{"id":653664,"date":"2026-05-20T03:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653664\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T03:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:34:11","slug":"i-count-on-seeing-them-warmer-weather-making-snake-sightings-likelier-in-the-triangle-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653664\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I count on seeing them’: Warmer weather making snake sightings likelier in the Triangle :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warmer temperatures mean more people on hiking trails or doing yard work, but also means an increase in snake sightings.<\/p>\n

A WRAL viewer shared a video of a
\ncopperhead they found in his yard in Cary Monday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I froze,\u201d said
\nChristopher Lare, who found the snake lurking in his yard. \u201cThankfully, it moved
\naway from me because it was pretty close.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said this was the first time he\u2019s
\nencountered a copperhead this close. It was hiding under a pressure washer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve seen them on the trails,
\nhiking out in the wilderness, but not so much this close to home,\u201d Lare said. <\/p>\n

Scott Gibbs\u00a0shared this picture with WRAL of a\u00a0copperhead he spotted while walking his dog on the Higgins Greenway in Cary the next morning.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Snake expert and wrangler, Milton Morgan, says this time of year is when there will be more snake encounters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI count on seeing snakes from now through the end of October,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cThey won\u2019t harm me if I don\u2019t harm them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgan said the key to keeping snakes away is making sure your yard is
\ntidy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can eliminate some of the
\nobvious hiding places for snakes, that’s going to help you considerably,\u201d Morgan said.<\/p>\n

Copperhead snakes are the most
\ncommon venomous snake North Carolinians should watch out for. <\/p>\n

Just last summer, a Raleigh
\nwoman said a copperhead snake bit her<\/a> while she was protecting her dogs.<\/p>\n

RELATED: How
\nto identify North Carolina\u2019s snakes, and steer clear of them<\/a><\/p>\n

Morgan says if you do see a snake,
\njust leave it alone, and it will leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re just moving through,\u201d
\nMorgan said. \u201cThey’re trying to coexist with everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lare says his sighting this week
\nwas a good reminder as the weather gets warmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing one that close personally,
\nit was like, ok, it’s that time,\u201d Lare said.<\/p>\n

In a previous interview with the
\nNorth Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, biologists
\ntold WRAL News<\/a> as the temperature increases, so do the number of
\nsnakes\u00a0near trails, gardens and your yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When it’s warm enough
\noutside, they wake up and become active, and that’s in temperatures just like we
\nhave now,” said Wildlife Extension Biologist Falyn Owens. “Any time
\nthe temperatures are over 60 degrees, usually, for more than a few days, the
\nsnakes are going to be active.”<\/p>\n

If the snake doesn\u2019t leave your yard, Morgan says you can call a snake relocator to come and remove the snake.<\/p>\n

To lower the chances of having snakes in your yard, clearing some of the debris, such as firewood piles and leaves, can help, according to Morgan.<\/p>\n

There are people who do snake relocations, wildlife experts said snakes don’t tend well with relocation.<\/p>\n

If you want to hurry a snake along from your yard,\u00a0a light spray with a hose should work. You can do that at a safe distance, and it doesn’t harm the snake. It’s a fast and effective method that will quickly encourage the snake to find someplace else to go.<\/p>\n

Don’t spend your money on snake deterrent or snake repellent
\nchemicals, especially mothballs, since they can be toxic to wildlife.<\/p>\n

Instead,
\n focus on removing the habitat that’s attractive to snakes. Keep your
\ngrass mowed and avoid areas of brush and tall vegetation to reduce
\nplaces that snakes can hide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warmer temperatures mean more people on hiking trails or doing yard work, but also means an increase in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,14598,86021,201],"class_list":["post-653664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-snake","tag-snake-bite","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}