These SC animals are good at hunting and eating copperhead snakes

South Carolina’s most plentiful snake — copperheads — are at the top of the food chain in their natural environment, meaning sometimes in your backyard.

But they’re not true apex predators. They are hunted by other animals, including the non-venomous Eastern king snake, which is immune to copperhead venom.

Also, great horned and eastern screech owls, red-tailed hawks, opossums, raccoons, and sometimes alligators, crows, and bullfrogs hunt copperheads.

Each has its own method of tracking them down.

The kingsnake grabs the head of copperhead and then coils its body to constrict the airflow. Every time the victim snake breathes, the kingsnake tightens, until dinner is served.

Andrew Grosse, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources herpetologist, said kingsnakes can unhinge their jaws and take in animals much larger than you would think they could consume.

In a fight, kingsnakes will always win unless they don’t get a good grip to begin with and the copperhead can slither away. Kingsnakes are longer than copperheads — 5 feet compared to 3 feet as adults.

Kingsnakes are not aggressive, venomous or dangerous to humans. South Carolina is home to 38 snake species, six of which are venomous.

Red-tailed hawks are big snake hunters, A-Z Animals said. In fact, they eat at least 35 species of snakes. They have sharp vision and can see prey while flying.

“They strike so quickly that the prey doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late,” A-Z Animals said. They snatch up the snake with their curved talons.

Falcons almost exclusively feed on snakes, A-Z Animals said.

Opossums are interesting predators because the snake venom does not affect them. So they just let the copperhead strike them, then pick them up with their sharp teeth and front paws. Dinner is served.

Alligators, too, are immune to copperhead venom and will eat most anything that comes their way in wetlands, swamps, and forests. Turnabout is fair play, as they say, and copperheads will eat alligator hatchlings.

Copperheads, whose name is derived from the color of their heads, are found everywhere in South Carolina, from under rhododendrons along the Blue-ridge escarpment, in piedmont wood lots, and along fence rows in rural gardens, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said.

“Certainly it does well in expansive wilderness, but it only needs 1 or 2 acres of habitat, a healthy population of white-footed mice, and a place to lay-up in the shade, and it will survive,” SC DNR said.

Adult copperheads grow to about 24 to 30 inches in length, sometimes longer.

They are most active at night, especially during the summer. Many are run over by cars.

You don’t have to wait on a red-tailed hawk to keep copperheads out of your yard though. The best way is to simply not invite them in.

• Get rid of dense vegetation, leaf piles and other clutter.
• Cut the grass and trim shrubs.
• Seal off entry points with snake fencing.
• Use snake repellents, vinegar or ammonia or plants copperheads don’t like such as marigolds, allium, lemongrass, mother-in-law’s tongue, garlic, wormwood, basil and yellow alder.

But the North Carolina Extension Service has this to say:

“There is probably no practical and effective way to prevent them from entering your yard.”

Just leave them alone.