jinman said:
My father in law said it was a chicken snake. I can tell you he was agressive. He snapped at my dog several times and as I pointed my .22 cal with rat shot at his face, he bowed up and took a couple of shots ay my barrell as well.
Snake
- Thread starter jshbryan
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My father in law said it was a chicken snake. I can tell you he was agressive. He snapped at my dog several times and as I pointed my .22 cal with rat shot at his face, he bowed up and took a couple of shots ay my barrell as well.
Jimbrown
Veteran Member
jinman said:
I would not argue either way. All the pictures are fairly poor. Ran up on a nice 5 ft diamond back yeasterday on the way to the barn. Those tend to get my attention. The most commonsnake around here is this one. I wish we had more cause we got way to many gophers. This snake also comes in a grey color and looks very much like a diamondback. People often confuse them.
Sonoran Gopher Snake-AZS
jshbryan said:
Chicken snake is a common name around here for a gray rat snake. Although it's really tough to tell from the photo, I pretty sure the snake that started this post is some variety of rat snake.
Later,
BR
dieselalles
Bronze Member
Some people are really creeped out by snakes. Had a friend that climbed up on the seat of our pickup as I was drove by a snake lying on the side of a gravel road. I was mean and started to stop and back up and he started screaming at me. It was that kind of scream that you knew he wasn't kidding. It was some kind of phobia.
I don't like having poisonous snakes up around the house. Had a nephew that was bit by a baby copperhead and it swelled his arm up till his skin was banjo tight before we could get him to an emergency room. But there are a lot of harmless, helpful snakes that are beneficial, just like lady bugs and praying mantis.
Check this snake out. A spreading adder It will absolutely scare the living daylights out of you but it is harmless. And if he can't scare you with his hissing and cobra-like hood, he'll play dead, rolling over on his back. Funny thing is when you turn him right side up, he'll flip back over on it's back. Like foxes, owls, hawks, bats, spiders and dirt daubers, best thing to do is leave them alone. They help keep things in balance. But if you want to kill all the cock roaches and rats you can find, be my guest!
I don't like having poisonous snakes up around the house. Had a nephew that was bit by a baby copperhead and it swelled his arm up till his skin was banjo tight before we could get him to an emergency room. But there are a lot of harmless, helpful snakes that are beneficial, just like lady bugs and praying mantis.
Check this snake out. A spreading adder It will absolutely scare the living daylights out of you but it is harmless. And if he can't scare you with his hissing and cobra-like hood, he'll play dead, rolling over on his back. Funny thing is when you turn him right side up, he'll flip back over on it's back. Like foxes, owls, hawks, bats, spiders and dirt daubers, best thing to do is leave them alone. They help keep things in balance. But if you want to kill all the cock roaches and rats you can find, be my guest!
wushaw
Elite Member
That is a Texas Rat Snake. Texas Rat Snake
Since he is dead, who is gonna catch the mices he was after?
Since he is dead, who is gonna catch the mices he was after?
dieselalles said:
There's some disagreement in the scientific community as to whether or not the hognose snake should be considered poisonous or not. They have rear-fangs (not hollow like a pit viper's) that are believed to be used to "deflate" frogs and toads, their primary prey. Often frogs and toads will inflate themselves in a defensive maneuver to make themselves look bigger or to make it harder for a predator to swallow them. The saliva of the hognose snake has been tested to be mildly toxic, probably toxic enough to immobilize and start the digestive process on the small frogs and toads that they prey on, but not toxic enough to have any noticable effect on humans. So, from our perspective, they're considered harmless.
They do put on a good show. The photos on the page that you link to are what I most often see around here. But, last summer, there were two large malenistic (black) hognose snakes at my dad's pond. They were there for the frog buffet, I'm sure. They were definitely different than any hognose snake I'd seen before in that they were solid black on top with a solid, bright white belly. But, when they started their show (spreading their neck, hissing loudly, and eventually playing dead), there was no mistaking what they were. After doing a little research, I realized that the black phase isn't too uncommon. This was a bit surprising to me because I've seen LOTS of hognose snakes in my 38 years, and these two were the first black ones I'd ever seen.
Later,
BR
JESSE1
Veteran Member
Some years ago we were walking down in the pasture and came upon a black hognose snake. Solid black on top, white on the bottom. We knew what it was so didn't try to harm it but did let it put on its show. Sounded like an air hose and finally flopped over on its back. Rolled it over with a stick and it would roll back over. It was a big snake!
Bird
Rest in Peace
What's the deal with all the snakes this year? Are we going to have a lot more of them than usual? I started the thread about identifying a really bright colored snake I killed, first thinking copperhead, but later concluded it was probably a corn snake. Now we have this thread. Yesterday, the two guys who were working on my vinyl siding started picking up some of their scrap and tools and one of them almost got bit by a 34" snake that was under the lid to his drill case when he went to close it. They thought it was a copperhead, and it was definitely aggressive (dead now) but I think it was a Texas Rat Snake. And this morning the Denton Record-Chronicle has a story about a big Rat Snake knocking out power to about 400 homes in Denton last night, and committing suicide in the process.
Are we going to have a lot more of them than usual? I started the thread about identifying a really bright colored snake I killed, first thinking copperhead, but later concluded it was probably a corn snake. Now we have this thread. Yesterday, the two guys who were working on my vinyl siding started picking up some of their scrap and tools and one of them almost got bit by a 34" snake that was under the lid to his drill case when he went to close it. They thought it was a copperhead, and it was definitely aggressive (dead now) but I think it was a Texas Rat Snake. And this morning the Denton Record-Chronicle has a story about a big Rat Snake knocking out power to about 400 homes in Denton last night, and committing suicide in the process.Bird said:What's the deal with all the snakes this year?
I think the DRY weather has a lot to do with the increased snake sightings around here. When it gets really dry, the snakes start coming looking for water themselves, and follow prey which are looking for water sources. Even when the woods dry completely up, we humans will still be running our sprinklers and still have water in our pools.
Later,
BR
Bird
Rest in Peace
Rob, that might sound logical, but we have the opposite problem.
We've had 2 years of drought, during which I hadn't seen a snake, except for 2 or 3 dried up dead ones no bigger than a pencil, and now we've been having an excessive amount of rain and the bigger snakes have shown up.