Hi,
Can anyone ID this snake? I've found a couple this spring (all dead), all shriveled. Looks like the lawn service in my town-home community has been buzzing them up. It was about 1 foot long. Baby snake?
I'm in West Cary.

Thanks!




[Edited on May 9, 2013 at 11:25 PM. Reason : asdf]

5/9/2013 11:11:02 PM

Looks like this to me: http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/snakes/Nersip/Ner_sip.html

Or a milk snake: http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/snakes/Lamtri/Lam_tri.html

But I'm not a herpetologist.

[Edited on May 10, 2013 at 9:46 AM. Reason : .]

5/10/2013 9:45:18 AM

Really tough to tell for sure, but I think I can see signs that point me to a young northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon). Is there a creek or other body of water fairly close to where they show up?

I can tell you with certainty that it's not a copperhead or cottonmouth or anything venomous.

[Edited on May 10, 2013 at 3:55 PM. Reason : It's definitely not a milk snake.]

5/10/2013 3:54:40 PM

the question is what is killing them off like that? that may or may not be something you want to address there me be some sort of toxin winding up magnified in the upper level predators

or some direct environmental impact causing death in the snakes.

[Edited on May 10, 2013 at 3:58 PM. Reason : s]

5/10/2013 3:58:22 PM

That is an ex-snake.

5/10/2013 4:19:19 PM

Thanks all...I think my dog may have killed the first one I found, and then she was playing with a recently dead one a couple days later. The one pictured was found by my neighbor in my lawn. He thought it was a baby rattlesnake (he's kind of an idiot). I didn't believe him, but wanted to rule out anything menacing.

I do live near a few ponds and relatively close to creeks and the American Tobacco Trail.

5/13/2013 12:28:06 AM

its not anything menacing, it was just going to live its life eating bugs and rodents and other things you probably don't care for

5/13/2013 10:41:51 AM

Poor little bugger

5/14/2013 3:10:01 AM

the answer is almost always northern water snake

i really want it to be an eastern hognose because i haven't seen one in a long time, but it's not

5/14/2013 10:03:10 AM

when i was fishing yesterday i was surrounded by 4 NWS; one of which managed to catch a pretty large bream

i watched it start tackling it a little (it dragged it from where it got it to some spot under a rock) i thought to myself "is he gonna tear it apart or something because no way he swallows this thing" so i filmed it for about 50 seconds and went back to fishing.

an hour later i see that thing swim in front of me with a big ole fish gut to the opposite bank...i was like "god damn snakes are cool "

5/14/2013 12:05:54 PM

Quote :

"i really want it to be an eastern hognose because i haven't seen one in a long time, but it's not"

How can you tell? That's what my guess is. It seems like the right size, and they are in the Raleigh area.

5/15/2013 1:33:18 PM

dont they have completely white under bellies

or somehow otherwise heavily countershaded

[Edited on May 15, 2013 at 1:36 PM. Reason : h]

5/15/2013 1:36:30 PM