Herping tips?

[Stefan-A]

There are so many things that you can keep in mind to increase the odds of finding snakes. I can't get too specific, because we don't have the same type of habitats and animals, but there are a few things that I've found to be useful.

It pays to look for something specific, because then you can limit your herping to the areas where the snakes are most likely to be found. Learn about the snakes, what they eat, when they're active, where they live and what time of year they'll be doing what.

Orienteering maps or any other detailed map type are very useful for finding spots that are likely to have snakes. Planning saves time. Ask the locals, some of them may be familiar with places where there are lots of snakes.

Where there's prey, there are usually predators.

[infernalis]

Very little to add as far as planning where to go... Stefan covered that quite well.

What I do and it works fairly good, Walk slowly and lightly, sweep the ground back and forth with your eyes looking for motion and places to hide.

Chunks of driftwood, large flat rocks, slabs of tree bark, and man made debris, (boards, sheet metals, garbage) I found a nice snake once under an old cardboard box that was almost rotted away.

Patience is always helpful, don't get discouraged if it takes longer than expected to find something.