Can you keep copperheads out of your NC yard? An expert recommends these tips
With warm (and soon hot) temperatures across North Carolina, snakes are out and about.
Here in the Triangle, that means some of us might be seeing venomous copperheads as we visit parks and trails or work in our yards and gardens.
Copperhead bites, though rarely fatal to humans, can be painful, and they’re a hazard for pets, too.
So you might be wondering if it’s possible to keep copperheads — or other snakes — off your lawn.
We asked Falyn Owens, a wildlife biologist with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, about how to deal with snakes.
Can you get snakes out of your yard before going outside?
No. Around here, when it’s at least 60 degrees outside, there’s a chance of encountering a snake.
That said, if your yard has shelter or food that snakes might want, you’re more likely to have them around.
Where do snakes like to hide?
Snakes need places where they can find food and hide from predators. In a backyard, that could look like:
Patches of dense vegetation such as tall or unmown grass, low-growing shrubs or thick ivy
Piles of wood, brush, rocks or other spots that offer nooks and crannies, attracting snakes and their prey
To prevent snakes in your yard, limit their habitat. Try to reduce overgrown spots where snakes may want to camp out, and clear piles of yard debris.
“The best way to avoid an unpleasant encounter with a snake is keeping an eye open for them wherever there is suitable habitat, and giving any snake you do encounter plenty of space,” Owens previously told The News & Observer.
How to remove snakes in NC
If you see a snake and want to coax it along, gently but firmly spray its tail with a water hose.
Keep your distance, and don’t try to pick up or kill the snake. That’s one of the most common ways to get bitten, especially by copperheads.
“Rest assured, if you do encounter one, it doesn’t want anything to do with you and just wants to be left alone,” Owens said.
Do vibrations keep snakes away?
Vibrations — such as those caused by footsteps from a large animal (like humans) — typically make snakes seek shelter, but that doesn’t mean they’ll slither off your property.
Creating vibrations with a leaf blower or another piece of machinery won’t really work.
“Snakes don’t have external ears, meaning they can’t really hear sounds carried through the air quite like we can. Snakes ‘hear’ mostly through vibrations in the ground,” Owens said.
“The research is still pretty new on whether snakes in N.C. can hear airborne sounds at all, so I’d be more confident that the vibrations from my steps on the ground would alert snakes to my presence than any loud airborne sounds would.”
Common snakes to encounter in NC backyards
Most of the snake species commonly seen in the Triangle are harmless. Here are some examples:
For photos and descriptions, visit herpsofnc.org.
What do copperheads look like?
Copperhead snakes, which grow to about 3 feet long, are brownish-gray in color and have an hourglass-shaped pattern on their backs, similar to a Hershey’s Kiss.
Individual variation, attributed to genetics, accounts for slight differences in appearance from snake to snake. Some snakes may look starkly different because of mutations in genes.
Juveniles have a bright yellow or greenish-tipped tail, a coloring that fades as the snakes mature.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Can you keep copperheads out of your NC yard? An expert recommends these tips."
