{"id":853861,"date":"2026-06-08T23:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/853861\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T23:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:49:13","slug":"copperhead-snakes-a-common-summer-sighting-are-popping-up-in-the-dc-area-earlier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/853861\/","title":{"rendered":"Copperhead snakes, a common summer sighting, are popping up in the DC area earlier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Copperhead snakes are nothing new around the D.C. area, but people don\u2019t usually find he snakes in their yards until later in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>Copperhead snakes are nothing new around the D.C. area, but people don\u2019t usually find the snakes in their yards until later in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>This year, something is different.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Crisp, a co-owner of the nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.k2cwildlife.com\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">K2C Snake Consultants<\/a>, said his organization typically captures and relocates 40 to 50 copperheads each summer. Most of that activity occurs in July and August.<\/p>\n<p>But this year\u2019s unusual weather \u2014 going from super hot to chilly and rainy to dry \u2014 has brought the copperheads out a little early.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe stepped it up just in the last couple days, so we\u2019re about 20 right now that our organization has removed in the Prince William County area, and I think we may have had one or two in Fairfax,\u201d Crisp said.<\/p>\n<p>K2C Snake Consultants goes to Virginia homes and farms to capture and relocate snakes who get a little too close for property owners\u2019 comfort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of these calls that we get are copperheads up against the house, near the front stairs or back steps, in landscaping, in their gardens, around pools, things like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Crisp said copperheads like to hide in plants, rock piles and woodpiles, and which is also where they find food. And they want nothing to do with you or your pets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re not out to get us. They\u2019re not here to chase us; they don\u2019t want to bite if they don\u2019t have to,\u201d Crisp said.<\/p>\n<p>But more snake encounters can mean more snake bites, and if you are bitten, Crisp has this advice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo cold compresses. You don\u2019t need a tourniquet. The whole cutting the bite and trying to suck out the venom out doesn\u2019t work, only in the movies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t take any medications, he said, but do stay hydrated and get to a hospital as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>And don\u2019t try to capture the snake and bring it with you to the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if you were to put it in a bucket and bring it to the emergency room, they are not going to let you in obviously with the snake,\u201d Crisp said.<\/p>\n<p>However, he said, it is a good idea to take a picture of the snake and bring that with you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up <a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/newsletter-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Copperhead snakes are nothing new around the D.C. area, but people don\u2019t usually find he snakes in their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":853862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[348667,315493,348668,72403,159,328664,67,132,68,837],"class_list":["post-853861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-bill-crisp","tag-copperhead-snake","tag-k2c-snake-consultants","tag-kyle-cooper","tag-science","tag-snake-bites","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116717169328060693","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}