Snake ID

Is this a coral snake.  Looks like a coral garter hybrid.

Ok figured it out.  A long nosed snake.

The old rhyme is
red on black,  
Good for Jack.
Red on yellow,
Kill a fellow.

I wouldn't mess with it. Thankfully, even if it is a coral snake, they are extremely nonagressive.

That's a beauty!

Casie Becker wrote:The old rhyme is
red on black,  
Good for Jack.
Red on yellow,
Kill a fellow.

I wouldn't mess with it. Thankfully, even if it is a coral snake, they are extremely nonagressive.

Is there a chance of finding a coral snake in a California? I just saw a snake with black red yellow and white stripes. I thought maybe it was a California mountain king snake, but I distinctly saw yellow and remembered Casie’s rhyme.

Cayo Seraphim wrote:

Casie Becker wrote:The old rhyme is
red on black,  
Good for Jack.
Red on yellow,
Kill a fellow.

I wouldn't mess with it. Thankfully, even if it is a coral snake, they are extremely nonagressive.

Is there a chance of finding a coral snake in a California? I just saw a snake with black red yellow and white stripes. I thought maybe it was a California mountain king snake, but I distinctly saw yellow and remembered Casie’s rhyme.

Yes there are coral snakes in California along the coast is where you will find them. I gathered four in Palos Verdes down on the beach in one month back in 1961, these snakes went to the LA zoo, the San Diego zoo and the museum of Natural History in San Francisco.
The coral snake does not want to use its venom on a human, just like any of the pit vipers other than the water moccasin (cotton mouth), the snake that provides the most bites to humans is the copper head, people usually step on them then they get bit.  
venomous snakes of the USA
For photos of all the US venomous snakes go here: photos of venomous snakes

That is a great photo of a long nose snake. Just for your information in the USA, the coral snake is the only venomous snake that isn't a pit viper. Pit Vipers have a triangular head, the pits are below the nostrils.

Redhawk

Bryant RedHawk wrote:
Yes there are coral snakes in California along the coast is where you will find them. I gathered four in Palos Verdes down on the beach in one month back in 1961, these snakes went to the LA zoo, the San Diego zoo and the museum of Natural History in San Francisco.

Redhawk, is it true that there are areas of California with no rattlesnakes? Recently I am being told that rattlesnakes don’t live below a certain elevation or along the coast in California. I’m searching for land and a few people have said their land has “no rattlesnakes ever.” Is that true that there are micro-zones where they don’t live? Why would that be?

I have not found any part of the USA that does not have some species of Rattle Snake. (Baja California to Maine)
I have captured Pacific Rattlers at the oceans edge at the Baja border all the way to Washington state, Western diamond backs in the High Sierra Nevada mountains all the way to the Grand Canyon and most of the other species of Rattle Snakes.
Most people don't find or see snakes unless they just happen upon them.
I had a friend that called me from his home in Palo Alto, he had heard a "rattler" in his garage, I got there and it was a 6 foot western diamond back, it went to the closest zoo.

The best advice I can give people about snakes is that they are rodent hunters, so the more you do to not have rodents around the fewer snakes you will find.

If you find a snake that is coiled up ready to strike, move back away from it, most can strike 1/3 their length and a strike is measured in milliseconds (less than the blink of an eye).

It is pretty easy to handle them once you know how they react, but it is not something the inexperienced should try, more people are bitten because they thought they could handle the snake.
Moving away from them is the best policy for most folks, then, if practical, make a call to an expert animal handler.

On Buzzard's Roost we have copperheads, moccasins, kings, black racer, gopher and the possibility of the eastern diamond back.
One of the dogs was bitten by a copper head two years ago and he still has nerve problems, caused by the dual action neuro hemoglobin toxin of the copper head.

Moccasins (cotton mouth) are more likely to be found near water, swamps are their main habitat along with shorelines of lakes but their range stops around Western Texas.
The Pacific Rattler has one of the more potent venoms (dual action just like the copperhead and western  & eastern rattlers).

I would not worry much about buying land, most likely you will not have any problems with snakes as long as you don't leave food of any kind laying around out where it is easy pickings for rodents.
We keep any feed in metal cans with tight lids and I have only had to deal with two snakes in the chicken coop so far. A gopher and a racer both over 5 feet long but non poisonous so easy to get them out of the coop and relocated far away.

Redhawk

Edited to add link to the guys I buy my gear from.   Midwest Snake Tongs and hooks

Bryant RedHawk wrote:I have not found any part of the USA that does not have some species of Rattle Snake. (Baja California to Maine)
I have captured Pacific Rattlers at the oceans edge at the Baja border all the way to Washington state, Western diamond backs in the High Sierra Nevada mountains all the way to the Grand Canyon and most of the other species of Rattle Snakes.
Most people don't find or see snakes unless they just happen upon them.
I had a friend that called me from his home in Palo Alto, he had heard a "rattler" in his garage, I got there and it was a 6 foot western diamond back, it went to the closest zoo.

Redhawk, so there are no micro-regions without rattlesnakes? Northern Vermont? Where I am staying now in far Northern California, I have seen 4 rattlesnakes in the last two weeks, and everyone here swears that 10 miles West there are none because of the lower elevation, and they say no one has seen one there for 40 years (and these are people who have animals and garden and spend time outside).

Do you come and gather snakes as a job? Where are you located? I haven’t found a professional snake person willing to travel to the north to gather them.

Vermont is eastern diamond back territory. This is a snake that doesn't show itself very readily. Micro regions seem to not apply to most snakes, they can and will travel a pretty large territory on the food search.

I spend most of my time at home outdoors and usually I have to go hunting for snakes to see them (The open part of my farm is surrounded by woods).

I have never seen any data that would lead me to believe that altitude has any bearing on snake location.

I just finished my doctorate in soil microbiology. I don't snake hunt as a vocation, I do help the local animal control outfits when they call me.
(about 15 years ago I captured an Australian brown under a low deck in Sherwood Arkansas, it had a clutch of eggs which we also gathered up and they hatched two days later)
One of my friends that is a collector purchased the babies and their momma, we never found the daddy.
I've been handling snakes since the early 1960's, mostly collecting for antivenin programs.

There should be at least one or two herpologist in the north, most zoos have one.

I am located in Arkansas.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:
(about 15 years ago I captured an Australian brown under a low deck in Sherwood Arkansas, it had a clutch of eggs which we also gathered up and they hatched two days later)
One of my friends that is a collector purchased the babies and their momma, we never found the daddy.
I've been handling snakes since the early 1960's, mostly collecting for antivenin programs.  

What is your theory for how a breeding pair of Australian browns made it into the wild?

And what are your thoughts on electrical currents for snakebites?  It seems like the general consensus is it’s been debunked, but a lot of the failed cases seem to involve too high a voltage.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21800403/#fft

When I captured the Ausi Browns I got in touch with the late Steve Irwin and he determined it came to the corpus Christi area on a ship from his inquiries.
From there at least the female traveled to Arkansas via truck. The female was well fed because she had been eating kittens at the house she was found at.

The regular animal control folks were (and are)  snake shy which in this case was a very good thing.

Electric currents do nothing for snake bite treatment except that they can cause wider spreading of the venom which is the opposite of what you want.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:

Electric currents do nothing for snake bite treatment except that they can cause wider spreading of the venom which is the opposite of what you want.

Redhawk, Is that based on your personal experience trying it out, or based on a review of the scientific literature? These scientists in the link I provided found otherwise (a bit of the abstract pasted below), even in vivo, and this was in 2011, in a peer-reviewed publication, which supports some other scientific research along with experiences in the field in Latin America where the people who suffered most from snake bites were the ones who refused the electric current being offered. It seems like the reports that say that it doesn’t work are basing that on the cases where bites were treated with way too high a voltage or amperage. But I haven’t really looked into the literature, and have only glanced at a few studies. That’s why I’m asking you, the expert!

“We previously reported that a short exposure of Crotalus atrox venom to direct electric current (dc) from a low-voltage generator, in solution, causes consistent and irreversible inactivation of venom phospholipase A(2) and metalloproteases. Here we report by in vivo assay on chicken embryos at stage 18 of development according to Hamburger and Hamilton that the hemorrhagic activity of C. atrox venom is lost after exposure to dc (from low voltage). Venom was exposed to dc ranging between 0 and 1 mA. dc values above 0.7 mA abolished hemorrhage”

old farmer friend of mine (we live in TX) passed me an old adage from Texas farmers about rattlers: where you find mesquite, they'll be there. He has elm and oak and birch, and while he has plenty of venemous snakes, he only remembers ever killing one rattler in all his life.

(By comparison, I have almost pure mesquite and, sho nuff, I've killed six rattlers in 1.5 years. )

It's only a correlation. Grains of salt welcome.

hau Cayo, yes my experience was my basis for my conclusion. The docs did this treatment on a dear kola of mine and the venom was spread by muscle contractions, the bite was in the thigh, not the most likely bite locatikn perhaps. I've  been bitten by cotton mouth and copperhead both were treated wkth antivenon with in an hour of the bite, I have always considered myself lucky because of that.

Redhawk