We all know some snakes are venomous while others are not.
In North Carolina, there are four types of snakes that can be spotted in your backyard.
The first is a nonvenomous snake called a king snake. This snake is all black and will eat copperheads which are poisonous snakes. By all means don't kill a copperhead snake by yourself. Like chickens, their nerves don't stop immediately after being killed meaning if you separate the tail and the head with an axe the snake could still strike or bite you. To see this you can look up the Animals Gone Wild TV show on Netflix or search for it on YouTube. Have a copperhead in your yard? Please just call a snake expert who know how to take care of venomous snakes.
The third snake in North Carolina is the Cottonmouth which is often mistaken for the Copperhead however the Cottonmouth has a lot duller skin pattern than Copperhead like the name suggest. Copperheads are shiny, and have super bright orange-red scalea reminding one of copper shinning in extremely bright light. Whereas Cottonmouths have a tan base and brown splotches for their outer appearance. But the Cottonmouth name comes from what the inside of its mouth looks like. Can you guess from the name alone what color the mouth is on the inside?
If you said white, that is the correct answer. The inside of a Cottonmouth's mouth is white like cotton. Cottonmouths will only strike when threatened and nota as dangerous as Copperheads being snakes that prefer living near creeks and streams. You are not as likely to run into them as you would a Copperheads. Copperheads can hide under leaves or in a woodpile or a stream while Cottonmouths can be found swimming in water or buried in the leaves piles by the riverbanks. Be careful though, these snakes can strike underwater, so look before you going wading into a creek or stream you don't necessarily know all that well. Look before stepping in. Cottonmouths are not aggressive and are less likely to bite you unlike Copperheads. This is a snake that can easily hibernate during winter in Southern parts of Ohio. In Florida and the other states south of North Carolina Cottonmouths are referred to as tone of the Manuel different type of Water Moccasin due to the fact that live near water and can swim. The other part of this esconde name supposedly relates to the fact that Native Americans's moccasins hold a similar designs that resembled the distinct design of the snake scales.
The fourth is the Queen Snake which is a harmless snake like the king snake its scales are mostly black and eats lots of rodents.