This was a bit shocking. I know there are plenty of snakes around here, and I've even had several on my balcony over the years, and a baby one in my last apartment, but it's scary to think that he just stepped outside his house in his bare feet and was bitten. He's a popular news anchor. I'm not sure which section he lives in, but I'm thinking it's probably on the North or West sections of the city, because where I am, water moccasins are more prevalent.
Well if that's common around there, I'm glad I don't live there. None in my subdivision although Fresno has rattlesnakes but more in the foothill areas. There is more chance of seeing one by my daughter's house. Although a subdivision. Houses are far apart and hills and canyons around.
There are plenty of copperheads and water moccasins in this area but we have so many rat snakes and king snakes I think they help keep the others away. I stepped barefoot right in the middle of a 5 or 6 foot rat snake a couple of years ago on our deck. If it had been a copperhead or water moccasin I'd have been bitten for sure.
A favorite fishing hole was taken over by snakes. They hooked themselves on your bait, crawled onto unused boats and sunned themselves, and abandoned duck blinds were infested with snakes. Snakes ruined the fishing there, and a once thriving bull frog population was gone. Dad and I took it on ourselves to thin them out. It took two summers of spare time shooting to make a dent, but the turtle population was grateful for the easy meals.
We have a natural fear for snakes because you will never know if you will be attacked. Our village have plenty of vacant lots that are usually grassy and when it rains some are swampy. Such a good habitat for snakes. We have seen snakes in the vacant lot beside our property and I remember posting in another thread about a big one we saw one night when our car's headlights caught the slithering snake on the road. But fortunately no case of snake bite has been reported.
We are standing at the gate to our front yard at the old farmhouse in MO. Each evening we walked the gravel road down to the old one-room schoolhouse, abandoned, 1/2 mile away. Approaching the gate, as I reached to open it, my wife hastily stopped me. She heard the rustle in the flowers along the fence next to the gate; my hearing missed it. Just dusk, as the second pic shows, but light enough to see it WAS a Copperhead, and I likely would have stepped on it, if not for her warning. A good-sized one, which I did not want to expose her poking in the flowers to. Shot it with my 9mm pistol, carried always to avert possible dog-bite, lots of them critters there, too. Edit: Just noticed, in the 2nd. pic, my arthritic enlarged index finger knuckle, left hand, is noticeable. About 10 years ago.