someone posted a pic of a snake that was black in color, to me it was a pit viper, but everyone said that it was a harmless water snake...if i would have seen it, i would have killed it.

im a firm beliver in that all snakes should be dead snakes, but im ready to come to a medium with them, so put some pics up of all the black snakes that we come into contact with on the lake and let me know which ones are poisinous and which that arent, well post all poisinous ones and ones that i should be ok.......
thanks

In the days before Political Correctness, Custer Said the only good indian was a dead indian....That's the way I feel about Snakes.

This website is short and good for showing how to ID a venomous snake:
http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/venomous_snake_identification.shtml

This website show's the differences between a water moccasin (or cottonmouth) and non-venomous water snakes:
http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/water_moccasin_watersnake_comparison.shtml

I'll try to put some pictures up if I can find some good ones

thanks guys, that really helped, but why was a juvenile macausin diff in color than the adult?

Water Moccasin/Cottonmouth. Alot of places talk about seeing the slit-type pupil instead of the round one, but I'm guessing you dont really want to be that close to them to see that. Swimming, a good way to tell is that alot of the body floats pretty high in the water, like it's crawling on top of the water.


On land, up closer, you can see the heat sensing pits (right in front of the eye), eye with cat-like pupils, and though it sounds pretty non-scientific, they have a much more "mean" look to their head. They just look alot nastier than the non-venomous water snakes do. Look at how the snout is more upturned and pointed at the nose compared to the round-nose of the non-venomous water snakes. Most of the adult ones I've seen in Texas are all pretty dark with little marking, except the young.


Here's a juvenile. It looks an awful lot like a copperhead. They've got alot more patterning for camouflage, as they're at a much higher risk of being preyed upon than the bigger ones.



For the non-venomous ones compare the two's heads. Look at the lack of a real spade-shaped head, round pupils, no heat-sensing pits (in front of the eyes), and in general, they don't look quite as mean. They also swim alot lower in the water, usually with only their head sticking out.

Here's a juvenile. Look how closely the patterning is similar to a copperhead's pattern. Hence you can't use coloration/patterning to be a perfect ID tool (except for coral snakes)



Like alot of other non-venomous stuff, they'll imitate the deadly ones. Here's a picture of a Harmless water snake imitating a water moccasin (Again, note round eyes, lack of heat-sensing pits and flattening of the head when it attempts to broaden its head.

I hope that helps!

Unless they are in your yard or attacking you just leave them alone. You are more likely to get bit trying to kill one than leaving it be. In fact I read somewhere that 90-95% of human snake bites are on the hand (trying to pick it up). You want to kill something dangerous? Go to the dump and shoot rats.

I have owned snakes in the past and really respect them even though I have had to get rid of a couple when I moved into my house. Didn't want my grandkids to come upon them in the back property and they kept getting in the bird houses after baby birds. But most of the time I would just as soon have them around to get rid of varmits like rats.
I had a friend fishing with me once in a heavily timbered creek on a lake. I grabed a limb to go under the overhanging tree and a snake landed on the front deck right in between us. The only thing faster than my buddy running to the back of the boat was the snake going by me to head out the front of the boat. He couldn't believe I just stood there laughing. For some reason he thought the snake would just attack which is something I guess he saw in a movie. I know that if you step on a snake or put them in a defensive situation they could strike but I have yet to see a snake actually do anything but try to get away.

great post, maybe this will help the good snakes live a bit longer

Don't forget, water moccasins are very aggressive. You can also detect a very distinct smell in the air when you are in their territoy. They stink!

me and my dad were BSing withe the neighbors on a fence line at lake fork, my dad noticed a snake coming up behind the neighbors, all four of us moved out of the way......it was a copperhead, the snake just kept coming our way, slithered right through where we were standing and did not even stop....

Now tell me what might have happenened if we would have just stood there without seeing the snake?

but really thanks guys, this really helps alot when im fishing

They're not even close to being as aggressive as people give them credit for. I know a lot of snakes (including the non-venomous water snakes) put off a bad smelling musk when threatened. A group of researchers from Univ. of Georgia did a study with water moccasins and how aggressive they are. Here's the abstract to their report:

"Venomous snakes are often perceived as aggressive antagonists, with the North American cottonmouth having a particularly notorious reputation for such villainy. We designed tests to measure the suite of behavioral responses by free-ranging cottonmouths to encounters with humans. When confronted, 23 (51%) of 45 tested tried to escape, and 28 (78%) of 36 tested used threat displays and other defensive tactics; only 13 of 36 cottonmouths bit an artificial hand used in the tests. Our findings challenge conventional wisdom about aggressive behavior in an animal perceived as more dangerous than it is. Changing irrational negative attitudes about venomous snakes is a necessary step toward quelling the recently documented global decline in reptiles." -Gibbons JW, Dorcas ME (2002) Defensive Behavior of Cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus) toward Humans. Copeia: Vol. 2002, No. 1 pp. 195�198

I'm guessing one of you would've $#*^ yourself when it slithered over your foot?

Northerner, I wasn't referring to the fat, lazy breed in Georgia. Perhaps those boys in Georgia should make a trip to south Louisiana and test the staunch, mad, tobassco fed moccasins down there.

This should help.