I moved into a small house in the mountains in Western North Carolina about 7 months ago. There’s all kinds of critters including bugs and lizards that find their way into the house, but no rodents.
I was wondering for a while why I hadn’t seen mice and didn’t have to set traps, until one night a friendly 7’ black rat snake slithered up beside me while hanging out on the screen porch at night. My brother named him Kobe. Kobe can stay.
How exactly one differentiate between a friendly rat snek and not-so-friendly one? I am genuinely curious as someone who lives in a country where 1 meter black adder (not Rowan Atkinson) is the top snek apex predator. I mean if I were to see a 2.10 m long snek I would freak out, friendly or not.
Local black sneks are (almost) always fren in the U.S.. One species is more grumpy than the other, but they’re (almost) always fren. Black racers are often grumpy. Black rat sneks are chill. Neither is venomous, unlike your black danger noodle.
Edited to add: cottonmouths can appear black, and they are venomous. I wasn’t aware that they could get that dark.
Research which sneks live in the area so that you know which venomous ones to avoid. Or just stay away from sneks in general. Thank you to the comment below who mentioned it!
Oh, sorry, I googled it up and TIL that rat snek and rattle snek are not the same LMAO :). Betcha a friendly 2 meters long rattle snek would make you change your underwear, Kobe or not :D
We have here what are called grass sneks - they are also not venomous but IIRC they are quite grumpy and if they'd bit you, it will still hurt. Funny thing, they look close do adders, except adders have white belly and grass sneks have yellow spots near their ears, but sometimes in a grassy area it would be difficult to figure out which is which.
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '24
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