This is why black snakes are your friend

[dalpal]

I know we have had folks on this forum who will kill any snake just because they are deathly afraid of ALL snakes.

These pictures were sent to me today....this is why these snakes should not be killed, they do much more good than they do harm. This is proof that they keep the poisionous ones away. Don't kill the good guys.

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd129/grayboomerang/snake/?action=view&current=snake.jpg


http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd129/grayboomerang/snake/?action=view&current=snake1.jpg

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd129/grayboomerang/snake/?action=view&current=snake3.jpg

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd129/grayboomerang/snake/?action=view&current=snake2.jpg

[Sakura]

I got that same e-mail :eek:... Pretty cool :yes:... I love my black snakes :yes:.

[JohnDeere]

Is that a rattler being done for?

[dalpal]

It is a big old rattler who is meeting his demise.

[2Jakes]

It is a big old rattler who is meeting his demise.

Yes! At the...ummm...they don't have hands...at the scales of another snake!:yes:

[Antaeus]

Amazing! The rattler looks almost as long as the black snake.

[Mr.GMan]

We have 'em here, and I let them go about their business. But between my outdoor cat and the snake(s), I just don't see why I have mice in the barn:eek:

[MikeP]

Is the critter y'all are calling a Blacksnake some species of king snake? We don't have a black snake here that looks like that one. We do have a couple species of kingsnake that are built about like your black snake and will kill and eat rattlers and other snakes.

Our kingsnakes have prominent yellow markings on them. Our "Blacksnakes" are black racers, colored closer to gray than black, and they don't prey on other snakes.

[Zu Zu]

:eek:AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!:eek:!!!!!EEEEEEEWWWWWW WWWWW :eek: THank you for this information & pictures :eek: although it gives me the CREEPS!!!!:eek: And I have an extremely LOW- GAG THRESHOLD !!! But really I PROMISE :yes: I will never have anyone else kill a black snake for me again. I had no idea they were protecting me from something worse!!!

[2Jakes]

Is the critter y'all are calling a Blacksnake some species of king snake? We don't have a black snake here that looks like that one. We do have a couple species of kingsnake that are built about like your black snake and will kill and eat rattlers and other snakes.

Our kingsnakes have prominent yellow markings on them. Our "Blacksnakes" are black racers, colored closer to gray than black, and they don't prey on other snakes.

I remember seeing that set of pics a while back and it was said to be a Kingsnake...Indigo snakes are shiny black like that and they eat venomous too...they will eat venomous too.

[DancingSeahorse]

That appears to be a kingsnake.
Cool pics.

[pintopiaffe]

Cool. :cool:

I loff snakes, even though they *startle* me, the same way a mouse does when it pops up where you don't expect it...

OTOH, I don't have BAD snakes.

The year a Mama decided to have her babies on my hay stack, I kept *carefully* moving them (all) to under the grain shed hoping they'd think it was ideal... and every time, somehow they'd all come back to the top of the hay stack and jump me when I'd pull the tarp off. :lol: They were fascinating and beautiful though. Mother nature does Argyle better than any knitter I've ever seen. :cool:

[Ranchomecke]

I have a friend who is deathly afraid of snakes and doesn’t try to distinguish between the two. I keep telling her the good snakes will keep the bad snakes away, but don’t know that she has believed me. Maybe she will now. :)

She is under orders when she feeds for me to leave my snakes alone! I have seen black, king, and rat snakes at the barn and tonight my husband and I actually witnessed a rat snake catching, killing and eating a rat! Wish we had had the camera handy.

Our barn cat had to become an indoor only cat a couple of years ago when he developed chronic renal failure and we have missed his presence in the barn. He was a great mouser! He is enjoying retirement (lounging on his pillows and eating KD), and he earned it, but we have definitely had a rat/mouse population explosion since he came inside. However, we aren’t ready to add any more vet bills to the family (even working ones) so will take all the self sufficient snakes (whatever the species) we can get!

[dalpal]

Yep, probably a kingsnake....it came to me entitled "Black Snake".....but both are good snakes. :yes:

[dalpal]

:eek:AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!:eek:!!!!!EEEEEEEWWWWWW WWWWW :eek: THank you for this information & pictures :eek: although it gives me the CREEPS!!!!:eek: And I have an extremely LOW- GAG THRESHOLD !!! But really I PROMISE :yes: I will never have anyone else kill a black snake for me again. I had no idea they were protecting me from something worse!!!

ROFL....about 10 years ago, we were at a schooling show. The judge was sitting on a pickup truck...that afternoon, they had to postphone for a few minutes because two snakes were duking it out under the truck....a few minutes after that...you hear...EWWWWWWWWWWWW, ones eating the other one. :lol: I have no idea what type of snakes they were...but one probably was a king snake. They don't call you king for nothin. :lol:

[FalseImpression]

I had seen something similar in a documentary years ago, but never pictures like this. I am SO happy to live in an area without snakes; the worst I may see would be a garter snake and I would still jump out of my skin...

[MikeP]

I remember seeing that set of pics a while back and it was said to be a Kingsnake...Indigo snakes are shiny black like that and they eat venomous too...they will eat venomous too.

Ah! For some reason I assumed the pictures were from somewhere up in the Mid-Atlantic states. Now, after looking more closely, I see the rattler is an Eastern Diamondback, which could certainly be in the range of the Indigo Snake. I vote Indigo in this picture, which was probably taken somewhere in Florida.

[kellidahorsegirl]

Those pictures are so cool! Where do I get one of those black snakes? We have rattlers here (I've come across a few in the 3 years I've lived here)...yuck.

Whats with the rattler having the black and white on the end of his body? Is that just because of the "kind" he is?


I don't kill any of our snakes. I think they're neat. I WILL kill a rattler though...I live in BFE, so getting a bite will be hard to fix quickly.

[Catersun]

while we are on the topic of snakes.. I need to share something...
EQQQQWWWWWWWWWW$&#$^&#*$^&#^$*#^$*&@# SNAKE...

That would have been my reaction to the snake hanging off THE INSIDE of my screen door this morning. I screamed... He dropped to the floor and promptly tried to slither out the door, but couldnot because the screen door was still closed. I know I scared him just as much as he scared me.. adn he was a teeny tiny wee baby rat snake... but now I apparently have a colony of rat snakes that are using my chicken's eggs as easy food. Daddy was killed when it killed my daughters broody chicken, mama was killed yesterday when Mr. C found it in the chickencoop. And now we have babies slithering amuck.... I hate summer... last year I had one in the bathtub. I was OK with letting the snakes live... until they started invading my home.

[MistyBlue]

Cool photos!

Whats with the rattler having the black and white on the end of his body? Is that just because of the "kind" he is?


That looked like a western diamondback rattler...they have a lovely diamond pattern down their bodies that are colored more for camouflage but the tails end in stripes and black and white buttons.
The below photo is a diamondback.
And not to freak out the snake-phobics but rattlers can reach some impressive sizes:
http://hypography.com/forums/members/dougf-albums-misalaneous-pics-picture745-nine-foot-rattle-snake-754684.jpg

[EventingChase]

Ugh!

I am all for letting the good ones live... but that is just double the ick factor!

[KnKShowmom]

When I first moved to our farm, I had black snakes and didn't really care if anyone killed them so one by one they disappeared. Was snake free for about a year or so and then the copperheads moved in and we quickly became over run with them after a female gave (live)birth to about 45 babies in my manure pile! :eek:

The vet told me to get some more black snakes so I called a few farmers I knew and one brought me a male and female and turned them loose in my barn. I haven't seen a copperhead in over 15 years (thank God) and my snake-fearing husband knows that divorce papers will be filed the second he kills any of my beloved black snakes.

When it comes to snakes, black is truly beautiful!!

[harveyhorses]

I don't think I'd like to see the king snake (or any kind) that could eat THAT rattler....eeeech.
We have a black racer here, well not 'here', but in my garden:winkgrin:It's been sleeping under my squash, I was picking one this morning and looked to the side, and it's face was about 6 inches away. Yes I screamed like a girl and jumped. :eek:
I grew up being told they were very thin and almost irredescent black/blue. Whatever his breed it is nontoxic, and he keeps other pests away from my garden.
Thanks for the pics!

[harveyhorses]

When I first moved to our farm, I had black snakes and didn't really care if anyone killed them so one by one they disappeared. Was snake free for about a year or so and then the copperheads moved in and we quickly became over run with them after a female gave (live)birth to about 45 babies in my manure pile! :eek:

The vet told me to get some more black snakes so I called a few farmers I knew and one brought me a male and female and turned them loose in my barn. I haven't seen a copperhead in over 15 years (thank God) and my snake-fearing husband knows that divorce papers will be filed the second he kills any of my beloved black snakes.

When it comes to snakes, black is truly beautiful!!


I thought I was the only person to have baby coperheads in the manure pile, yuck. I was pitforking into our pickup and came up with a fork full. Not good not good at all. We disposed (o.k. DH did the disposing) with tree loppers. and I still would not drive the truck for weeks.

[arabhorse2]

I have lots of black snakes and black rat snakes. Haven't seen one copperhead, thank goodness! Yay for the black and rat snakes! :D

[kellidahorsegirl]

Thanks for the Diamond Back pic....don't think we have those here. We have "regular" rattlers HAHA whatever that means (brown, ugly, mean :p)

I stopped at this place in KS that has all kinds of critters...they have a cage FULL of rattlers. Its INSANE. There was one that was about as big around as ummmm maybe half of a jump pole (a full sized one)?? LONG too. GROSS

Snakes really are kinda neat. I have a neat bull snake living in my garden who I see once in a while....and a tiny black snake with yellow stripes going down its back.

[asb_own_me]

I'm scared to even look at those pictures.

[RacetrackReject]

Yeah king snakes! I had one in my hay barn this past winter. I just relocated him a bit further out so that I didn't accidentally kill myself trying to get away from him one day =).

[KnKShowmom]

I thought I was the only person to have baby coperheads in the manure pile, yuck. I was pitforking into our pickup and came up with a fork full. Not good not good at all. We disposed (o.k. DH did the disposing) with tree loppers. and I still would not drive the truck for weeks.


That experience resulted in more snake knowledge than I ever would have thought I wanted thanks to a great vet who will answer non horse questions -

"Black" snakes lay eggs in the spring -

Copperheads give live birth in the fall and those suckers come out poisonous and ready to bite! So if you come across a nest, not only do you need to worry about momma but also 30-50 babies!

We boarded at a barn that had little baby brown snakes in the fall and they kept trying to tell me that they were black snakes and we should leave them alone - NOT!:no:

[jen-s]

I can't believe I'm going to ask this, but will someone forward me that email? I'm terrified, no, *TERRIFIED* of snakes and need to remind myself of a fairly frequent basis that some of them are good to have around. Email is jenstout.nc@gmail.com. Thanks.

[dalpal]

That experience resulted in more snake knowledge than I ever would have thought I wanted thanks to a great vet who will answer non horse questions -

"Black" snakes lay eggs in the spring -

Copperheads give live birth in the fall and those suckers come out poisonous and ready to bite! So if you come across a nest, not only do you need to worry about momma but also 30-50 babies!

We boarded at a barn that had little baby brown snakes in the fall and they kept trying to tell me that they were black snakes and we should leave them alone - NOT!:no:


Can some of our snake experts explain to me why some snakes lay eggs and others give live birth??? You would think it would be the same within the species. Really curious about that one. AND, which ones lay eggs and which ones give live birth.

[dalpal]

I can't believe I'm going to ask this, but will someone forward me that email? I'm terrified, no, *TERRIFIED* of snakes and need to remind myself of a fairly frequent basis that some of them are good to have around. Email is jenstout.nc@gmail.com. Thanks.

Yes, I will forward it to you.

[Ty2003]

I have to say that I read this post while at work, and I've freaked myself out to the point that I'm actually sitting in my office chair Indian-style for fear something will brush across my feet (a draft of air, or a piece of paper) and I'll shriek. I know snakes are good but it doesn't mean they don't scare me! :)

[chai]

Wow. Spiders terrify me but I like snakes and that is an amazing set of photos. We have black snakes here and I think they help keep the rodent population under control. My brother lives in Thailand and a few months ago he saw a 12' King Cobra crossing the street where he lives. He was so excited, he called me from the car. That's a snake.

[lauriep]

In snakes, the "live birth" is not live birth as we know it with mammals. It is merely that the eggs stay in the snake until the babies develop and then are "born alive." But they still develop in an egg in the snake's body.

[centeur]

Thanks for sharing!!!!!! We LOFF are black snakes!!!!:):yes::):yes:

[Dirty Little Secret]

hee bee gee bees!

[3chunkymonkies]

Friend? Absolutely not. Acquaintance, yes. It takes all I have not to kill the king snakes. However, logic says let them live. They do a great job of sending me back in the house. A week or so ago I had a 5 footer in the center of the round pen. The cat alerted me to it AFTER I lunged Queen Chunky Monkey. The others did not get exercise. The cat herded it into the neighbors field :lol: Kitty got to spend the night in the house on the bed instead of in the barn on duty. We have speckled king snakes here. Most only strike as last resort. Logic doesn't stop me from running and screaming like a sissy. It is so bad that if I see a snake during the day I have a hard time falling asleep that night. I had a 4 ft bull snake in the house once and didn't sleep for 2 days.

ETA: The NON-venomous snake in the house died after a not-so-graceful removal that I took no part in. You enter my house, you die. No exceptions.

[Mav226]

For the morbidly curious, how does a black/king snake kill a 'bad' snake? Does it have some sort of venom that is harmful only to other snakes? Does it squeeze it to death?

Do they bite/strike at your barn dogs?

[foundationmare]

ChunkyMonkey, you know that you had a snake in your house and you didn't LEAVE????

I've been reading these snake threads with a morbid curiosity (and I'm devastated still about the death of Megan) but it's the only way I have to accrue some understanding about varieties of snakes in their environments.

I am Margie, and I'm a snake phobic!!!!

There is logic in the phobia, but it is also crippling. I once lived in the foothills of So. Calif., and there were rattlesnakes galore, but I was fortunate to avoid them. Once, my sister's husband dispatched one that was hanging out under my VW Bug. Oy! To this day I don't walk with my head up, but keep my eyes to the ground. I pick grass and clover for my darlings who don't have pasture and sing mindless songs to put the hex on the pesky slitherers that I know are out there somewhere. After all, there's a huge shit pile, a pond, acres of corn. Yeah, I know they're out there!

And for anyone who says that we don't have poisonous snakes in my neck of the woods: I don't give a tiny rat's ass! I'm unhinged by snakes. Period.

Just for shit and giggles: has anyone been able to "get over" a snake phobia? I know it would be freeing, but I just can't imagine it.

[slc2]

That's why he's the king of snakes! Good snake!

[MikeP]

For the morbidly curious, how does a black/king snake kill a 'bad' snake? Does it have some sort of venom that is harmful only to other snakes? Does it squeeze it to death?

Do they bite/strike at your barn dogs?

King snakes do not have venom, but they are born immune to poisonous snake venom. They kill other snakes by constriction. (Squeezing them) They will kill and eat any snake they can best, poisonous or not.

If your barn dogs corner and threaten a kingsnake, the snake will strike and bite, hoping to scare the dog away. The snake's preferred option is to slither away into a crack in the wall, but they will try to defend themselves if forced to do so.

[3chunkymonkies]

I took herpetology in college to get over my phobia. It was a huge embarassment. I can now ID the snake before I run screaming like a banshee.

Seriously, I still have the phobia. I scream and run, return slowly if I can see it, make an ID, retreat without turning my back, and hide in the house the rest of the day. My neighbors don't bother checking on me when they hear me scream anymore. So sad.

While driving, I will avoid running over a snake but lift my legs to protect myself from the attack through the floorboards.

[dalpal]

ChunkyMonkey, you know that you had a snake in your house and you didn't LEAVE????

I've been reading these snake threads with a morbid curiosity (and I'm devastated still about the death of Megan) but it's the only way I have to accrue some understanding about varieties of snakes in their environments.

I am Margie, and I'm a snake phobic!!!!

There is logic in the phobia, but it is also crippling. I once lived in the foothills of So. Calif., and there were rattlesnakes galore, but I was fortunate to avoid them. Once, my sister's husband dispatched one that was hanging out under my VW Bug. Oy! To this day I don't walk with my head up, but keep my eyes to the ground. I pick grass and clover for my darlings who don't have pasture and sing mindless songs to put the hex on the pesky slitherers that I know are out there somewhere. After all, there's a huge shit pile, a pond, acres of corn. Yeah, I know they're out there!

And for anyone who says that we don't have poisonous snakes in my neck of the woods: I don't give a tiny rat's ass! I'm unhinged by snakes. Period.

Just for shit and giggles: has anyone been able to "get over" a snake phobia? I know it would be freeing, but I just can't imagine it.

Raising my hand...YES. As a child I had these reoccurring nightmares of snakes stalking me...there was no reason for this (or least that I am aware of), I just had nightmares about snakes.

As an adult this fear transferred over. A couple times we would see a black snake here in the city and I would scream my head off when husand would point him out.

Years back, I remember standing in the tack room, the mowers were going outside and all of a sudden I saw this black "thing" go behind my tack trunk (keep in mind I was standing at it)...I dropped everything in my hand, went out screaming..wouldnt' go back in until my friend got there 45 minutes later. :eek: Of course, logically, I knew the snake was gone...but what if he wasn't.

When we moved to the current farm last year.....in May they started coming out of hibernation....my husband and I would go for walks with the dogs on the farm....in ONE day, we had three come slithering across our paths in front of us....I'm not kidding, I would fall to my knees shaking..and we are talking about simple black snakes...nothing dangerous.

A few days later, husband just about landed foot first on one sleeping in some high grass.....I hear "OH $#$%$ snake" and as he leaps out of the way, the snake comes my way, I ran like a little girl. He swear that one was a moccassin, but eh, I'm not sure. He did lose his cellphone in that escapade. So that snake cost us about 100.00. I still have images of that snake laying somewhere on a rock..and everytime we buzzed the cellphone (it was on vibrate), the poor snake getting zapped from an eaten cellphone. :lol:

A week or so later, I'm talking to him on the phone, bee popping down the barn aisle to go talk to a friend and I make the mistake of looking out the barn door and seeing a snake head in the air..couldn't see the body, just the head. Same reaction...to my knees....my friend made me walk over to the door with her to look at the snake....once I made myself go over and peer out the door....the little guy (okay, he was probably about 4 feet long) was actually not so scary looking...kindof cute actually. I would take a step and he would take his coiled little body and slide one step backwards...head in the air, tongue out, trying to catch a scent. So I just stood and watched....he very carefully backed himself under the barn and waited for me to leave, to make his exit.

A couple months later, the dogs and I were out....one dog runs ahead of me and I see his nose immediately go in the grass and up pops a snake neck, head....I was not so much afraid of the snake at that point, more worried that the dog had found a poisionous snake.....I called my dog back, he came....it was a harmless black snake..who had this look of.."Lady, get your #$#$%#$ dog's nose off my back"...Dog came to me, snake was gone.

This year I have seen three...okay, seen two and heard one...all were out during May/end of hibernation. Now, I'm not going to say that I joyfully hang out with them and have no desire to touch one.....and I do still get the heebie jeebies when I see one unexpectdly....but at the same time, I am now more rational....those guys aren't going to chase me down...they want to get AWAY from me..not near me. And quite honestly, if you take time to actually just stop and watch one...they are not as evil looking. The harmless ones are actually cute in their own way. Now granted, I still hate to see them slithering at full speed....but there is something elegant about them when they are still..and then suddenly they are gone.

So my advice to you is...try to watch as many as you can, no matter how scary it is at first and eventually you will desensitize yourself to a point.

[dalpal]

Oh and forgot one....felt bad for this little guy.

It was early last fall...temp was around 55 degrees..so I figured it was okay to walk the creek banks on our walk (I do not seek snakes out/respect their territory..stay on the mowed paths)....dogs were sniffing around..when I heard "PLOP" in the water.....looked on the other side of the bank and saw the black snake (not moccassin) swimming down stream......At first it gave me the willies...and then I thought "Poor guy, he was so afraid of us, that he jumped into the freezing water just to get away".....He/she was probably thinking..."@#@#$#$% woman and her dogs...DAMN this water is cold!"

[3chunkymonkies]

I hate to scare you but....looking down doesn't always work. The snake in my house was hanging down from the trim over the doorway between my dining/living room. They are EVERYWHERE!!!!!

[HobbyHorse101]

I'm enjoying reading the threads, I like snakes and had a 2' ball python living with me for a summer, smart little guy had figured out how to push his cage open and well he got loose in my house. Spent the whole day looking for him even to the cat to the vet to see if he had eaten him (It was a $350 snake...) and mom calls says some guy told her to look up high, sure enough he was behing a large mirror about a foot from his cage. He was a super cool snake too, we'd feed him live stuff and watch him eat them...(I was like ten and a girl and found this fasinating) :eek: I would love to own a albino (More of a gorgeous golden color) python :winkgrin:

We don't really have many posionus snakes around here, although you can run across the occasional moccaison, copperhead, and although I've never seen one, rattlers are supposed to be in the Ozarks. But we do have lots of Garters, and King snakes. We'll pick them up pet em' and let them loose near the grain bins.

My dad always reads up about the huge anacondas that frequently eat dogs, and the occasional human...now that would be scary. (And yet I still want to photograph one) :yes:

[Aimee Thanatogenus]

I took herpetology in college to get over my phobia. It was a huge embarassment. I can now ID the snake before I run screaming like a banshee.

Seriously, I still have the phobia. I scream and run, return slowly if I can see it, make an ID, retreat without turning my back, and hide in the house the rest of the day. My neighbors don't bother checking on me when they hear me scream anymore. So sad.

While driving, I will avoid running over a snake but lift my legs to protect myself from the attack through the floorboards.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

[KnKShowmom]

Just for shit and giggles: has anyone been able to "get over" a snake phobia? I know it would be freeing, but I just can't imagine it.

I was pretty afraid of snakes - thought the only good snake was a dead snake...wrong. Then I realized that if I wanted to live on a farm I better suck it up and get with the program - the good, the bad, the ugly AND the snakes.

The snake you know is better than the snake you don't want to know!

ETA - Hubby however is still phobic and not afraid to tell you about it either!

[AliCat]

That makes me feel better about my acceptance of black snakes :)

[birdsong]

Indigo snakes are really pretty and so placid that you can just pick them up...they are protected here in Fl.
I would consider myself very lucky to have a resident King or Indigo...I do have lots of black racers though .

[birdsong]

I'm enjoying reading the threads, I like snakes and had a 2' ball python living with me for a summer, smart little guy had figured out how to push his cage open and well he got loose in my house. Spent the whole day looking for him even to the cat to the vet to see if he had eaten him (It was a $350 snake...) and mom calls says some guy told her to look up high, sure enough he was behing a large mirror about a foot from his cage. He was a super cool snake too, we'd feed him live stuff and watch him eat them...(I was like ten and a girl and found this fasinating) :eek: I would love to own a albino (More of a gorgeous golden color) python :winkgrin:

We don't really have many posionus snakes around here, although you can run across the occasional moccaison, copperhead, and although I've never seen one, rattlers are supposed to be in the Ozarks. But we do have lots of Garters, and King snakes. We'll pick them up pet em' and let them loose near the grain bins.

My dad always reads up about the huge anacondas that frequently eat dogs, and the occasional human...now that would be scary. (And yet I still want to photograph one) :yes:

Florida just had it first official python hunt since they have become so populous here...Did you read about the recent attack on the two year old? So sad.

[Candle]

Cool photos!



That looked like a western diamondback rattler...they have a lovely diamond pattern down their bodies that are colored more for camouflage but the tails end in stripes and black and white buttons.
The below photo is a diamondback.
And not to freak out the snake-phobics but rattlers can reach some impressive sizes:
http://hypography.com/forums/members/dougf-albums-misalaneous-pics-picture745-nine-foot-rattle-snake-754684.jpg

AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! #(%&($*T@#^&*&$^(09-!!!!!!!!! I'm the one who is *TERRIFIED* of wild snakes, but if someone hands me a pet snake, I can pet it all day. I was also laying in bed the other night with my feet sticking out from under the sheets because it was hot, and the fan blew the filmy curtain onto my toe. I levitated, screamed, scared the piss out of the dog, and turned on the light in one smooth motion and then started smacking the bed as hard as I could while yelping loudly, "SPIDER!!!!! SPIDER!!!!" :D