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I've found myself in a bizarre situation and If anyone out there knows anything about Ohio's Black Rat Snake I would appreciate your help.

Basically what I need to know is Do Rat Snakes breed near water? My next door neighbor has informed me that my pond is infested with black snakes and that the cattails in my pond is what is attracting them. According to her the love to breed in cattails.

Are these snakes dangerous to people? Again according to my neighbor her horse, dog and granddaughter have been bitten and given infections from these snakes.

Next question how can I encourage them to go somewhere else? Will cuttdown the cattails make them move on?

Thanks for any help out there
Kim

Sounds like she is irrationally blaming you for you having a thriving ecosystem of native animals. Tough. There is no liability on your part. The snakes would not necessarily be breeding in the cattails and it sounds more like you have a native watersnake of some species (Nerodia genus). In any case, its highly unlikely that the infections to her brat, dog and horse are due to harmless snakes such as these. You should be proud of the fact that you are contributing to the preservation of a native animal.

All the best
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
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Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
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Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
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http://www.venomdoc.com

Thanks for your input. Also I don't know if I can take credit for contributing to preserving any ecosystem. My belief is that whatever lives out there better be able to thrive on it's own because I'm sure not going to do anything to help it along

A friend of mine steered me towards our states Department of Wildlife and I had a nice long chat with a bioligist. I learned more about snakes than I cared to know Bottom line he basically said the same thing as you. Anytime there's a healthy ecosystem your going to attract preditors and short of turning my pond into a sewage dump (which isn't going to happen) there's not a whole lot I can do about it. He also suspects that my neighbor is an alarmist and exaggerating. I went out and have looked around my pond several times in the past week and guess what? haven't seen a single snake. Occassionally will find a snake under a log or in my flower bed and guess what it slithers away as fast I run screaming in the other direction So bottome line I'll go out and cut down the cattails to make the neighbor happy and if she gives me anymore grief i'll tell her to call the Wildlife Department.
At any rate i learned somethign new

thanks for the help
Kim

Why do non animal people always seem to have problems animal people wish they had lol?
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Hi Kim

I have never heard of a rat snake seeking out pond

there are however water snakes that are black - and some are deadly

dont confuse the rat snake with other species
so easily done

best way forward i would say is -- identify the species at hand

some info on the black rat of ohio can be found at http://www.oplin.org/snake/fact pages/rat_snake_black/rat_snake_black.html

"Local Habitat
Forests, rocky hillsides with large trees, farmlands and old fields"

you can check out other reptiles of Ohia at
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife/Resources/reptiles/reptiles.htm

regards
Lynx