Well, I feel like a jerk.

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Came across a 3-4 foot long black snake behind the house today while doing yard work, with a lance-shaped head, acting aggressive. Thought for sure it was a cottonmouth (I've seen them so dark they were basically black). Due to pets, family members, and contractors working on the house, I took out out with a shotgun. Turns out it was a hognose. Now I feel like a total idiot.
 
Hognose snakes actually look like poisonous snakes as a defense mechanism.
I have seen them with markings like a rattler, dark like a cotton mouth, and even colored like a copperhead.

Lots of snakes have a "lance shaped" head, not just poisonous varieties.

Only 4 snakes in the lower 48 are poisonous: Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, cottonmouths, and coral snakes.

Fun fact-
The biggest physical descriptor is hard to check:
All 4 poisonous US snakes have a single set of underside scales below the butt opening, all non poisonous US snakes have a segmented scales below the butt hole.
(*The censors here are frustrating)

Not easy to check on a live snake.
:)
 
Hognose snakes actually look like poisonous snakes as a defense mechanism.
I have seen them with markings like a rattler, dark like a cotton mouth, and even colored like a copperhead.

Lots of snakes have a "lance shaped" head, not just poisonous varieties.

Only 4 snakes in the lower 48 are poisonous: Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, cottonmouths, and coral snakes.

Fun fact-
The biggest physical descriptor is hard to check:
All 4 poisonous US snakes have a single set of underside scales below the butt opening, all non poisonous US snakes have a segmented scales below the butt hole.
(*The censors here are frustrating)

Not easy to check on a live snake.
:)
Well, the defense mechanism worked on me. Unfortunately, it got the snake dead.
 
There are quite a few hognose snakes around here. For the most part they are rather small and don't alarm me. However, several years ago I sat down to cut off a sapling even with the ground. I felt something squirming under me and got up quickly. It was a hognose and gave me quite a scare until I identified it.

I had sat on a ground rattler a year before while hunting. Luckily, it was under a palmetto fan. It didn't survive.
 
IMO, you did the right thing. Better safe than sorry. I prefer to leave the non-poisonous ones close to my home,
alone, when I'm sure they are safe.. They displace the habitat of dangerous snakes, keeping them further away.

But I don't take any chances, when I'm not sure.
 
in africa last week i saw my first black mamba, it crossed a small path my PH and i were walking on. it went accrossed very,very quickly and went up a tree and i lost sight of it and just as quickly it went into another tree next to the one it was in and disappeared.i didn,t get a chance to shoot it. eastbank.
 
Be careful. I had a friend who is a EMT stop by today. He said that they had 3 snake bite victims come in this week. One 18 year old was bitten on both hands. Copperheads.
 
Hognose snakes actually look like poisonous snakes as a defense mechanism.
I have seen them with markings like a rattler, dark like a cotton mouth, and even colored like a copperhead.

Lots of snakes have a "lance shaped" head, not just poisonous varieties.

Only 4 snakes in the lower 48 are poisonous: Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, cottonmouths, and coral snakes.

Fun fact-
The biggest physical descriptor is hard to check:
All 4 poisonous US snakes have a single set of underside scales below the butt opening, all non poisonous US snakes have a segmented scales below the butt hole.
(*The censors here are frustrating)

Not easy to check on a live snake.
:)
So, next time check it's butt first!:oops:
 
So, next time check it's butt first!:oops:


I know, I know.
:p
At least its accurate.

Remimds me of a duck hunting joke:

Game warden comes across a duck hunter with his birds and stops to check him out.
Game warden grabs a duck sniffs its butt and says " Thats a southern Mallard, son..you have a southern mallard hunting lisc?"
"Yessir, here it is." replied the hunter.
This repeats for 5 more ducks, for which the hunter produces a license for each type.
The Game warden, clearly impressed says "You aren't from around here, are you?"
"No sir", says the hunter.
"Where are you from?" ask the Warden.
The hunter turns and drops his trousers and says "You're the expert, you tell me".
:)
 
I was in a Dr's office several years ago and he mentioned something about snakes so I asked if he'd treated anyone with a snakebite. His reply was that within the week he'd treated a teenager for a Copperhead bite. The teenager was last in line of several bike riders on a dirt path in the woods and as he passed a Copperhead, it bit him. Seems that the first two or three bike riders must have irritated the snake to the point of biting the last rider. It was an interesting story so I thought I'd pass it on.
 
Better safe than sorry, Florida is in no danger of running out of snakes.

I killed the biggest copperhead I've ever seen a couple weeks ago. I let them go on their way if I know they're non-poisonous but venomous snakes do not get a pass. This makes the snake-huggers squirm, many of whom have never been bitten but love to cite how few people die from snake bites. Our neighbor got hit on his hand by a small copperhead while pulling weeds in the garden. The doctors said that because he did not put a tourniquet on his arm, it probably saved his hand but the venom in his bloodstream caused liver and kidney damage. He was out of work for months and took a long time to recover. Yeah, no thanks. Just because people don't die very often doesn't make it a walk in the park.
 
Sorry to hear that. I "rescued" a Hog-nosed snake just the other day from two grown men who were throwing bricks at it and trying to kill it with a piece of PVC pipe. All that snake wanted was to be left alone.

BUT, to the untrained eye they can often look like a cottonmouth and I was sure to put on gloves before I went in to grab him. I offered to let the two men touch him, but they declined. ;)
 
All this rain is forcing the snakes to seek higher ground. That's why so many are
out and about right now.
 
I just had a run in with 3 black snakes a few weeks ago. One was about 6 feet long. I assume (probably incorrectly) that they were mating or fighting. The two medium sized ones took off in different directions but that big one stood its ground. I backed away and jumped on the quad to head back up to the house and the dang thing followed me! Once I parked and headed up my deck, it just sat at the wood-line. I went back out after dinner and it was gone.

OP, better safe than sorry.
 
A Hognose...is one snake (along with a diamond back Water Snake) that I can understand folks mis-identifying.

They do closely mimic certain other venomous snakes.

And generally...they put on quite a show in order to make themselves appear dangerous.

HN_1.jpg

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HNS1_zpsm6tirc0b.jpg

HNS2_zpsbtzztuut.jpg
 
Came across a 3-4 foot long black snake behind the house today while doing yard work, with a lance-shaped head, acting aggressive. Thought for sure it was a cottonmouth (I've seen them so dark they were basically black). Due to pets, family members, and contractors working on the house, I took out out with a shotgun. Turns out it was a hognose. Now I feel like a total idiot.

Isn't the Southern Hognose snake a protected species in North Carolina?
 
I remember hearing stories when I was a kid about "spreadin' adders". They were capable of spreading a hood just like a cobra and were very feared among the old folks. I later learned that a spreadin' adder was really a hog nose snake and was harmless. To anyone unaccustomed to the antics of hog nose can easily think they were dangerous. If they can't bluff their way out of trouble by spreading their neck, hissing and "rattling" their tail, they will roll over and play dead. They even have a smell that mimics the smell of decomposing flesh.
 
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