Any Snake Experts?

Finishing up the last few hundred bales in the big barn-grabbed a bale a few days ago & it felt like cold water running over the back of my hand. It was a snake, probably young, only about two feet long. Tan triangular shaped head, rings around body. A couple days later, grabbed a bale and exposed a large snake-head burried in one bale, tail not exposed , body was colorful, brownish, rings around the body and a matrix-like pattern of spots about the shape of the UPS symbol. I googled snakes and didn't I D one quite like it. We've tried for years to keep a black snake in that barn as an excellent mouser. Did this family of copperhead or rattler drive my blacksnake out? Can anyone I D this snake?

I don't know where you live Wolfman , but did you Google native snakes in you area for pics?

Could you tell of what you saw was of a viper family? poisonous snakes have the viper head and face characteristics.

Pictures would help a lot. I can ID a good many if but only if I can see what they are. I have handle snakes since I was knee high to a grass hopper but with out seeing them I have no clue
Hobby farm

No expert here but I do know that one commonly used distinction between the poisioness snakes and the "non-poisioness" varities is usually the shape of the head. The poisioness ones usually have a pronounced triangular shape to their heads while the others don"t. I don"t know if this holds true for all snakes but around here I"ve yet to see it proven wrong with any of the snakes I"ve encountered. Like another post suggested you might try doing a search for a regional snake guide. Even if you find one don"t rely on just looking at the pics, actually read the text. I say this because often the pic shown is just the most common coloration and any other color variations are usually listed in the text descriptions.

it this him?

The triangle shape head means it was poisonous. Non-poisonous snakes have a more oval shaped head and the body tapers slowly to the point of the tail. Poisonous snakes tend to have a thicker body which tapers very quickly.

If you've seen two of the others, your black snake is probably gone.

We have a large black snake, at least 5 ft long, that likes to change its skin in one of my flower beds at the farm. I generally find his skin in the spring and again in the fall. Last year I found the complete skin with head intact. You could even see where his eyes were. I gave it to my sister who teaches biology at a local high school.

If that would've happened to me I'd have probably baled head first out of the loft, and set fire to the barn. Not a big cat guy, but I'm happy to have them around to do the mousing.

All we have around here are garter snakes, and I hate those darn things. If I see one I tend to chop it up with a shovel, then I still aint convinced it's dead. I have no problem picking up a snapping turtle, but man, I hate snakes.

What part of the country are you in? the eastern hog-nosed snake is quite common around old buildings and they come in a variety of colors. The have a triangle-shaped head, but are completely harmless (unless you are a frog of a mouse). One redeaming quality in Michigan is there is only one posionous snake, and it's very, very rare (other than the Governor )

maybe you have a photo to help, but one thing, if you are dealing with a poisonous species, you don't want to get bit...... period, do a search on the net, poisonous snake bites etc.

Personally, they never bothered me, though when in areas where there are poisonous ones, ( places I've been too ) you must be careful. I don't know what it is about those who get creeped out by snakes, my mother has that phobia, when I was a kid I picked one up, she ran like heck and went to the neighbors house by mistake.

My favorite one native around here is the corn snake, they are good foes of mice, also like young birds in nests, interrupted one doing that once. Corn snakes are usually quite docile, 'cept when you first handle em. Around here I just leave em be, no need to chop em up, they're here for a reason, kinda wish people were not so skiddish of non poisonous snakes, they're harmless.

I can see why the other variety requires dispatching, venom is really nasty when introduced into the human body. I'm not sure where, but I believe NYS has a species of rattler, not widespread, probably rare to see one, kind of a shame to take one of those out if not necessary. Other places, where they are abundant and a hazard, probably best to do the opposite, unreal what happens to the human body, necrosis and similar.... makes it clear as to what needs to be done there.

Rattlesnakes are confirmed in New York in the southern tier counties. I have never seen one here (thank God) but understand they usually don't exceed 30 inches in length and must be DEC protected because a Rochester fellow received a big fine for removing a couple from their den. They also have been spotted along the upper course of the Genesee River.
Populations tend to be far removed from humans because contact between the two is very rare (at least what is reported).

That is real interesting, we had one on the mountain behind us when I was a young kid, someone actually got bit, a scarce event I would think.

With a low population and scarce sightings, I think it would be a good gesture to leave em be, they certainly won't be increasing population, probably a neat snake to observe, from a distance LOL !

One night late I was attacked by the biggest snake you have ever seen. I kicked and kicked til it left. The next morning my wife was still mad at me for kicking her out of bed.
Walt

PS Rattlesnakes will live anywhere I have personally killed lots of them in, under and around the house.

From my own experience, I know that they taste a lot like chicken...but it also depends on how hungry you are.

You got me on that one... LOL

You must mean the Michigan rattler? I didn't know that was the only native poisonous snake. I found a young Michigan rattler at one of our properties on 28th st in Grand Rapids back 7 years ago. Behind the restaurant is an old road commission dumping site with all sorts of cement rubble, I suspect there is a nest back in their.

Not sure ericlb, but that snake might be a relative to mine. I'm from southwestern PA and copperheads and rattlesnakes are abundant in this area. What kind of snake are you holding?

looks like a western diamondback rattler

As Uncle Fester used to say, "Shoot him in the back".

Mark

this is a western diamond back rattle snake, he measured 59 1/2 inches long and 4 ot 4 1/2 in diameter, has 11 pair of rattles, this one aint no kid, he was waiting for me under the truck in the background took 4 shots before i won