Timber rattlers, however, are common. When I was a rookie agronomist, wading a good distance out into a field of soybeans infested with the weed called 'sicklepod', the farmer had a bit of sport at my expense. He told me "You know, the biggest rattler we ever killed was right about there, where you're a-lookin...'" Then he produced a rattle from his pocket that had about 20 segments and was at least nine inches long. Now, if you don't know sicklepod, when the pods are mature and dry they rattle, and sound just like a rattlesnake. I quickly pronounced his beans to be fully in healthy condition and evacuated the field. He then confessed, in laughter, to having glued two rattle-tails together to produce that impressive item! We had a decent laugh, and my cargo shorts were still unsoiled, so it was fine.
We don't have pygmy rattlers or coral snakes, so far as I know, although the SE corner of NC is just within their potential range. They may advance with the warming climate, as alligators are into Virginia.
A former associate of mine, who was a sales rep for Deltapine, also ran a business that caught critters in folk's houses, usually crawlspaces and attics, including snakes. He got a call from a land clearing contractor near Turkey Creek, NC, about 20 miles SE of me, that there was a rattlesnake on a lot they were clearing that refused to leave, and the builder's workers wouldn't work while the snake was there. My associate went to catch the snake. It was an eastern diamondback, 9 feet 9 inches from head to rattles. He took it alive, and that snake remained for several years a guest in Wilmington's former Serpentarium, until its recent closing following the death of the owner (not by snakebite). I saw it there. No damn way would I have tried to catch it, not if I had a shotgun to my name, of which I have three.
My nephew is relocating to Phoenix AZ, for the second time. When he and his family arrived at the home he had purchased, just a couple days ago, a diamondback awaited them on their terraza. It crawled off, but my nephew has no idea where it went...
I encountered a diamondback on a hiking trail in Big Bend National Park a few years ago. It wouldn't crawl away, despite stones tossed to encourage it to do so. I gave it a wide berth in passing.
Yup, it had to be snakes...
