Juvenile rat snakes look extremely different from adults.
Rat snakes are certainly friends in the garden and they reside in every state of the Appalachias.
The adults can have some color variations, but typically the black rat snake is black with some white coloration between the scales. Gray rat snakes can potentially be mistaken for copperheads with their varied pale to dark gray coloring marked with a pattern of dark gray or brown blotches. Yellow rat snakes can resemble large garter snakes with four dark stripes running the length of a yellow, olive, or orange body. Adult rat snakes can reach a length of 6′.
If you find a smaller snake with a pale gray body, a pattern of dark gray blotches, and a checkered underbelly, it is likely the juvenile for any of the above rat snakes. Again, some people may mistake these snakes for copperheads, but young copperheads have a brown/copper coloration with no checkered underbelly and a brilliant yellow tip to their tail.
All rat snakes eat… rats… as well as other small animals including garden pests such as voles. They frequently enter the crawl space underneath houses to munch on the mice they find there. If you are finding rat snakes in your yard it is likely you are the host to a very healthy ecosystem.
I’ve always wondered… We have a kitty that we allow outdoors (supervised, as she has NO killing/survival instincts or front claws), Aaron & I have been concerned when we’ve seen these little guys in rock beds. I do have one question about habitat (please forgive my stupidity): We saw a young snake swimming (near land) @ Jocassee that we couldn’t positively identify as a copperhead… Would that be a place where one might find a rat snake?
I love your blog!!
S.
Twitter: appalachianfeet
I would suspect it was a northern water snake. They can have very coppery coloring, but it varies in that species like the coats of cats. It could also be a rat snake, though. It could be almost any snake.
Except for water moccasins, which we do not have at Jocassee. Some northern water snakes look nearly identical to them, though, which confuses people.
I am finding the juvenile rat snakes in my house.. i found 2 of them in 4 days… .. wondering if theres more.. So I am guessing that they are harmless.. can I pick one up?? Ive always liked snakes they dont bother me.. but I have a curious 2 yr old.. and the thaught of one being in my bed room.(where i found the 2nd one) makes my skin crawl. the first one was on my kitchen sink posted up on my sponge…
[...] Brown snakes are commonly confused with juvenile rat snakes. One sure way to tell them apart is the belly. Black rat snakes have a checkerboard pattern on their belly instead of a solid pale color. Check out this blog post on how to identify juvenile rat snakes. [...]
I just found a little snake chilling right on my bed next to my purse and insulin. He was barely over a foot long, and was black with a barely noticable pattern on his back. He didn’t try to strike when I got close, he went in my pillow case lol. But when we got him outside I saw he had round eyes, which I know means he wasn’t venomous. He didn’t act very aggresive, just scared, and we let him go down the road in the woods. I can’t help but be creeped out that he was on my bed, and what kind of snake he might have been? Any ideas?
My wife found one on the counter top this morning. And we do have a healthy supply of field mice in our community in southern calvert county md.