Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

Today I was tilling my soil in a little garden plot I have in my backyard. I happened to notice a little gray snake, he was nearly camoflauged in the soil. I was scared I might cut him or harm him so I moved him into some nearby bushes. Then I was afraid a bird may try to eat him. He apparently survived because tonight I went to plant tomatoes in my garden and there he was, unless it is a sibling of course.

I have not seen a snake like this before and I am having a hard time identifying him. He is a light gray color with a very thin dark stripe on his back. I did not flip him over and his eyes are so tiny I could not tell if they were round or cats eyes. He seemed really sweet and not scared of me at all. He went to burrow under the groud quickly when I put him in the bushes. I am thinking he might eat slugs and worms because there were a lot of those in my garden and perhaps that is why he is living in there.

Does anyone have a clue as to what type of garden snake he is, or if he is a garden snake at all? I thought they were all green? Also, should I help protect him from birds somehow? Will he ever try to harm me when he gets bigger?

Thank you in advance.

stands for world wide web. Since you did not say, we do not know what continent, let alone what part of the U.S. you found that snake in. Without that, identification is waay difficult.

~~Greg~~

For those of you interested in helping me identify my little snake, and not defining web abbreviations, we are located in Eastern North Carolina, in America.

Don't take offense. None was intended.
If you scroll down this list you will see that people post pics of snakes from all over the world on this site. Those of us that try and help here often see these posts every week where someone posts a "I found this in my yard" with no further locality description.
And while Greg's tone may have been a bit flippant, for those of us who read this forum daily, it is somewhat frustrating to see yet another non-locality post.

From the perspective of an infrequent visitor, I can understand how this seemed rude, but you have to see it from the perspective of us "frequent flyers".
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Chris Harrison

Most likely candidate is the easterm worm snake. What you found is probably not a juvenile. Did not mean to ruffle your feathers. It is virtually impossible to key out a snake without knowing from whence it came, even with a photograph.
There is no such thing as a garden snake.

~~Greg~~
Venomous Snakes of the Southeast

Yes! I looked up pictures of worm snakes and he/she has to be this type. He is the sweetest little creature! This morning I found him under a large pot about 15 ft. from the garden. When I picked him up he looked at me as if he were saying, "Why are you waking me up?" I put him back in the garden, as I have unfortunately disturbed his home.

I did discovered him in my garden plot, just as I read on the web as to how most people discover them, and now I just hope he sticks around. He is very cute and seemed sort of lumpy this morning, I think he might have eaten a lot of worms last night.

Thanks again!
looks like this snake

>>looks like this snake

If it looks like the snake you show in that picture, then it isn't a wormsnake. The snake in that picture is misidentified. That snake in the picture is an Earthsnake (probably a Smooth Earthsnake, Virginia valeriae). Wormsnakes have a very different head shape than that.
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Chris Harrison

It maybe gravid and looking for a place to lay its eggs.

It sounds like you might have found a red-bellied snake. They are pretty small and can be gray or brown and have somewhat of a stripe on their back. Check out this link and see if it looks similar:

http://www.biokids.umich.edu/resources/ummz_herpetology/10.herp.jpg/view.html
My Online Page (photograhpy, snakes, lifelist, etc)