Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Found this little guy while we where out. We're not sure if it's a Milk snake or what.

Thanks in advance.
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1.2 Normal BCI
0.1 66% poss DH snow BCI
0.2 Pastel BCI
0.1 Pastel Het Albino BCI
1.0 Anery BCI
1.0 Striped Albino BCI
0.1 Salmon 66% poss DH snow BCI
1.0 Salmon Hog Cross BCI ssp.
0.1 Hog Island Boa BCI ssp.
1.0 Poss. Super Salmon BCI

3.4 Ball Pythons

Northern water snake, ( nerodia sipedon sipedon) very common snake, but not a corn snake. if that is what you was thinking.

zach...

Hot or not Hot.
Don't want to get nipped by it just in case it is.
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1.2 Normal BCI
0.1 66% poss DH snow BCI
0.2 Pastel BCI
0.1 Pastel Het Albino BCI
1.0 Anery BCI
1.0 Striped Albino BCI
0.1 Salmon 66% poss DH snow BCI
1.0 Salmon Hog Cross BCI ssp.
0.1 Hog Island Boa BCI ssp.
1.0 Poss. Super Salmon BCI

3.4 Ball Pythons

Not hot...

Round pupils, narrow head, no heat pits, double row of scales under the tail. In the US if a snake has these characteristics (and it's not a coral snake: red on yellow kill a fellow)it's harmless.

Juvvie copperheads may even have a bright yellow tail as warning.

In general, if you're not !SURE! it's safe don't mess with it- and visit www.midwestongs.com snakebite gallery if you've been feeling overly confident lately...

Here's a good snake identification site from NC, we have both coral snakes and pit vipers in this state!

http://www.naturalsciences.org/funstuff/faqs/snake.html

there is also something known as a "lyre" snake in the U.S. it is rear fanged and not deadly.
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Redtail "Kilo"
1.0 Ball Python "Road Hog"

There are many "rear-fanged" snakes that prey primarily on cold-blooded species in the US that technically use a mild venom but are considered harmless to humans.

I've never heard even of any anecdotal reports of any of those giving any permanent effects, but a very few people have reported allergic reactions that feel like a bee-sting and one or two instances of marked swelling that went away without treatment.

Among these are ringnecks, hognose, etc etc, and lyre snakes which are mostly in the southwest- lyre snakes BTW in the literature are supposed to be nervous in character and ready to bite...

There are relatively few US "non-pit vipers" with vertical slit pupils, but there are some native harmless snakes with them: rubber boas, night snakes, lyre snakes, plus escapes like burmese pythons in Florida, etc.

So I didn't try to give a complex description that includes all, but only, venomous snakes; I gave a simple description of a subset any person can be confident are harmless.

Golden rule- If you aren't sure what it is, don't bother it. We have it easy here in the USA, in many other parts of the world there are dozens of species of highly venomous snakes with no simple rules which are harmless and which are deadly- reverse natural selection, as people indescriminately kill ALL the snakes they can in many of those areas... just like many in the US %^ (

Hogs are great fun!

I love hogg-noses! But can never seem to get my hands on one. Did you say they were rear fanged and venomous? I never knew that...learn somethin new everyday! Also a good reverse rule of thumb is to memorise what is venomous in your area so that If you know what it isn't you can almost guess what it is! Or at the very least know not to kill it!
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Redtail "Kilo"
1.0 Ball Python "Road Hog"