Snake experts, what is this snake?
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1497216970.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1497216970.jpg

He is very calm and I think he is about to shed its skin. The dogs were smart enough to not attack it and just bark at it. They are locked out of the back yard until this thing leaves.

I think it is a Texas Rat snake or King snake.

Any opinions?

If it does not leave overnight I will call animal control and tell them I have a Copper Headed Rattle Moccasin with a coral tip in the back yard and hope they come get it an release it in the nearby woods.

I would contact a local reptile rescue organization if you can find one....that way he could in theory be rescued....

Def. NOT a python.

King, Rat or Gopher. I think I'd go with Gopher.

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/got-...?cb=1248165889

Not a king snake. Most likely a Rat Snake.

Rat snake.

Commonly confused with a Copperhead.

The markings on a Copperhead look similar if you don't know what you are looking for.

Also looks too big to be a Copperhead.

Easy way to tell the difference between venomous snake or not is the eyes.

If venomous will have an elliptical pupil like a cat.

Non venomous have round pupils.

You wanna leave it alone and encourage it to stick around.

May creep you out but it's beneficial.

Agree, looks like a rat snake. They will keep your rodent population in check.

It has to go. The dogs get to own the back yard and not share. They do not understand share the yard, and just bark at it.

I know it is a beneficial snake and hope to keep it alive but it needs to go away. If it is still there tomorrow, I will call someone.

LOL. You want someone to get down low and look the thing in the eyes...
You a funny man

Just go out with a rake or shovel, gently pick him up and carry him out of your yard. If you have a long way to go you can stuff him in a sack. They don't move very fast and can bite but generally don't want to. They just want to hunt rats and maybe find Mrs. snake about now.

We used to have a 6 footer gopher snake that would come up into our pool area every April. I would round him up and take him to the south forty where I would not see him again until next April.

I agree...rake or shovel.
Then toss it over the fence.
:D

Rat snake, and whatever you do don't kill it. They eat three to four rats and gophers a month during the summer. It's similar to our gopher snakes in California. My neighbors used to freak and and kill them. Now they call me. I catch them and let em go on my property.

I would pick him up - while wearing my flip flops.....

That's the little known, much feared, nope snake. Common almost everywhere except Ireland. Goes by many different names, "Nope I won't touch it," "Nope not going outside, "Nope you touch it," "Nope it's poison", "Nope its looking at me.":D-WW

This ^^^^ and way to many people kill any snake on sight those most snakes are very beneficial.

leave it alone, try to keep the dogs away from it

They climb trees and portable basket ball nets so they can get up to eye level.

Their tongue actually tickles when it flicks your nose.

It's how I learned my super power is the ability to leap at least 15 feet across the driveway in a single bound.

In other news, my neighbors kids learn words they probably shouldn't.

I make no apologies.

Hahaha!!!! maybe give him the what for with your pinkie toe

Feeding the snake...............
 

Yea, but what happens when you run out of rats and mice? I would think the snake would tend to get a bit cranky! On the other hand, when I lived in North Georgia, we had a large black snake that lived in and around our front yard. As long as he was there we never saw any poisonous (i.e. rattlesnakes) there!

It's most likely that Great Plains Rat Snake but could also be a darker phase of Corn Snake, which is in the Rat Snake family... both are constrictors and will keep your rattler population down.

If you get another look at him, one way of telling if he's about to shed his skin is if the eyes look a little milky... it's just the skin that is over the eyes... they clear back up after shedding.

That's one bad looking serpent. I don't think I could share space with it. You guys are braver than I ever could be, and I don't care what kind of eyes he's got.

Then they move along.. Guys who are scared of snakes crack me up..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1497309112.jpg

^ Yeah, well you know that's from the earliest caveman days. Probably the single instinct that humans have is to fear snakes and not become Purina Snake Chow. And you remember what the caveman said to the second caveman: "Doc says you gon' die".

Well, sad news. The snake did not survive.

IT WAS NOT KILLED!

If you look at posts you will see it was not active and very sluggish. I suspected it ate a mouse that had been poisoned. The snake died in the same position it was in this morning.

I buried it intact.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1497314516.jpg

I wish it had survived and moved along. It was not be be. It is buried to keep it from stinking up the yard. The dogs have the back yard back. RIP Mr Snake.

Glen, what was its approximate length?

I figure John thinks it's a belt snake.

4.5 feet.

Ok I hate snakes and believe they all need to die

I had two snakes in my drive near my garage today. The bigger one got away - they both appeared to have the same markings but I could of swore the bigger one had a diamond shaped head - I killed the smaller one and took a photo

so besides dead what is

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1497496197.jpg

Innocent and murdered.

ok what was it though

Brownsnake.

Harmless.

I don't get people who kill snakes because they are freaked out.

If you've got snakes hanging around odds are pretty good it's because you have other stuff around that can be far more trouble.

They were there because you have a food source.

In the eight years we've lived here, I've only seen 5 rattle snakes - 2 big ones and three finger sized about a foot+ long. I've never killed any of them. Haven't seen one for a few years now, at least near the house. My wife & I were sitting in the swing out front one day when a small rattler came slithering by and went into one of our rosemary bushes. I told my wife it was one reason to never jam your hand into a bush.

" I told my wife it was one reason to never jam your hand into a bush."
~~~~~~~
Never considered that...wise.

Ok, I got one. Saw this on my patio below the deck a few weeks ago. I let it go. What type of snake is it?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1497503446.jpg

thamlin, that's a Central Plains Milk Snake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_snake

I still get a jolt when I am weeding the flower beds and one of these short stubby critters crawls out. I get over it real quick and sometimes play with them a bit. They rear up, flatten their head and hiss. When that does not make you leave them alone, they roll over on their back and play dead. I guess dead snakes are supposed to lie on their backs. Every time you flip it over on its stomach, it roll back over. They only put up with that for while before they throw up their last meal, usually a half digested toad. I usually just let them slither away and don't hassle them.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1497529489.jpg

Red touch yellow, kills a fellow. Red touch black, friend of Jack.

^^
That looks like what we call a milk snake. When the white part is kind of dusky like that they are shedding their skin.
I admit I don't like snakes. I don't kill them, but I give them every encouragement to get the hell out of garage and storage shed. They love to crawl under the roll-up door on my shed and lay on the lower angle of the bottom door section. When you raise the door they fall off, right in your face, on your head, or on your shoulders. I use Snake-Away on the door and pound on it after I raise it a foot or two. I haven't had a snake on my head in a couple of years. We have garter snakes all over the place around here. They eat bugs and worms, mostly worms, so they aren't all that beneficial.

Thanks for the info. Glad it is not venomous and hope that it is patrolling the property for mice.