Never Kill a Black Snake.

[oldsparkey]

This is a good reason to Never kill A Black Snake.....

I'm posting the 1st picture of the 7 for the rest click on the link below this picture , it is rather graphic of the Black Snake having his lunch. Just a fact of Nature.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/80533791/

Guess that is a good reason to leave them along , plus here in Florida if you kill one and get caught , subtract $500.00 from your checking account. ( personally I think it should be double that amount)

Chuck.

 

[gbinga]

:shock:

Excellent series! Makes you think about your attitude toward snakes.

It is amazing to me the size of meal that a snake can eat.

GBinGA

 

[jdupre']

I think that's an indigo snake. I saw one in south Texas that was about 7 ft. long. Beautiful and impressive snake. Kinda badass too -- killing and eating a rattlesnake almost as big as him. 8)

Joey

 

[oldsparkey]

Some folks think it is a Blue Indigo also but around here everyone calls both of them Black Snakes.
Look at the lower jaw or chin , it is the color of the black snake , white and goes back to the thought area , not like a Blue Indigo which has the coloring at the jaw or chin area. ( See pictures below)

My neighbor lets out a screech when she sees either one and hollers for me to remove it. Got sort of comical one day , she was out in her yard and I got that call 4 times in one day.
Not sure if it was one very fast and determine snake to watch her panic or if it was 4 different ones. Heck one even had the wife hollering for me to remove it from a shrub we have , it was after the eggs in a mocking birds nest.

That one I around here , is either in the yard the woods behind the place or in the shop , in the shop it is a trip , the wife walks in there like she is stepping on sand spurs , barefooted. I just laugh and tell her , Ya looking for George ??? he will not hurt you. :lol:

Naturally she believes me , especially when she is digging around in there trying to find something and George sticks his head out to say ... HI , What Ya Looking For , I might know where it is. That is when she does not like him , No Sir , she sure does not like him right then ... the rest of the time , Ho Hummmmmmmm when she sees him.

Easy way to tell them apart , look at the colors on the lower jaw or chin
The Florida Blue Indigo.......
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/fl ... ouperi.htm

A closer look......The jaw can be a black , white of red.

The Florida Black Snake or Racer.
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/fl ... rictor.htm

A closer looks ...... All white with black areas.

Picture #3 , shows a lot of white on the thought of the dinner.

Either one , no big deal , I do like what they have for meals. Good thing they are protected in Florida , Georgia and Texas , now if the rest of the states would just wake up and do the same.

Chuck.

 

[oldsparkey]

I got to know these critters at a young age from nothing but experience.

Dad had some acreage we eventual had a nursery on ( Bushes) but before then corn , watermelons and that stuff. At the end of one of the fields there was an old Mule barn and next to it a corn crib. Or a lap sided storage building they use to keep grain and stuff in that rats love to snack on. The mule barn was where we keep the disks , plows , sickle bars and the rest. The bags of seeds were keep in that corn crib or out building.
Depending on what needed to be done you backed a tractor in there , hooked the implement up and went to business. The mule barn had a resident and , you guessed it he was George.

This one was an old timer , he had to be from 10 to 12 feet and looked 20 feet when you saw all of him. His middle was a lot bigger then my upper arm and I could lift a lot back then.

Anyway... You back the tractor in there and look around , nothing , great.
Start attaching and wrestling with things and then see some movement out of the corner of your eye and there was ole George looking at you , slithering up for a better view. For a few seconds you did not know if you should Chit or go blind and then realized he was just trying to figure out what is going on and wasn't going to eat you. :lol:

We could leave anything in there that the rats liked to snack on and there was not one rat anywhere around and before George moved in me had some the size of possums , well almost that big and it was not unusual to see a rattler somewhere around there since they also like rats for a dinner. Both of them disappeared when George took up residence and no more sacks of seeds with holes chewed in them.

George was a Blue Indigo. I used was since this was a long time ago , a very long time ago , and he has moved on to happier hunting grounds.

Chuck.
Before George moved in there , I killed a rattler in that mule barn . I'm 6-1 and holding that sucker up his head was even with mine and part of him was still on the ground. Made a hat band out of him and had a few fillets for a meal.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Kinda neat, a snake within a snake. Sorta like a spare tire.

 

[Jimmy W]

That looks like a Black Rat Snake to me.
Here is a pic that I took of a King Snake eating a Copperhead. I have a series from when he was just squeezing it until it was all swallowed.

 

[Kayak Jack]

I think I like to look at pictures of other things better than snakes.

I thought a king snake was colored like a coral snake, only different sequence? In Michigan, a garter snake is cause for excitiment. We don't have but the lowly massassauga rattler - and it's hard to find.

 

[Jimmy W]

I thought a king snake was colored like a coral snake, only different sequence?

A Scarlet King Snake is like you described. The one in my picture is a Eastern King Snake.

 

[oldsparkey]

Scarlet king has the red nose , the coral snake has the black nose , bitten by red ...OK... Bitten by black ... Dead.

Scarlet King ......A good guy.

Coral Snake .....A not so good guy.

 

[Kayak Jack]

We have none of those worries here in the Great Lakes area. Our scourges here are Detroit and Chicago. (When the world gets an enema, they're the entry points.)

I believe it's a Boy Scout saying about those snakes that a coral snake has the red and yellow together, "Red and yellow kill a fellow."

 

[oldsparkey]

I believe it's a Boy Scout saying about those snakes that a coral snake has the red and yellow together, "Red and yellow kill a fellow."

Easier to think of it as a black nosed S.O.B. ( Soon , Obituarys and Buried)

Other ways to remember it.....
"Red on yellow, kill a fellow; red on black, friend of Jack"
"Red on yellow, don't be mellow; red on black, toxins they lack"
"if red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow (for Coral Snakes); if red touches black, you're ok jack (for similar looking Milk Snakes)". However, this only reliably applies to coral snakes native to North America:

 

[Kayak Jack]

My policy is to avoid having to remember a rhyming warning at all.

 

[Wannabe]

Sad thing is Jack, ya rarely get bit by the ones ya see. :shock:
Bob

 

[Kayak Jack]

In Okinawa - now Japan - the habu snake is a really bad character. Twice as long as an average rattler, only half as thick, it can strike twice its length. Aggressive, comes at you from the ground, trees, or water. Markings are less distinct than a rattler. Diamonds are a medium grey on a light gray background. Invisible in broken shade. You can see movement when they move; when it stops - they disappear.