I have seen this topic come up time and time again over the years at work, on TV, message boards and just in regular conversation. A Cottonmouth and a Water Moccasin as far as I know are one and the same. They are pit vipers which means they have a triangular-shaped head and are poisonous. Also, as someone else mentioned, look at the eye shape. 99.9999% of the snakes I see people around here call Moccasins or Cottonmouths here are common water snakes. If you ever see one open it's mouth, you will know exactly why they call them Cottonmouth, pure white in color. They are a short, stocky snake with a snubbed tail, rarely ever see one over 3.5-4 ft. long, but they can get as big around as a grown man's arm. The farthest North I have ever personally seen one is just outside of Greensboro. We used to live near a pond in Julian NC that had a spillway on one end and a dam at the other. They would lay on the spillway screen sunning waiting on an easy meal to swim by.
Moccasins are in our area believe me. I don't see many of them at all. I have seen one this year. It was sunning on a stump. I would estimate it to have been around 3 feet long. The bands were almost undistinguishable. It was the size of my forearm in the middle. Guys a moccasin will normally swim on top of the water and goes very slow with a wide bend.
The water snake is a speed merchant and mostly under water. Their path is almost straight it seems. I am not one to exaggerate. These I have seen are the real deal. Be careful with any wild creature.
Bo
ps A friend of mine was bitten by a copperhead a few
years ago. He had to have skin grafts the whole
nine yards.
It is a Northern Banded Water Snake I am nearly 99% sure. I use to live on the lakke there and that is the most common. When they get bigger some people think they are a copper head( brown with darker brown patches on its back but it does not have the hourglass like a copperhead) but put the two side by side you can see the difference. Just a water snake. Cotton mouths I have yet to see one in this area down east different story. Most of those two species are huge when 2 ft long their body is really thick like your forearm. Don't worry snakes are as scared of you as you are of them.
