in the wild.

[Kosh75287]

[QUOTE]It was the first and only time I've seen a water moccasin in the wild./QUOTE]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

[Cargo]

I've had two come after me, one followed me about 80 ft to my truck where my 8" DW 15 was taking a break. Dan took care of my light work. I read people arguing that they won't chase you and there's no changing those folks minds. Both of the ones that came after me are what they call "stump moccasins" around here. They are like my wife short, thick and ill tempered lol

[beezapilot]

Personally, I like snakes. Got an indigo in my bouganvillia arbor, black racers, a few corals around. See banded water snakes often while kayaking and we give each other a friendly nod. BUT I'll shoot moccasins and pygmy rattlers on sight. The larger Timber rattlers are polite- but the little ******** have attitude. Moccasins in floating vegetation while paddling, I get them before they come after me... so far I've seen them while still back coiling. Call me Quicksdraw. S&W 60 with birdshot

[Royboy99]

Friend invited me to hunt on his place. When we were making plans to set up he told me, “Be sure to wear snake boots and carry a pistol. The cottonmouths are bad this year.”