Texas Family Afraid To Leave House At Night Because Of Copperhead Snake Infestation

Texas woman Vicki Barnett is afraid to leave her home at night because of the copperhead snakes that abound near the residence. Fort Worth Wildlife officers recently came to help the Barnett family rid the property of the numerous venomous snakes after the occupants were fed up relentlessly killing snakes for the two years since they purchased the property.

Copperhead snakes are in hiding during the day as they seek shade from the hot Texas sun. The snakes then become active at night.

“If one got in the house or in the cars, I would have to move. I really would,” Vicki Barnett, a Weatherford resident, said. “I nearly stepped on it [a copperhead snake] and then I just ran and waited for my husband to come outside and kill them.”

During an interview with NBC News, Barnett said that she and her husband killed 30 snakes just last weekend, and they killed yet another copperhead snake several days later.

Fort Worth Wildlife staffer Randall Kennedy came to help the family as part of his nuisance removal duties. Any thicket is a good place to find copperhead snakes, the wildlife expert also noted.

“Once they start taking over, they’ll take over,” Kennedy said. “There can be quite a few of them.”

“My little grandson says, ‘Mo Mo, you’ve got all these snakes,'” Vicki Barnett said.

The grandmother keeps a rifle at her side if she has to walk out her front door during the evening hours.

The average adult copperhead is about 30 inches long. The deadly venomous snakes feature thick bodies and have “keeled” scales.

“There is a temperature-sensitive pit organ on each side of the head between the eye and the nostril. Young copperheads are seven to ten inches long and grayer in color than adults, according to the National Zoo. “They have a sulfur-yellow-tipped tail, but this color fades with age and is lost by age three or four. Copperheads are sexually dimorphic in size. Males have longer tails than females and females grow to greater lengths. Copperheads are social snakes. They may hibernate in a communal den with other copperheads or other species of snakes including timber rattlesnakes and black rat snakes. They tend to return to the same den year after year.”

Would you move if your home was surrounded by copperheads?

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