Diamond back watersnakes are also aggressive . Cotton mouths can be difficult to tell from non pit vipers at times. If you pin its head and roll it over and the belly has hardly any pigment pattern its a cotton mouth.Other watersnakes the pattern is lighter on the belly but still visible. The eye pupils are also differant on pit viper.Both of these identifiable ways make for dangerous contact.So just give dark water snakes a heathy respect and lots of rm.I carry pepper spray in my boat and snakes go like hell the other way when hit with it.

Pepper spray is a great idea. My handle is a function of my fear of snakes FYI.

A lot of construction going on in the area where this snake turned up. Probably messed up his crib. I also saw a phone camera pic of his mouth open. Cotton mouth hands down.

I don't mean any offense to anyone but if you take the effort to pin it and flip it over to identify it then you deserve to be bitten. Show him the same respect he would show you and beat, stomp, shoot, hack, do whatever it takes until he is no longer a problem. If he runs off he'll become a problem for someone else (possibly with kids) so do the deed no questions asked. ESPECIALLY in a highly populated area and lake like Grapevine.

Water Moccasin, No Doubt!! It's head gives it away. Even the picture gives me the creepy crawlies. I've encountered far too many of them over the years and they still give me chills.

I always do a complete and thorough examination to determine if a snake is venomous or not.....of course that's always a post-mortem examination.

YEAP THAT RIGHT THERE IS WHAT WE PEOPLE FROM LOUISIANA CALL A STANK JIM (COTTONMOUTH ) MEAN LOOKIN 2

Here's a couple of pics of Cottonmouths / Moccasins with very similar markings. Pretty definitive if you ask me.

I know when you kill one with bodily harm , they smell like a skunk.

Great examples, BN! They look like they could be of the same snake in the original post!

My warehouse is located at 1-35 and Whitlock Ln just one block east, where they are doing all the DART rail construction. There is not really a pond or anything right there, but some standing water where they blocked a drainage pipe while doing the construction. However, there is a pond we used to call "Jackson Pond", just down the street at Jackson Rd.behind the old Home Depot. I suppose he could have made it from there a 1/4 mile or so? I have another pic of it after we relieved it of its head I will try to post later. We pryed it's mouth open w/ a screwdriver to reveal the fangs. Nasty little guy but actually pretty cool for educational purposes. They say you learn something every day....

That's probably the only snake I don't have a problem with killing. They are just way too aggressive. Put one in a barrel and they will non-stop strike at you when looking down on it. Crazy. I've had and played with many rattlesnakes, mongroves, even cobras and the moccasin is by far the worse. I've actually been bitten on the nose by a 6 foot rattlesnake while playing with it but luckily it was a dry hit. Whew. Thinking about it now though, I had some cancer taken off my nose 3 years ago. Wonder if there's a connection? Probably not...

Actually that is an untrue old wives tale. The shape of the head is not an identifier of poisionous snakes. Many harmless beneficial snakes have the "diamond shaped head". The only solution is to learn to id snakes by their coloring, eyes, location and behavior.

I don't love snakes. I love nature. But killing all snakes because you cannot tell the difference is wrong. Grow up and get over your childish fears!

PS- That is a moccassin for sure. I would have killed it too. But only because it was too near people and I would not take the chance that I would be bit moving it. Had I seen it out in the wild I would have let it be.

One more thing. I killed a coral snake about 6 weeks ago in my compost pit. Shopped it's head off with a shovel. I scooped both pieces up and put them in a bucket to show my wife when she got home. I killed it at 8am, my wife got home at 3:30pm and when I poked the head with a stick it tried to bite it.

Do NOT fool around with the head of a poisonous snake. They can still bite.

guard cat guard cat

We call those stump tails. They are really mean. That smell that they have, I'm told it's the poison that gives off that smell. I go out of my way to kill those. By the way, cats do pretty good at keeping snakes away from your house, but have you ever seen a pig get a hold of a snake? Kind of makes you feel sorry for the snake.