Damm! I hate the fact I killed a harmless snake.Water snake, harmless
I just about stepped on it walking out my door. I guess I overreacted and killed it too quick. Normally I only see them out in the yard and that doesn’t so much concern me but this one was right in my door way and for some reason it got the shovel. Knowing it’s not poisonous I wish I would have just tossed it in the neighbors yard….Unless the snake is making a home next to my home, I always leave them be. They do serve a purpose .
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Thank you for adding the type of water snake… I like to learn about them.The snake in the original post is a diamond back water snake, non-venomous.
Head shape is a terrible way to identify snakes.
I was going to post there are only two kinds of snakes. Live and dead.The only good snake is a dead snake
After the fact, if you want confirmation, so you don’t kill another harmless snake:
Look at the eyes. Round pupils? Not a viper. Vertical slit pupils for the poisonous snakes. Also, a cottonmouth has those tell tale copper to golden jaw lines. Once you see that these are either missing or there look at the rest of the snake and you’ll be able to better ID the snake on the fly. Spade shaped heads don’t always mean poisonous. Juvenile moccasin are a little more difficult for some folks to distinguish, but an adult should be easy to identify. Shorter/thicker/darker with a big head.
Lol, my grand dad use to say that the cottonmouth was the most evil snake in Louisiana, “they must take a mean pill every morning”.I've handled every one of the poisonous snakes found in Louisiana. These adult cottonmouths still give me the eebie-jeebies. The have one hell of a bad attitude.
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