Prairie Snakes

[AGeese]

I'd rather have 10 cats than one snake

True, I've just accepted it, kinda like the hawks, eagles and house sparrows that never leave

 

[McChooky]

True, I've just accepted it, kinda like the hawks, eagles and house sparrows that never leave

Saw a big black snake near my back door a couple years ago.Every bit of 5-6 foot

 

[Callender Girl]

My mom was terrified of even the smallest garter snake, so I became the official family snake handler at an early age. I have relocated countless, never killed one.

My biggest catch out here has been a bull snake that was longer than I am tall (okay, I'm only 5'5"). It had just swallowed a baby robin from a nest in one of my arborvitaes. I'm told that after I grabbed it out of the shrub, I lectured it all the way past the barn. That's probably true; I was too mad to notice.

 

[jwsmith1959]

I admire that you, unlike many folks, relocated the snake rather than killing it.

In the second photo, it kind of looks like a bull snake. Of course, all I see around here is garters and bull snakes, so maybe that colored my opinion.

But in my experience, bull snakes almost always put up an aggressive front, shaking their rattle-less tails and hissing with their venom-less mouths. I like their attitude, but it still gets them (safely) moved away from the house and poultry.

Ideas on what type of snake this is? Found it sunning itself by my arbors, wasn't very aggressive. Pretty sure I've seen this one or another like it in the past. I attempted to move it along and it slithered back under my old barn foundation (the barn is gone.) It wasn't aggressive compared to others I've come across.

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Very healthy Western Rat Snake. Great rodent control but can really go after your eggs and chicks. Big enough they can accidentally kill an adult chicken.

Relocate if possible. There are usually snake groups around that don't mind helping with catching and relocating.

Good luck and all the best.

 

[AGeese]

Thanks, good to know. I've only had one snake on the property I've ever feared after looking at it. It was pretty good sized and you could tell it wouldn't play. It moved along and I only saw it twice that same week a few years back.

It was an orangish, fairly large and so glad I saw it first. The chickens have also sounded the alarm a few times on snakes in the grass so I consider them my lookouts.

 

[SilverBirds]

Looks to me like a foxsnake which I believe are in the rat snake family.

 

[texsuze]

I was also going to suggest rat snake based on markings and behavior described. I've yanked a couple of rat snakes out of my coop in years past when I'd do night check at the barn; they were going for the fake nest eggs as my hens watched from their roost.

Glad your first reaction isn't to panic and hack the reptile to pieces. When I have snakes in my barn I don't have mice, although I have relocated western diamondback rattlers twice in the past 2 years--they just don't make a good fit with my hens.

 

[Krugerrand]

My mom was terrified of even the smallest garter snake, so I became the official family snake handler at an early age. I have relocated countless, never killed one.

My biggest catch out here has been a bull snake that was longer than I am tall (okay, I'm only 5'5"). It had just swallowed a baby robin from a nest in one of my arborvitaes. I'm told that after I grabbed it out of the shrub, I lectured it all the way past the barn. That's probably true; I was too mad to notice.

Robins eat my raspberries. I'd rather have snakes.

 

[IW17]

Ideas on what type of snake this is? Found it sunning itself by my arbors, wasn't very aggressive. Pretty sure I've seen this one or another like it in the past. I attempted to move it along and it slithered back under my old barn foundation (the barn is gone.) It wasn't aggressive compared to others I've come across.View attachment 3836809View attachment 3836811

Western fox snake

 

[IW17]

It was about 4.5' long ... I first was surprised it was up in my pipes in the basement ...

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When I tried to pull it out, it got quite cantankerous!

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Caught this little one in the crawl space next to my basement, under my bedrooms ... This is a rat snake too ...

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I let my 10 month old barn kitties play with it, figured it was good practice for them to learn about snakes ... Better than a copperhead for their first encounter!

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Then two days later found ANOTHER rat snake in the crawl space!

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That one would throw it's whole body at the cats in attack, cats thought it was fun to swat it down! Glad it wasn't a copperhead!

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Last fall I was rototilling my garden, and my very young kittens were digging in the soft soil ... I took the bucket on my tractor to dig a little more, up came a whole nest of baby copperheads!

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I'm down in Southwest Missouri.

The snakes your cats are photo'd with are racers. Looks to be blue racers, but I they could be black racers in shed. The last photo of the baby snakes are some kind of colubrid. Most likely rat snakes or juvenile racers. Hard to say for certain as most of these look very similar in their juvenile stages. None are venomous.