Man bit by copperhead in Ballantyne; sightings up around Charlotte

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By Joe Bruno

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man in Wesley Chapel killed two venomous copperhead snakes in his backyard Thursday, just days after a man in Ballantyne was bit by one.

Ballantyne resident Mike McGowan’s wife was moving firewood when he heard her scream.

[IMAGES: Snake sightings in the Charlotte area]

“I know what the ‘snake scream’ sounds like,” McGowan said.

Soon, McGowan was face-to-face with a copperhead. He put on gloves and threw it in a trash can but as he attempted to empty it into the woods, the snake bit him.

“It went right through my gloves like butter,” he said.

That bite sent him to the hospital, but luckily he was released after six hours and didn't need antivenom.

Channel 9 reported two weeks ago that pest control companies are getting more calls this spring about snakes.

One person found a snake in a hot tub.

Experts told Channel 9 that the warmer weather is bringing out more snakes.

Jared Tugwell killed two of them within an hour behind his Wesley Chapel home Thursday.

“If it was any other snake, I wouldn't have bothered it at all,” he said.

Tugwell killed the first copperhead with a shovel. For the second copperhead, he grabbed a pitchfork, crawled under the deck and stabbed it.

Tugwell's grandchildren play in the backyard so he killed the snakes to keep them safe.

“They're more dangerous to a child than they are to an adult, so I knew I had to get rid of them,” Tugwell said.

McGowan and Tugwell never thought they would battle copperheads in their backyards. Now they hope families will be alert when kids are playing outside.

Snake experts tell Channel 9 there’s been an uptick of water snakes south of Charlotte and more copperhead sightings in Matthews.

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