bananimal

Cleaned out a shelf in the pot shed and look what I found the next day. Any one recognize this type of snake? First time I've run into one of these. All the others have been black racers.

Dan



Gotcha!!!



Poisonous or not? Tossed him in the lot next door anyway.

Sailfish

me guesses thats a red corn/rat snake
highly venoumous, in fact through the pores in the skin they have been known to leach I highly permeable venom which can cause the heart to contract prematurely

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tlturbo

Hope you realized that Sailfish was joking. That is a corn snake or red rat snake. Corns are usually more brown and yellowish. Red rats are rust colored. Both are totally harmless. They are great for rodent control and usually pretty easy going.

bananimal

Thought so - wasn't sure. Just wanted confirmation. This little guy wasn't as much fun as the black racers - they are fast. As I slowed down with my 2 chopsticks to pin him he slowed his movements as well. Made it easy to get him behind the head. BTW, those chopsticks are the cooking kind - almost 2 feet long. In the lot next door I hope he's munching away on critters. Hope the bobcat doesn't find him.

Hey Sailfish; hope you never run into a bamboo viper like I did back in the Nam. One bite and it's all over. Wouldn't have seemed funny - especially after checking the pants. If one had the time. That's a joke, eh.

B-mal

Sailfish

heck no, at the time it sure wouldn't be funny. it didn't earn the name 2-step charlie for nothing

but i prolly wouldn't have picked it up either.

we really only have one snake to truly fear in FL--- Coral snake
it doesn't possess the characteristic viper skull, and is easily mistaken for a king.
i think we only have like 5 total venomous in fl and 4 of them fall into the viper category

sorry if you were scared by my original comments. i had no intent of offending or upsetting you

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mrbungalow

What about cottonmouths? Dont you have those in FL? I hear these are territorial snakes?

And can anyone tell me the difference between a coral and a king snake?

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Tangy

coral- red on black venom lack, red on yellow kill a fellow?? pretty sure thats right.

Sailfish

yes cottonmouths are here too.

coral snake in FL
banded red, yellow and black

red on yellow, kill a fellow (referring to the bands touching each other on a coral snake)

red on black a friend of Jack (king snake)

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modenacart

Cottonmouths can be nasty but if you leave them alone they leave you alone. I found two in my yard last summer over two weeks and the dogs ran right by it. It just sat still until discovered where it got into a defensive poster and then ran. I relocated them in the woods down the street. I don't usually care but they will kill my dogs if they bit them.

Sailfish

this is not the one you want to run accross



*
no snakes were harmed in the photo sessions above. the photos were taken for educational purposes only.in fact this is not even a real snake, my 2 year old opted for the rubber snake over the plush stuffed elephant. She has a thing for snakes.

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Mark Hall

Not a lot of help if your colour blind

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Time Flies like an Arrow.....Fruit flies like a Banana.

bananimal

I had a training NCO who used to grab coral snakes by the tail and quickly snap them like a whip several times. Hydostatic pressure - pop - no more snakey. Fort Polk, La. area had a lot of them. Ran into one about every 2 weeks in the field in La. My bamboo viper in VNCH got the boot heel and I just kept on truckin'. Real beautifull little snake too. Pale jade green.

Lagniappe

My friend's dad loved to do that and to scare the daylights out of the poor soul who happened to be stuck in the small aluminum boat with him . He swears that he did this one day and splattered his fishing buddy with baby snakes .

MediaHound

I've also heard it this way:
Red touch yellow, kill a fellow, red touch black, venom it lacks.

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Carolina

My son had two snakes -in his house- last week. Yes, I said TWO!

They were getting showers before bed when the oldest grandchild hollered. My son caught the biggest one, but another one, slightly smaller went behind the sofa and then disappeared while he was getting rid of the other one. Can you imagine the horror of one freaked out mother howling and screaming inside a mobile home?

They spent that night at my house, then son went back the next day and found the other one. It had gotten up inside the sofa. We think the kids must have carried them in on their dump trucks. Now, that's scary!

We still aren't sure what they were, but apparently not venomous. One was about 3 ft long and very skinny. The second one was a few inches shorter. Probably rat snakes.

I begged them not to move out there... riverfront, and a canal along the side. We lived out there when my kids were younger so I knew about the snakiness.