I've been trying to figure out how to trap copperheads we get here each Spring and Summer so my grandchildren don't step on them playing around the house. After searching, I found a video on youtube of a guy that uses a minnow/fish trap - rectangular box shaped wire-mesh-like box (with one end shaped like a cone (with a hole in the end) that extends inside the box). He put chicken eggs (2) and/or some crickets (I think I can get them at the local pet store - they use them to feed pet snakes I think) inside the trap and caught snakes within 2 hours. The trap has about a 6x6" door on one side also made of wire mesh, so you (not me) can reach in there and grab the snake. Can grab them with snake tongs I've got, but I dont want. I talked with some friends who suggested using a CO2 air pistol to take care of the snakes without damaging the wire-mesh cage. If I use a pistol that shoots 20 gauge shotgun shells I will for sure damage the cage. Do you think an air pistol will work OK, and if so, are shot-filled rounds available I can use with an air pistol for this purpose.
firearm for trapped copperheads
- Thread starter Cassidy
- Start date
Drown them.
A 50 gallon barrel buried vertically with the bung hole open at ground level. Place the drum in the ground in early fall and by spring you have more snakes than you knew existed. Spray the tank internally with a CO2 fire extinguisher. You then have a bucket of dead snakes. You will have to empty it each year. The snakes go in to hibernate and can't get back out.
Drown them. We used to set a minnow trap in a deep hole by a bridge that went to this guy's house. He stopped one day when we were pulling the trap. It had about 30 or more water snakes in it. Seemed they went in to catch the minnows and couldn't get out. He said he never knew there was that many snakes in the small Creek. He went and bought a minnow trap to get the snakes. Matt
Lighter fluid and a match!
Any copper plated shot will work.
Smile Larry
Smile Larry
paperpuncher
Gold $$ Contributor
CO should do the trick garbage bag and a tailpipe. My buddy did this but i think it was a shop vac full of wasps he gassed
joshb
Gold $$ Contributor
I'd make sure they aren't a protected or "endangered species" 
in your state before you go advertise your plans on the Internet.
Edit: YUP!! I just did a quick search on Google. They are protected in a lot of states. Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia........better check. Maybe just catch them and drop them off at your local PITA office. Keep your cage, tho.
in your state before you go advertise your plans on the Internet.Edit: YUP!! I just did a quick search on Google. They are protected in a lot of states. Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia........better check. Maybe just catch them and drop them off at your local PITA office. Keep your cage, tho.
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I'd make sure they aren't a protected or "endangered species"
Ha, when my kids were little I killed every F'n snake in my yard with no mercy. < that's a period on the end!
My kids are protected too!
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He's right. Ive used this method to get live mice out of a trap. This might be the best death in a can suggestion that you will get on this thread. Don't strike a match! Lol
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