Five things everyone should know about Black Snakes (Panterophis alleghaniensis (Black Rat Snake) 

I had a small farm on top of a high ridge in Western WV some years back, I didn't have any neighbors close by and the snakes in the area seemed to congregate at my place. It was true that if there was a large black snake in the barn I wouldn't see any copperheads, if there wasn't a black snake I would always see copperheads. After nearly getting hit a few times, if there wasn't a black snake I would catch a large one on the road to take home to put in the barn. I had a 7+ footer once that stayed for a few years and became quite tolerant of me, even letting me pick her up. She would always be around when I was working on the truck or machinery as the toolboxes were open and she was interested in what was in them, after rodents I suppose. I didn't mind the occasional egg she took from the chicken boxes, she was a good friend.

I watched this video two days ago(6/21/22). Today, I was visiting my mother, who lives in Southern New Jersey, and my niece comes running into the house yelling, "snake! snake!" I went outside to investigate and found a black rat snake. I repeated everything I learned from this video, especially the part about it being a good snake. What was really interesting was that I saw and heard him vibrating his tail, which I explained was their response to feeling threatened. They all think I am a snake expert. I'm a subscriber now.

We had one in our barn. We called him oscar. He was friendly to us. We treated him like our dog as a big pet.

I got divorced and had to move into a total fixer upper. I completely gutted the house for a total rewiring and replumb. I was installing black flexible gas lines and had the pieces and parts everywhere. I got tired about 2am and crashed in my clothes, woke up the next morning starving. I didn’t have any appliances there yet, so I brought over a chest freezer and a small microwave to make quick meals. I had some frozen pancakes, sausages, O.J. and egg bowls so I groggily went to the chest freezer and there all around was the gas line stuff, some of it laying on top of the chest freezer. Again very groggy, I moved and pushed stuff off the top and retrieved the food items, and with my hands full, I had the frozen pancakes bag in my teeth and a sausage pack under one arm. I used the top of my head to hold the freezer top open, so when I backed away with my hands & mouth full, the lid plopped down. Now that always made a certain sound and I didn’t hear it that time, so I lifted it with my left elbow… Damn, some of the black flexible gas line had slid over in between the lid and the chest. Dang it! I rearranged the stuff I was holding and with my left hand, frustratingly grabbed the “black flexible gas line” to flip it out and away…. I think ya all can figure out by now that it wasn’t “black flexible gas line”… I’m now biologically 10 years older than the age on my D.L. 😂

I own a 100 acre farm here in Northeast Georgia,and I have a high population of black snakes and King snakes on my property,and I encourage this.They are great at keeping down rodents,and keeping other snakes out.There are some wetter areas on my property,and I have a pond,but yet for all the time Ive been here,13yrs and not counting the times I spent here growing up,I've only saw two copperheads,and three baby rattlesnakes,but as I said,I have a lot of king snakes on the property as well.I also live in a house that is over 100 yrs old,and I have occasionally had a black snake show up in my house,and always find a shed in my attic,but see very few nice and rats,except for a year that I was invaded by rats.All the being said,I'm not a fan of snakes,but I do everything possible to allow these two snakes to live and thrive on my property,and will damn near fight anybody that kills one.They are a true asset to have around.

My neighbor across the street called me in a panic that there was a snake on her side porch trying to get at a birds nest. I walked over and saw it was a small black snake and simply picked it up and relocated it to the wood line. I thought she (the neighbor) was going to pass out as she screamed "OMG he picked it up!!!"

I'm 65 and somewhat of an amateur herpetologist. Having grown up in Florida and encountering practically every species of venomous reptiles, insects and fish , I still don't understand why some folks refuse to educate themselves in order to dispel fears and misunderstanding and also to preserve species vital to the ecosystem. Your posts are professional, accurate and informative! I only wish more people would take the time to view and learn.

I live in a dilapidated cottage I have been slowly fixing up when finances allow. It was infested with mice when I bought it. I've managed to reduce their numbers way down but I still have a bad problem with mice and nothing seemed to eliminate them. They've ruin 2 stoves, 1 refrigerator and made a couple couches a metropolis. An exterminator said there are hundreds of ways they are getting in. I'm slowly fixing the old place up and closing off entrances. A couple years ago a few black snakes got into my place. It freaked me out at first because I have dogs. Within two weeks I did not have anymore mice! The mice still get in when the weather get cold and become problematic over the winter but come late spring I notice mice dropping disappear and I stop hearing the noisy mice at night. (Whoever said quiet as a mouse, never had them.) I never see the black snakes anymore but I certainly know they are on the job! Just wish they would hang around all year!

I am 65 years old and, since my mid 20s, it has always been my habit to learn at least one new thing every day. I predict many student hours in front of your videos in the future. Thanks for posting these!

LOVE IT! I am a PATC trail maintainer of the Appalachian Trail near Bears Den. I use to be afraid of snakes. Now I enjoy seeing all the snakes. Especially the black snake. I saw a black snake decapitated and laid beside the trail. Broke my heart as black snakes are "good guys." Thanks for educating more people about black snakes. I have shared your video with as many people as possible. Long live the "panther snake."

I was never one to cozy up to snakes but after many years of living in the real back woods of South Carolina I learned this snake is your pal. I’ve never see a single mouse in a very large barn and two other farm buildings .. I do see the mother load of black snakes and they are doing a great job keeping mice in check.. I’ve actually picked a couple up that we’re to close to the road or machinery and they are pretty laid back if you handle them like this gentlemen is.. Happy their around!

Thank you for that good info about black snakes! I had a few encounters with black snakes in Indiana and Illinois. I never hurt them. In fact I enjoyed the encounter and the one in southern Illinois seemed to be as curious about me as I was of it. I was in a wooded area and it slowly came straight toward me. I crouched down and began speaking to it in a low friendly tone and held my hand out toward it. It slowly came to my hand and felt a finger tip with it's forked tounge and then slowly turned away. An awesome experience.

Great!! I am 65 yr old woman and have loved snakes my whole life. I would never harm any unless I thought it or they would be dangerous to my grandchildren. Thank you for sharing very valuable information.

I saw one copperhead in my 41 years living in South Eastern PA. It was laying on a hiking trail, getting sun, and my hiking partner at the time stepped over it, startling it, and it smacked itself into her leg as it was trying to get out of there. It had no interest in messing with us. I tried to warn her ahead, but there wasn't enough time. I've seen tons of Black Snakes, and some have been a good six feet long, but they've always been well tempered. Sometimes they're at eye level in the trees. The garter snakes are far more aggressive generally. I've had one strike at me from the side of our sidewalk. I loved your video Mr. Taylor.

Just found a baby on the front porch. I moved it over to the side of the yard over the fence away from my cats. I love snakes & am always excited to see them. Rat snakes are great to have around!

I had to get one of these out of my uncles barn one time and the grip strength they have is unbelievable, such amazing and friendly snakes.

So crazy what you said about the snake vibrating it's tail when you opened the container bc my babe has a corn snake and we were in the reptile room he has and we literally heard her rattle and we were both like WTF.. we looked it up and it said that yes they can in fact do that 😁.. please continue making videos just found you but I am loving ALL the videos.. you make everything so interesting when most are SOOO boring 🤣.. thanks again

I love your channel Frank!. I live in the center of southern Indiana in a farming area with woods. We have abundant Black Rat Snakes now but didn't when we started our homestead; we had abundant mice. We live in a log home and have an external garage which have both become a preferred hangout for Rat Snakes. The garage currently has 6 or 7 molted skins hanging from the garage door rails and 1 or 2 from the porch eaves. My wife first spied one in the house when she was doing dishes; it slid across the cabinet and up and around the window frame (the dishes were waiting for me to finish when I got home). I later found a molted skin that covered the length of our piano keyboard. Mice have been getting scarce for some reason... I like these harmless critters!

Black snakes are benevolent snakes, please nvr kill one...

I always tell people that nobody has been able to make a rat trap as good as that which nature has made. Most snakes can be found where people are because rats like our homes and food.

I had an everglades rat snake as a pet for several years. Kinda ill tempered when I got her because she wasn't handled much by the breeder but she tamed down so well I could let her out in a room full of people & she would visit every person there. She loved going across heads & thru eyeglasses & exploring pockets. She even refused to bite me in full feeding response by then. Now I have a black rat(people call em chicken snakes here) living in my attic & taking advantage of the mice that visit from my field. Best mouse trap around. I've fed captive rattlesnakes & copperheads & the mice seem to suffer much more from the venom than they ever did from a hit & wrap from my rat snake. Needless to say I prefer rat snakes or any constrictor over venomous snakes because of that.

Great video. Thank you for educating people on our helpful friends in our backyard.

I absolutely love this video!! Thank you so very much! We live on a farm and have a 6 to 7 foot black snake that happily roams about on the farm. They’re so great to have around. Most recently I found a young black rat snake along the top of a restored outhouse on our property. It was simply hanging out at the top of the wall and under the over hang. “He” just hung out watching me plant some peppermint. Again, thank you so very much for this video

I'm at 2200' in the Virginia Blue Ridge. I had a 7'6" black rat snake in my walkable crawl space for 2 years. I have 4' fluorescent fixtures on the walls and he lived on top of two of them, nearly extending the entire 8'. At first he did frighten me by rattling some debris and sheet metal very convincingly. I let him stay with the idea that he would eat rodents, but this was a mistake. He barely ate enough to justify his keep and he pooped on everything. I tried to feed him an egg n a spoon but he just recoiled away from it, though my snake book said that they'd eat eggs in captivity. I do have rattlers and copperheads and believed that they don't get along with black rat snakes, another reason he was welcome, but you've disabused me of that myth. Thanks for the enlightening video.

Very informative. I encountered an adult black snake in Virginia this evening and just wanted to learn more about them. Long live black snakes.

Wish you were one of my high school biology teachers! Thanks for the knowledge! Just found one on my back porch and now I'm happy to have him!

Growing up, I learned a whole bunch of wise tales about snakes. It's fun disproving all or most of them. Thanks Frank. Hey! That's a wonderful specimen you were holding, simply beautiful.

I'm very glad to see this. We just had a snake show up from a hole in our house that I identified as this pantherophis alleghaniensis (though told my mother black rat snake to keep it simple) which made me pretty happy because I love snakes very dearly :3

Perfect! 5 stars. Have one that lives in my attic. Simply the best ratter ever! Call her Midnight. Beautiful snake.

I’ve got a big rat snake that lives in my shed. She’s my buddy! I have to move her every now and then, and she’s very docile. I get rat snakes off the road all the time, and I’ve only run into one that had an attitude. It thought it was a king cobra lol I’m in Kentucky, and we have coppers all over. I see them in my tree line all the time. I leave them alone, they leave me alone. Juvenile rat snakes don’t look like coppers at all! Copperheads have a ‘Hershey kiss’ on their sides.

I live in Northwest Florida on a little farm and I absolutely love all of my rat snakes that live under the shed and near the chicken coop. I have never had a problem with them hurting any of my small livestock or eating eggs. The only problem I have is occasionally during fig season one will get tangled in the bird netting and I will have to take the time to get it untangled. They are incredibly smooth to the touch and when I turn them loose, I am always shocked at how fast they can move !

Just found youand subbed after watching your video. Your students must've loved you so much! I homeschooled my youngest son, and one of our most memorable 'lessons' was the Black Snake. He lived under our country house. As long as he lived there; no mice in the house. One day, we had climbed the big tree in the front yard, looking for specimen to categorize and chart (by drawing it)...and we came face to face with our black snake. That's when we learned they were good cimbers. We called him Big Black. We started to leave him little treats up in the tree, which he always ate. Thanks for such an informative video! 🤗

I have an eight foot one living in my outbuildings near Raleigh NC. I know he is eight foot because it let me measure him with a tape measure. Very docile, it will hang out in the rafters and actually move to where I'm working in the shop. I'm not a big snake fan but it is most welcome to live in my barns. It has its own den in the corner of one.

I caught a very young one a few days ago in our kitchen. He was aggressive at first but calmed down a lot once I could release his head. One thing I learned from videos like yours is how important it is to support the snake, which I did then. He was still wild but was not trying to bite. I released him outside. A bit strange that he was out and about in the middle of November though.

These Black snakes are my favorite!! I’ve had the pleasure of seeing many. This is a great video!!!!

In western Carolina I personally experienced working outside of my house and getting the body notification and watched a 4” Copperhead running from a 5ft Beautiful Black Snake! 🇺🇸

I’m very pleased you corrected the ‘poisonous’ reference. If you were here in Australia I don’t think you would be handling our black snake, Pseudechis porphyriacus, which is one of our large number of venomous elapids. Mind you, our red-bellied blacks are not inclined to bite unless they feel very threatened, though being picked up would probably be a sufficient threat. Like many elapids they flatten their necks as a warning sign. It’s not quite as impressive as a cobra, but quite impressive all the same.

I have one that lives in my Attic, I'm terrified of snakes BTW, but since I was gutting and remodeling my house room by room, we ran into each other pretty regularly and I ended up naming it Snoop the Snake.

I've had black rat snakes around my cabin in NC for years! I've caught one several times that I name Boomerang because he always comes back! I've never been bitten by one!

love it man, I work at a summer camp in Floyd and kids usually get nervous around the snakes. I love them and all summer have been encouraging kids to feel safe around them...

I'm in Georgia and have them everywhere on my land. Saw one once laying in the road, his tail was across the middle yellow line and his head was going into the ditch. He was long, no doubt

You were 80% correct about everything you stated. By the way, this was a great video!! I’m very glad you made this, so people can see how docile a wild caught Blacksnake can act. The one and ONLY thing you didn’t get right (in my opinion), is a hungry Blacksnake will devour a Rattlesnake or Copperhead easily and without a second thought!! I’ve walked up on a large female Blacksnake in the wild eating a Copperhead and it had no problem doing it. I also knew a local guy who collected snakes that fed his almost 7.5ft pet Blacksnake Copperheads and Rattlesnakes on a fairly regular basis. He had everything from all the local snakes of the Southern U.S. to several types of Cobras and an extremely wide variety of Pit Vipers, from many different foreign countries. He would feed nuisance male Rattlesnakes and male Copperhead’s from around his property to his giant female Blacksnake, just to give her something different in her diet. He lived around a rock quarry and when they would dynamite the mountainsides, those huge vibrations would send the snakes down from the hills and they’d come down into the neighboring housing areas. He would come home after work to find snakes all over his yard and in many neighbors yards, just coiled up and lying around. That’s why a said ‘nuisance’ males. The females were always taken back to the edge of the woods, in the same direction of the quarry. I’m 100% with you on venomous snakes not being a preferred part of their diet, so to speak, but they will no doubt eat those two varieties without hesitation!! Seeing a 7 foot Blacksnake overpower a 3.5 foot Rattlesnake is something I’ll never forget.lol I thought for sure the Rattlesnake would win….man was I so wrong! She over powered him so quickly he didn’t stand a chance. Not even a slight chance. Blacksnake’s are very cunning and if they smell food like a birds nest, mouse nest, etc they will go to great lengths to get to that food. The only part that can be kinda sad is when they gorge themselves to the point that they fall out of trees, or off of buildings. They get so full they cannot articulate their bodies, from eating an entire nest!! The only thing I would add to your video other than the surprising amount of venomous snakes they will eat, would be to tell those people who are afraid of Blacksnakes -Blacksnakes and Rat snakes do their business and they they generally move on. They will sometimes hang out a season or two, but when food supply runs out, they will quickly move on. So, if you see a Blacksnake on your property, in your barn, in an old car, etc on your property, just leave it be. It’s doing you BIG favors and you don’t even realize it!! From lowering the population of birds to completely annihilating the rat and mouse populations you may have and not even know about. The damage that mouse and rat populations and over even very large populations of birds can cause can get seriously out of hand. A lot of damage can be done to your property, by any one of those animals and very quickly i might add!! Mice and rats love to chew. Especially on wires, cables, your pets food, your food, and in general gnawing on anything to grind down their ever growing teeth!! Snakes are hardly even noticed if at all. Just leave them be, let them do their job and they’ll leave usually before a single season has passed. If one stays around, then that clearly tells you there’s a plentiful food source. Again, by being around, it’s doing you HUGE favors by at minimum, keeping populations of any nuisance rodents down. Again, GREAT VIDEO!! Thank you, for trying to save the lives of a much unappreciated snake!

We have some very large Black Rat Snakes here on our homestead/mini farm in East TN. I found one in the egg laying box a couple years ago that was quite large; over 6' long. I had David take a picture of me holding it. It was a beauty. I held it for about a 1/2 an hour, then released it in the spiral garden area on the farm. It didn't come back to steal anymore eggs. ;) They also love living under the house in the insulation, which is great, and in the wood shed. They keep the mice and rats away. We often find snake skins hanging in the barn rafters.

I was climbing up a rock face in Connecticut with my wife when I came over an edge and was face to face with a rat snake. Obviously my first reaction was to back off. But then I went over what I'd seen. I realized it was just a rat snake and honestly I was just super stoked. I swear she just barely raised her head and I almost heard her say, "What's up?" So we carefully climbed past her and I apologized for disturbing her midday respite. Beautiful creatures. Thanks for giving us their latin name. That is indeed suer cool.

I have a 5 ft, at least 5ft long black snake that shows up every spring in one of the bulkheads in my garage…a couple yrs ago I was walking in the door and right above the door was a massive snake head….he’s in there mousing I’m sure. Really cool looking dude

I live in the mountains of WV ,I don't even kill copperheads,burns me up when a snake is in there natural habitat called the outdoors an people kill them.people are ignorant when it comes to snakes.their beautiful.

Wow! Very informative. While hiking the Appalachian Trail in June of 2023 in Virginia, I saw a black snake that was different than the other two black snakes I saw. It was up in a tree, maybe 7 feet long, shiny slick black, and had a large segmented head. Its head seemed to track me as I climbed over a fence style. It had a very ominous demeanor. The other black snake was 4 feet long and had a white belly, and the third black snake was jet black and was on the ground and looked similar to the black snake in this video.

Personally I am not comfortable around snakes, but in the 1950’s I lived in Florida along a river, we had large “black” snakes that lived under our concrete block house and my uncle encouraged them! They would be on our patio in early mornings, I would rattle the door to get them off so I could get to school! On the other hand my mother was a kind of snake whisperer, she would put her hand down and small snakes would climb her arm, she would then carry them out of harms way! When I tell people about it they look skeptical but I saw this multiple times! I almost didn’t click on this video and I am so glad I did!

I love rat and black snakes! I have a rat snake that lives in my garage,she's beautiful!!!She is so friendly.Havent seen a varmint since!!!💝

I used to live in a trailer park in Glen Allen,a very large black had been seen by me 2 times.Body of snake the size of my forearm,and seen it support it's head more than a foot off the ground like a cobra,I had named it Clide but other than observe it left alone.

I live on 14 wooded acres in eastern NC, black snakes in the garden and sometimes on our porch while we're sitting out there. I've seen them scale the side of my house, in my garage and int the woods. They kill copperheads out here too, just saw that a few years ago. I did not know about them changing the shape of their heads, new one on me. And I've seen gopher snakes imitate rattlers but never a black snake. Learned something new, I appreciate the info.

Hi Frank this about 10 times now ive watched my favorite biology teacher. And your teaching about a critter that i really like. They are awsome and very docile. God bless teach. Pennsylvania Jeff.

I've noticed a lot of talk on the internet lately about how black rat snakes do not kill copperheads, only black racers and king snakes do. I've been around regular black rat snakes all 50 years of my life here in the mountains of Carolina and I'm here to tell you.... Yes regular black rat snakes will kill and eat copperheads! I've witnessed it personally numerous times. We have a large 7 foot 3 incher ( we have several rat snakes, but this one has been on our farm for a little over 9 years now) we've named Mammoth, who actually prefers other snakes, frogs and especially small fish over rats and mice. It basically lives on the railing and the rafters of our hunting cabin porch down in our bottom land. When it's not resting around the cabin, it's hunting the banks of the pond in front of it for a meal. Over the years it has lived here we have personally witnessed it eating dozens of Northern banded water snakes, half a dozen copperheads, several garter snakes, 1 green snake and one young timber rattler (it did attempt to catch and constrict a hognose snake once on the road that goes down to the cabin, but for some reason it let it go pretty quickly and lost interest). It's favorite thing to eat is young bluegill, which it catches by laying across the dock and snatches them off the edge as they surface to eat bugs. If it can't catch a fish, it will work it's way up and down the banks looking for a frog or water snake, but fish is what it prefers. As far as describing the colorization of a black rat snakes life/growth cycle, you are spot on. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who have called me to come get a copperhead out of their house/building/garage, etc and it ends up being a juvenile black rat snake. It makes me sick to see them killed because we absolutely love our black snakes and know how valuable they are to the ecosystem. My son enjoys interacting with them so much, he's thinking about applying for the herpetology program at Clemson after he finishes highschool......

We had Indigoes where I lived my early life, in South Dade County, Florida..They keep the rats away, or eaten, plus, rarely would see rattlers in our Avocado grove.I have seen them 7 feet long- great climbers, and fast on the ground

I'm in central PA. We have black snakes, rattlesnakes and copperheads... my property backs up to the woods and there is stream a little ways back. I had a garden statue of little kissing boy and girl about a foot high in a garden section next to my house, an adorable statue. So you can imagine my reaction to go out one day and find a huge black rat snake wrapped around it sunning itself. Some things you never forget.

I recall while working on a tobacco farm as a kid in North Carolina. The episode goes like this.A kid was sent to put a tier of tobacco up in top of barn.He puts his hand above his head onto a black snake.It was a good story to share.

Living in Tennessee back woods, country, we had a huge Black Snake. He would stand up at least 3 ft. And almost look you in the eyes. We had minimal problems with mice. Amazingly, I, being highly fearful of snakes, found myself feeling protection of a sort.

Awesome snakes. Racers are cool too!👍🇺🇸❤️

That was fantastic! I am not afraid of black 'panther' snake anymore! Thank you for the smart snake information!

Another terrific video, full of useful information... thank you!

Oh yeah they get very large in Arkansas too. I have seen several of these 7' long in my time. Not as long as the Coachwhip snakes I have seen, but pretty long.

What an awesome video! I'm so glad you made it! Hopefully you saved some of these guys from being misidentified and killed. 🐍

Thank you for the great detailed information on a REALLY cool critter , I hope your in depth explanation of their coloration and ability to mimic venomous snakes when agitated might save some from being killed.............

I'm calling them 'panther snakes' from now on. Coolest snake ever.

You’re killing it man👏🏾

Growing up on the west coast of British Columbia, I used to occasionally see all black snakes which we called "racers" as they could move very quickly. I'm not sure if they were related to these black snakes though.

I just found your wonderful video. I need to get my neighbors to watch this video so they will stop killing every snake they see, saying they are Water Moccasins. We have a large shared pond and many beautiful snakes. I find the black snakes in my gutters and in the trees and I always laugh when they rattle their tail at me. Maybe if my neighbors aren't afraid they will stop killing the snakes.

We lived on a creek in Florida and had a real problem with snakes. There was a huge indigo that roamed around the neighborhood and whenever someone saw a rattler or other poisonous snakes around, they would go and drag that snake down to their house and he would clean out all the dangersnakes within a day or two. He was the neighborhood. There was 13 homes back there on acreage and we love that big snake.

I just moved chickens into an old coop yesterday. I went in today and pulled out a 6 foot black snake. Normally I wouldn’t mind them but it ate 4 eggs so we just moved it to a nearby wildlife area.

We have Texas black rat snakes here, frequently well over six feet. Sometimes they have a rather bad attitude. I do know they love to climb screen doors. It is always a big disarming when you open the front door and there is ten pounds of snake in your face. It wasn’t hard to figure out they were trying to get into the swallows nests under the porch.

Thank you for this excellent information. This is our 3rd yr living in Va and we have a 48”-50” black snake that occupies our basement in the winters. I let him be to keep the rodents away. He’s gone when the weathers nice.

Great presentation i really enjoyed it. Look foward to other snake stories

these are quite a bit smaller than their Eastern Indigo counterparts. We used to have Indigo's in our front yard (they're probably still there but we moved). Indigo's are absolutely gorgeous especially after they first moat. Now this snake never stopped moving but Indigo's are not like that. They're perfectly content to lie perfectly still when you hold them (at least at times). this black snake is a LOT skinnier than an Indigo as well. yeah Indigo's can have some weight to them because they're the longest native snake of North America. Indigo's are super friendly and curious as well thus if you remain still and non threatening while holding your hand out they'll probably approach and take a sniff or even climb aboard. yeah, friendly & especially if they wanna get warmed up a bit (they like your bare skin). Finally they're absolutely no threat to bite you. the black snake probably has a similar disposition which is pretty obvious here.

Black snakes provide a very valuable service as white legged field mice over populate most wood land even ole copper heads are more docile than people think just dont irritate a copperhead when its molting time when a copper heads eyes are pink he will strike at anything i had some really close calls back when i use to search for wild ginseng and i learned also rattle snakes dont always rattle before they strike

That is so cool, I’ve seen them do that with their tail. When they hit a leaf it really sounds exactly like a rattlesnake… wonderful!!

I got some nice pictures of a beautiful copperhead outside of a Denny's last month in western Maryland. It was between displaced blocks of the top, and 2nd row of a retaining wall, perched looking towards honeysuckle spilling over the top of the wall. I was absolutely thrilled!

Have you introduced your viewers to the Worm Snake (Carphophis amoenus)? I happened to find one on the sidewalk in near my home here in Yorktown, VA. Very interesting snake and tottaly harmless with one exception, it may try to stab you with its tail. If you can and have an opportunity, please talk about this little guy. Thanks and love your channel.

Here in Georgia we have the Eastern Indigo snake. I've heard they get up to 8.5 feet long. They make your black snake look like a worm. I remember once back in 2010 when I was living on my parents property. Their dogs alerted me to something by barking up a storm. When I went out to their pin. I was expecting to see a raccoon, opossum or an armadillo. There was the biggest snakes I ever seen. I estimated it to be at least 10 ft long. When the snake saw me or felt my vibration from my footsteps. Its tail was whipping and moving like greased lightning down a hole. When we moved the house there were numerous holes from rats. One was as wide as a softball. I guess I must have scared the snake as much as it scared me because we never saw it again.

I love your energy! Thank you for the video :)

I saw one last summer while I worked at a busy nature camp in MA. I was all alone when I saw it so no one believed me. It was so elegant and beautiful, about 4 feet long.

Several years ago I noticed a couple of snakes wrapped around each other in a little creek near our house. I thought they were mating, then noticed they were different species. The larger one was a black snake and the smaller one appeared to be a brown water snake. After observing for a while, it became obvious that the larger snake was very patiently killing the smaller snake . . . by wearing it out and keeping its head under wanter for long periods of time. I didn't have time to stay and see how it ended, but I got some video of it. Let me know if. you're interested in seeing it. I've got it on my RU-vid channel (not currently up for public viewing.) Thanks for the good information.

West Virginia is full with wonders in this category type reptile,we also have land lizards and land turtles as well water turtles. If you walk on wooded path anywhere in West Virginia you will find these beautiful creatures easily enough. The woods are a wonderland of nature and can teach so much to the human species of why we need woodland and nature for human survival. Birds of amazing colors also abound as do bobcats in trees sleeping a lazy, warm afternoon away. Ferns and wildflowers,with flowering trees in spring are a glorious sight to behold. It's such a pity that the loggers and gas frack drillers have destroyed so much of our beautiful wildlife for the love of greed and profit.😭

Super interesting. Didn't know about Monarch Butterflies. Love that little guy you begin with (p.s. greetings from Opheodrys aestivas).

I found out by accident that Black Snakes are climbers. I was out in Ohio at Guitar camp (Fur Peace Ranch) and I was out in the back field practicing when I saw a Black snake in a tree just about shoulder height. I was about 10 feet away from him (or her) and since the snake did not seem threatened, I just kept on playing for him. The snake stayed there for the entire time (30-40 minutes) I was out back there playing. I don't know if he enjoyed the music or not.

It's just baffling that these people bring a dead snake they killed. Thinking it's a copperhead. It upsets me really much

Great video! I am here because I just saw Black Snake shaking his tail like a Rattlesnake, and even coiling up to strike. I thought it was pretty funny and he sure didn't fool me!

We have a summer camp that is used 5 months out of the year. A few years ago we opened up in the spring to an absolute mouse mess. It took several days of cleaning and scrubbing before we could move in. The following year a black rat snake found it's way inside several times, there must have been some residual mouse scent. We'd put it outside, and a few days later it would be back. It liked to sun on the back steps. Very docile and easy to handle.

I’d much rather have a black snake in my house than a mouse

Just found you! We've got black rat snakes and yellow rat snakes, etc. Those juvenile yellow rat are stunning! Anywho, I figure they are also eating the little frogs...most green, sometimes brown... adorable characters... love my outside sink... also love hanging around and in the outhouse....where...upon lifting the lid every now and then I'll see a juvenile rat snake 🤗...such fun! The other day... walking on the path to the head I came across a coral (I'm in rural North Central Florida BTW). Fortunately, he/she moved as I approached (barefoot as usual)...so caught my eye. Wowza!. So grateful they are not aggressive, at least that's been my experience. Anywho, he slowly eased off the path giving me ample opportunity to admire and be absolutely sure the red and yellow was indeed a "dangerous" fellow. I noticed the twitching of tail as well...short for "just go away please, I'm doing just fine "🙂 Well, I could go on and on... I've had the good fortune of meeting a variety of snakes. One time I came upon a very busy and focused Southern pine snake. Quite large. I gave him a good yard between us cuz I didn't want to interrupt. He had found himself what I presume he considered a promising gopher mound cuz he was inserting his head into the hole he'd begun.... twisting his neck to gather a "load" of dirt... pulling back and out to deposit away from his hole...then going back to begin again. WOW, what a treat to see this. He paid me absolutely no mind and I'd like to hope I gave him no cause to...as he taught me something new about himself ..or herself 🤔😉. Best to you... I'll go watch some more of your videos now. Thank you for what you do!!

Albemarle County checking in: Can confirm you're most likely to encounter the black rat snake, I've personally seen 2 snakes near our house and both were black rat snakes.

I love this video! I myself have a weird love and interest in snakes and I don’t do it around my children but I used to love handling snakes and it horrified and embarrassed my now husband. Anyways we have a couple large black rat snakes living in our yard and love seeing them but yesterday we came home to the younger one who lives in a hole in our mulch wrapped around our go kart and must have got stuck in our garage before we left for the store and It scared my 4 year old so bad because he was not expecting it and I could not calm him down so this video really helped him understand more about the rat snake and also helped him develop a respect and love for snakes like I have. My neighbors kill them and it makes me so sad and all think I am crazy for being okay with them being on our property but we live next to the woods so I am happy they keep rodents away and enjoy running into this harmless predator. Strangely they are very calm around me but show a more aggressive side with my husband and even rattle the tail like a rattle snake and coil up when they feel threatened

We had a 4-5 foot black snake living in the crawlspace under our house for several years and never had mice in the house during that time. But, when the snake left, we had mice again. And I never saw that snake the entire time it was in the crawlspace. Only the skin it left behind. I miss that snake. I got a photo of one on a branch in a pine tree after his "date" with a lady friend. What a huge smile he had.

Super Video!!!!! Great Snakes To Have Around. Thank You For Your Knowledge!

I can tell you are one of those rare people to have a career in which it seems you were born for. Thanks for the info. I’ll share it with my son for he and his hiking buddies.

Snakes eat slugs! I was living in Western WA where the only snakes were garter snakes. They would startle me when I was working in the garden when they scurried away. I learned to appreciate them when I spotted one with a huge slug in it’s mouth. Believe me when I say ‘huge’! We had Banana slugs that were six inches long!

Excellent information thanks so much, tooke care of a 3000 acre farm in Tn. For years had lots of them, we lived on the Blue ridge parkway, for a few years in VA. Saw them there also, I thought a black snake and king snake were same Saw lots of kings in Florida

THEY are a amazing snake. I have one that comes in my garage every spring to shed, it's been 6 yrs. now. its right at 7 ft long. I've talked to all my neighbors and showed them photos of it and asks to please don't harm it for the good it will do for all of use now and in the future. It fixed my mouse problem I had in my garage 4 yrs ago but thats another story.

First time watchin this channel. This is a amazing channel.

Last summer, I caught a six footer climbing my stucco garage wall, trying to get to some baby birds in a nest at the eave of my roof. It's amazing how well they climb!

I have lived in Virginia almost my entire life and had no idea about these snakes.... Thanks for video!