COLFAX, N.C. -- There's a lot folks look forward to during the fall: cooler days, changing leaves, football. But it also means more snakes are out and about in the Piedmont Triad.
"I'm trying to look down and picture it," says Jeff Bateson."It was probably two feet, three feet at the most."
Bateson's daughter was the first to see it - a snake in their driveway.
"She was pretty freaked out," he says. "She ran inside and said there was a snake in the driveway."
When he went outside, he realized it looked like a copperhead, the Piedmont Triad's only poisonous snake.
"I didn't really want to shoo it into someone else's yard," Jeff explains. So he took matters into his own hands.
"I just decided I had to kill it."
That's not the only copperhead sighting in his Colfax neighborhood, but it's really not that unusual to see more snakes in the fall.
"Copperheads are moving around a lot this time of year," explains Frank Fowler, Vice President of McNeely Pest Control.
Fowler says fall is when female snakes give birth.
"Usual litters are around a dozen," Fowler explains.
Snakes also moving around to find a place to hibernate for the winter. Log piles, hoses, and leaf piles are some hotspots near the house.
There's also construction going on near Bateson's neighborhood. Fowler says that's not really a concern for the snakes, but it could drive more rodents out of the habitat, and snakes will follow their food source.
It's often a combination of reasons this problem could come slithering up into your yard.
"The best action is to step away slowly and to leave it alone," Fowler says, noting most people are bitten while they're trying to kill snakes.
If you are bitten, Fowler says to get help. If possible, try and stay calm and still. Back away from the snake. If you run or panic, there's a chance you'll increase bloodflow, which will carry the venom to other parts of your body. Fowler says people usually recover from copperhead bites.
There are sprays you can put sprays in your yard to ward off snakes and be sure to keep your grass short and watch out for those hotspots.
If you really want a snake gone, Fowler recommends reaching out to animal control so they can remove it safely.
