15
Jul
How to Identify North Carolina Snakes
As my wife and I were leaving for church this morning, I happened to look down at the boxwoods in front of our porch. I noticed a small snake there that was about 18 inches long. In North Carolina, most people think every snake is a venomous Copperhead, so I knew that I was expected to shoot it–so I ran inside and got my camera. 
I didn’t get a chance today to show my picture to Ron Cromer, my neighbor and friend that runs Snakes Alive, Inc.–an educational science program designed to give clear, concise insight into the lives, habits, and characteristics of reptiles, especially snakes.
To identify our little friend, I turned to the North Carolina Online Snake Identification System. On this web site, I entered all the information I knew about the snake: length, location, body form, pattern, time of day, etc., and it came back with information and pictures of snakes that met all the information I entered. It turns out it was just a Common Garter snake, which is a good snake to have around. If you live in North Carolina, and think that every snake you see is a Copperhead, you may want to bookmark this site.
Hi rick, happened to find your site while i was trying to id a snake i found in my yard today. i used the identifier from davidson college, but everytime i put in some info it kept coming back saying it could not identify it and to change my criteria! i could only change it slightly, but to no avail. i live in new bern, and the snake i saw was dark green, yellow bellied with small stripes on the side of it’s head. it was about as thick as my thumb and moved very quickly. i sent my wife in to get the camera, but my buddy moved so fast i couldn’t keep up with wher it went. regards, joel pontbrind
July 31st, 2007 at 6:43 pmJoel – Thanks for stopping by! I just did a search using the Davidson College idintifier and the only selection I entered was the main background color of “green”. This returned 6 results. I’m no snake expert by any means, but it does sound like a Rough Green Snake. I used to live in Long Beach (now called Oak Island), not too far from there, I seem to remember that these are rather common in the North Carolina coastal plain.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:02 pmHi Rick, Thanks for posting this picture. I found my snake when I got BACK from church – they must work hard on the Sabbath.
Anyway, it’s probably only the second snake I’ve seen close up and I was a bit alarmed when I saw it sunning on my steps. Your information was a relief!
Kristy
August 19th, 2007 at 3:55 pmDurham, NC
Kristy – I’m glad that you found the information on my blog useful, and you were able to determine that you weren’t in any danger. I think that most snakes won’t hurt you, but they can sure make you hurt yourself.
August 19th, 2007 at 8:12 pmThanks for the link to the snake id site. I forwarded it to a friend.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:18 pmHi Rick!
September 14th, 2008 at 9:36 amWell, here we are on a Sunday morning surfing the net to id the snake we saw this morning in our front plant bed. We are from Florida, so any snake has the potential of being venemous. Like others, the Davidson College identifier was no help, but the NC identifier was. We saw a garter snake. Hmmm they must like Sundays!
Sarah – Thanks for sharing your story. I’m glad you found that site useful. I’ll have to ask my herpetologist friend about garer snakes’ Sunday habits.
Interesting!
September 15th, 2008 at 7:01 amI would like help identifying the baby snake tha that has been laying in my driveway for over 3 hours. I have now taken pictures. Not sure if I know how to upload to this site for you to see or not. thank you to anyone who can help.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:54 amapril
April – You can’t post pictures to this site, but you could upload them to http://www.flickr.com and post a link to them. We’ll see if we can help you identify it. Some general information about the area in which you live will be helpful as well.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pmI found this snake, already dead, located between the woods/wetlands and stream. I live in Robeson County in SE NC. Since I walk the dogs along here daily, I’m a bit concerned.
Overall Snake http://www.flickr.com/photos/26214998@N02/3475795137/
Pattern http://www.flickr.com/photos/26214998@N02/3475794841/in/photostream/
Head http://www.flickr.com/photos/26214998@N02/3476603974/
April 26th, 2009 at 9:49 amI found this juvenile (I assume) snake while hiking in the Shining Rock Wilderness yesterday evening. I have tried to ID it but have not had much luck. Anyone know what kind it is? It did strike at a stick when presented, and shook its tail as though it was a rattler, but had no rattles.
Thank you.
Flickr Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clarkphotography/3673973100/sizes/o/
June 30th, 2009 at 5:36 amSam – Your photo is set to private so no one else can see it to help you.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:21 amHi! My husband killed a pregnant eastern garter snake this morning right in our backyard. Unfortunately, we didn’t identify the snake until after he killed it at which time we realized it was pregnant. The plentiful offspring came squirming out and are all over the place. We feel really aweful because now we know this snake is not a poisnous copperhead but a garter snake. What should we do with all the babies?
July 16th, 2009 at 7:04 ami saw a black snake that puffed up like a cobra when i got near it. It also had a diamond shaped head. What breed is it?
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm