Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted this in the General Forum but I think some of you might be able to help me out...
I recently moved to South east Illinois (Lawrence County) and was wondering what kind of snakes might be here and what types of habitats I should search for the snakes in. I am especially interested in finding some eastern hognose which may still be around, but I don't know where to look. Any advice on finding this or any other species of snakes in this area would be appreciated. Thanks in advance! -Joe Decareau
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0.1 Green Iguana (Sisco)
0.1 Rose Hair T (Sweets)
1.1.4 Hairless Rats (Socrates, The Three Stooges and Left Eye)
3.2 Ball Pythons (Stratos, She-Ra, Skeletor(0.1 oops on the name!), Sy-Cloone, Stinkor)
1.0 Striped Cal. King (Snuggles)

I typed in "reptiles of Illinois" in google and got this link to an excellent resource -

http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/herpdist/splist.html
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, TX

I tried that already. I have been linked to that website enough times. That website needs to be updated because I already found two species in this county not on the list for Lawrence County. Those two being the yellow belly water snakes which I have pics of and I found a roadkill corn snake two days ago. I also have dial up so it isn't that easy to take advantage of the search engines that high speeders use. Thanks though. -Joe Decareau
>>I typed in "reptiles of Illinois" in google and got this link to an excellent resource -
>>
>>http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/herpdist/splist.html
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>>Chris Harrison
>>San Antonio, TX
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0.1 Green Iguana (Sisco)
0.1 Rose Hair T (Sweets)
1.1.4 Hairless Rats (Socrates, The Three Stooges and Left Eye)
3.2 Ball Pythons (Stratos, She-Ra, Skeletor(0.1 oops on the name!), Sy-Cloone, Stinkor)
1.0 Striped Cal. King (Snuggles)

I just checked out of curiosity, and... that site does list yellow-bellied water snakes as occurring in Lawrence Co., and while corn snakes aren't listed from that county I'd bet money they don't occur there. Odds are high that the snake you saw was either a similar species (eastern milk being most likely) or an escaped pet...

Patrick Alexander

If that is the case then I must be looking at the wrong county, I'll check again which is Lawrence County. As I said I just moved here so I could have made a mistake. -Joe Decareau

>>I just checked out of curiosity, and... that site does list yellow-bellied water snakes as occurring in Lawrence Co., and while corn snakes aren't listed from that county I'd bet money they don't occur there. Odds are high that the snake you saw was either a similar species (eastern milk being most likely) or an escaped pet...
>>
>>Patrick Alexander
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0.1 Green Iguana (Sisco)
0.1 Rose Hair T (Sweets)
1.1.4 Hairless Rats (Socrates, The Three Stooges and Left Eye)
3.2 Ball Pythons (Stratos, She-Ra, Skeletor(0.1 oops on the name!), Sy-Cloone, Stinkor)
1.0 Striped Cal. King (Snuggles)

Or, of course, you could use that pre-internet fallback called "buying a field guide".

In southern Indiana, the gist seems to be... you can reliably find ringnecks in most areas, can find water snakes, garters, & milk snakes fairly reliably in appropriate habitat or season, can find hognoses, black kings, or copperheads occasionally, and anything else is a crap shoot.

Patrick Alexander

Maybe the problem is just poor wording... for a basic idea of what snakes are there are what kind of habitat to find them in, a field guide or some internet sites will get you there and there's no reason for any of us as forum visitors to try & reinvent that particular wheel. OTOH, specific questions are more likely to get answers since then you sound like you already have a basic idea what you're doing but are confused on some aspects, rather than sounding a bit like you don't have a clue & just don't feel like looking things up yourself. But, anyways... I did some herping in southern Indiana, but never had just a whole lot of luck. You might find herpers in Illinois on the field herping forum here, or on f i e l d h e r p e r s .com. The midwest is a bit of a herping backwater in general, though...

Patrick Alexander

I didn't ask about specific snakes because I just wanted a basic idea. Once I had a few replies about what snakes are generally found, I could narrow my search to a more specific search. The only snake I would really love to find is an eastern hognose. I did post a similar question in the eastern hoggie forum but got no response. I do appreciate your reply to my topic, because I had more of an idea of what to type into the search engine rather than "Snakes of Illinois". Like I said I am on a dial up connection and doing such a broad search takes forever. So by narrowing down my search with suggestions from here I can spend less time looking at sites that aren't helpful. And when people say use a search engine, I get a little aggravated because I thought it was obvious that I wanted other person's experiences. You are right, maybe I worded it wrong. Thank you for your help, but I am not going to thank the people that responded as if I was an idiot. -Joe Decareau

>>Maybe the problem is just poor wording... for a basic idea of what snakes are there are what kind of habitat to find them in, a field guide or some internet sites will get you there and there's no reason for any of us as forum visitors to try & reinvent that particular wheel. OTOH, specific questions are more likely to get answers since then you sound like you already have a basic idea what you're doing but are confused on some aspects, rather than sounding a bit like you don't have a clue & just don't feel like looking things up yourself. But, anyways... I did some herping in southern Indiana, but never had just a whole lot of luck. You might find herpers in Illinois on the field herping forum here, or on f i e l d h e r p e r s .com. The midwest is a bit of a herping backwater in general, though...
>>
>>Patrick Alexander

-----
0.1 Green Iguana (Sisco)
0.1 Rose Hair T (Sweets)
1.1.4 Hairless Rats (Socrates, The Three Stooges and Left Eye)
3.2 Ball Pythons (Stratos, She-Ra, Skeletor(0.1 oops on the name!), Sy-Cloone, Stinkor)
1.0 Striped Cal. King (Snuggles)

Regarding eastern hognoses--in Indiana the few I saw were either under tin in openings in woodland near water or crossing roads during the day in moist woods. I never did much road-cruising at night, so I have no idea if that works for them in the area.

Patrick Alexander

Yeah there are alot of woodlands on the river's edge and creeks edges, but it has been pretty chilly for snakes the last few days. I will probably just try again next year. The only thing I can find are northern water snakes. There is a really nice population of them in the pond out back of the house. I am getting kind of bored of finding them and getting pooped on so I figure I would look elsewhere. Thanks for the advice. -Joe Decareau

>>Regarding eastern hognoses--in Indiana the few I saw were either under tin in openings in woodland near water or crossing roads during the day in moist woods. I never did much road-cruising at night, so I have no idea if that works for them in the area.
>>
>>Patrick Alexander
-----
0.1 Green Iguana (Sisco)
0.1 Rose Hair T (Sweets)
1.1.4 Hairless Rats (Socrates, The Three Stooges and Left Eye)
3.2 Ball Pythons (Stratos, She-Ra, Skeletor(0.1 oops on the name!), Sy-Cloone, Stinkor)
1.0 Striped Cal. King (Snuggles)

I didn't ask about specific snakes because I just wanted a basic idea. Once I had a few replies about what snakes are generally found, I could narrow my search to a more specific search. The only snake I would really love to find is an eastern hognose. I did post a similar question in the eastern hoggie forum but got no response. I do appreciate your reply to my topic, because I had more of an idea of what to type into the search engine rather than "Snakes of Illinois". Like I said I am on a dial up connection and doing such a broad search takes forever. So by narrowing down my search with suggestions from here I can spend less time looking at sites that aren't helpful. And when people say use a search engine, I get a little aggravated because I thought it was obvious that I wanted other person's experiences. You are right, maybe I worded it wrong. Thank you for your help, but I am not going to thank the people that responded as if I was an idiot. -Joe Decareau

>>Maybe the problem is just poor wording... for a basic idea of what snakes are there are what kind of habitat to find them in, a field guide or some internet sites will get you there and there's no reason for any of us as forum visitors to try & reinvent that particular wheel. OTOH, specific questions are more likely to get answers since then you sound like you already have a basic idea what you're doing but are confused on some aspects, rather than sounding a bit like you don't have a clue & just don't feel like looking things up yourself. But, anyways... I did some herping in southern Indiana, but never had just a whole lot of luck. You might find herpers in Illinois on the field herping forum here, or on f i e l d h e r p e r s .com. The midwest is a bit of a herping backwater in general, though...
>>
>>Patrick Alexander

-----
0.1 Green Iguana (Sisco)
0.1 Rose Hair T (Sweets)
1.1.4 Hairless Rats (Socrates, The Three Stooges and Left Eye)
3.2 Ball Pythons (Stratos, She-Ra, Skeletor(0.1 oops on the name!), Sy-Cloone, Stinkor)
1.0 Striped Cal. King (Snuggles)