Do We Have Any Snake Experts?

Picture the head before the bullet hole.

it's a Snake...

or, an ex-snake to be more precise...

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Good shootin' thar Tex!

it looks like one of those harmless garden snakes...  A garter snake most likely, a gopher snake would have a bigger nose.

DavidK I figured that by the way it wiggled.....
Actually I need to know because there are more than one and this is the one my cat brought me. IN THE HOUSE. Now I am holding the cats hostage inside the house and they are driving me crazy but I can't let them back out until I know.

This was prior to your 2nd reply! I'm looking up garden snake now.
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Darn. Not a garden or garter snake.

garter snakes have stripes lengthwise I think. It might be a copperhead.

I thought that but I'm hoping not.
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Plainbelly Watersnake (juvenile)

looks to be a Yellow King or RAT Snake...

Essencay you are the man!!! Thank you so much!! I bow to you and my cats do too, you saved our sanity.

I'm not an expert...that's just the closest picture I could find on the web.

where do you live mgiff? we agree its a 'northern watersnake' (my mother pulled out a garden book)

oh- WAIT!

it could also be a 'Southern watersnake' .

From the pictures I saw, it looks like the Northern and the Plainbelly juvenile. I live in Northern Mississippi so I figured the Northern was out but I found an Arkansas website that had the Plainbelly juvy and this was it! The adult doesn't look like it but the juvy is exact. Thank you so much Essencay and DesignCaddy and everyone else, I was going crazy over this. By the way, your mother probably had the best idea. It was in the garden which I had just disturbed by raking and pulling weeds.

(Now looking up Southern Watersnake)
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"Warning All water snakes in the genus Nerodia will bite if harassed. Their bite is not venomous. The Southern is commonly mistaken for the venomous Cottonmouth. It defends itself vigorously when disturbed."

It is DEFINITELY a watersnake, of that I have no doubt. I think they are all pretty close in appearance. I read in one place where the plainbelly is also mistaken for the copperhead and actually flattens it's head to try and look like one when it's defending. I feel SO much better now.
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Whew. I let the cats out.

I was just thinking that if your cats knew it was safe to play with them then most likely they had been in your yard for a while and wouldn't hurt them. you just never noticed.

good for the kittys!!!

but ummm, I dunno if they want to play with snakes in general, specially in Miss

That's right! We've got some bad ones! Good kitty....

Your first clue would have been the fact that, from the shape of it's head, it's NOT a pit viper (i.e., Rattler, Copperhead, or Cottonmouth). Secondly, the coloring is a dead giveaway it's not a coral snake. On that basis, you could have concluded it was not a (U.S.) NATIVE venomous snake.

But, with the things people turn loose nowadays, ya never know !

I agree with crofttk
doesn't look like a pit viper and looks very much like that watersnake in the later photos.
pat the kittie on the head and tell her good hunting!
between the snakes and the cats you shouldn't have a mouse problem this spring

Thanks! Now, instead of asking the snake, I'll be able to tell by looking.

pat the kittie on the head and tell her good hunting!

> Wow, in my neck of the woods it would've been the cat with the lead behind the ear!

I just don't hold with native animals getting taken out by the domestic ones - regardless of species (why are snakes immediately demonised?).

Uh-cause they scare the crap out of me and if it had been the copperhead I thought it was then the kids in the neighborhood were in danger??? This is not the country, I live in a high pop neighborhood with lots of kids. We have at least 5 poisonous snakes in this area that I can think of. Be happy to send them to you so they're safe.
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