Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

This snake has bands of red touching yellow and red touching black. I left him alone in hopes he is not venemous, but I have children playing where he lives which is on my concrete dock on a saltwater canal in Englewood Florida. When the tide comes up, he must be getting wet as the crack he came out of goes underwater.

Thanks for any help in identification.

That is a Banded Watersnake. It is harmless.

Coralsnakes and Milksnakes (and some other Kingsnakes) have distinct bands that encircle the snake.

For the record, not all species of kingsnakes have the banded tricolored pattern. some have varying patterns of black and white or black and yellow in chains, speckles, etc. In th e US, only some of the milksnakes, and the mountain kingsnakes of the western US have the tricolored pattern.

Here is a milksnake (a tricolored kingsnake) -

and a coralsnake -

Just to add to the confusion, the type of milksnake in your area is called the "Scarlet Kingsnake". They are red, black and yellow banded.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Excellent response from Chris. The attached website may be helpful to you in Englewood. Lovely part of the state, by the way. I have a Megalodon tooth necklace that I found the main part of there.

~~Greg~~
Florida's Venomous Snakes

perfectly agree.ive caught many of these.when they are in the water,their true colors show.when i first saw one in the water,it looked a lot like a corn snake!(lol)once you take it out of the water,the patterns darken from being in the water.they are beautiful snakes!

Some type of water snake