Not poisonous, and maybe not a baby. Looks like it might be a ground snake. They are harmless small snakes, rarely over a foot long when grown. Is the color right in that photo? It makes it look reddish and most I see are grey above, tannish to rosy below. But they are solid colored snakes, and not patterned like the poisonous ones. That is definitely not a copperhead, rattlesnake, or cottonmouth which are the poisonous snakes in Oklahoma.

yes, color is about right .. reddish brown and white-ish belly. It's about 6-7 inches long

This post was edited by newbie0914 on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 21:29

I agree with Dorothy's ID of it being a Groundsnake. Their color and patterns can vary slightly, but the ones I see here are very similar to the one in your photo. I'll link their page from the OKsnakes webpage so you can see some of the different color and pattern variations you see in Groundsnakes.

We saw a lot of Groundsnakes our first few years here, often in the yard around the house but I haven't seen one in the last 8-10 years. I suspect after they got used to us humans being here in this exact spot with all our cats and dogs, they sought a slightly more secluded area further away from us. It also is likely our cats have greatly reduced the rodent population in the yard and outbuildings so the snakes don't come here looking for rodents any more

You really cannot prevent snakes and you don't even want to prevent them as long as they are not venomous and as long as they are not harmful to any animals you might have. Snakes do help control rodent populations so a yard without snakes may have a healthy rodent population and those little field mice or rats may be able to find their way into your house or any outbuildings. I don't like snakes in general, and we have lots of them, but we will tolerate the non-venomous ones being around the house, outbuildings, lawn and garden areas as long as they aren't chicken snakes or rat snakes, both of which prey upon our poultry and their eggs. Venomous ones, chicken snakes and rat snakes get shot if they are in the yard or garden, but are otherwise allowed to roam on the rest of our acreage. We live in the country, which certainly has opened my eyes to how many field mice, rats, voles, moles, gophers, etc. you have have on even 1 acre of land. Without snakes to help control the rodents, I'd be completely insane by now.

When I see a snake, I don't care what kind it is as long as I have established that it is non-venomous and not a rat snake or chicken snake. You don't really have to know what type of snake you're seeing, in terms of its proper name, as long as you can rule out by looking at it that it isn't venomous. So, it doesn't matter what it is, as long as you know what it is not. I hope that makes sense.

One of the hardest lessons for me to learn here was that each type of venomous snake we have in Oklahoma has a certain range of colors and patterns so that they don't all look alike. By that I mean, some copperheads have broader bands, and some timber rattlers have slightly different patterns and some have more black on them and some have less. I just look for the common identifying signs of pit vipers in order to understand if I am looking at a venomous or non-venomous snake.

If you have young children though, now that you know you have some snakes around, you should teach them to stay away from snakes. We've had people who live here right on our street that have been bitten by venomous snakes before, and it was a terrible experience for them and one I wouldn't wish on anyone, but particularly on a child. I have tried to teach our pets to stay away from snakes, but with a lot less success than I'd like. This year we have had 2 dogs and 3 cats bitten by venomous snakes (3 of those snakebites occurred within about a 2 week period)----our worst snakebite year ever here----but they all did survive. In past years, some of our pets have not been so lucky.

All the old farmer/rancher guys here in our neighborhood took it upon themselves to educate me about snakes when we first moved here, and I appreciate them so much because it would have taken me much longer to long the variations in the snake colors and patterns. They were so serious about teaching me that after they'd killed a venomous snake, often they'd throw it into the bed of their pickup truck and bring it over to our house to show me so they could say "this is a velvettail (timber rattler)" or whatever. I spend so much time outdoors that everyone here in our neighborhood marvels that I've not yet been bitten by a venomous snake because I've had such an extreme number of close calls.

This is the time of year that you really have to watch out for snakes lying on anything that absorbs heat (driveways, patios, sidewalks, roadways, etc.) early in the morning and again in the evening before the sun goes down. They will lay on the heated surfaces to absorb that heat before and after a cool night. I usually have a lot of snake encounters in October, more so in the late afternoons than in the early mornings. After November arrives, we don't see very many. My latest snake encounter in the calendar year has occurred on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and my earliest one occurred the first week in February, though snakes usually aren't out in large numbers until April.

Depending on how rural vs. urban vs. suburban your location is, you may see snakes fairly often or you may never ever see one again. We're very rural so I see them a lot.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Groundsnakes

I also saw the exact same type and size of snake while trimming today. Mine escaped unharmed, but I must admit that I did try to kill it even though my common sense told me that it was stupid to do so.

I agree-not poisonous. I think everyone should first learn the identifiers between poisonous and non poisonous snakes. Learning how to identify them is much easier than learning each and every snake. Also, I think there are only seven venomous snakes in Oklahoma. Copperhead, water moccasins, pigmy rattler, timber rattler, eastern and western diamondback rattler, and I believe in the red river there is a kind of coral snake. Someone correct me if I am wrong on these species. But if you learn to identify the very few venomous ones, all the other ones you know are fine. Well...fine as far as snakes go...

I agree-not poisonous. I think everyone should first learn the identifiers between poisonous and non poisonous snakes. Learning how to identify them is much easier than learning each and every snake. Also, I think there are only seven venomous snakes in Oklahoma. Copperhead, water moccasins, pigmy rattler, timber rattler, eastern and western diamondback rattler, and I believe in the red river there is a kind of coral snake. Someone correct me if I am wrong on these species. But if you learn to identify the very few venomous ones, all the other ones you know are fine. Well...fine as far as snakes go...

Sorry. I do not know how the double post happened. Does anyone know how to delete a double post?

Mot poisonous and actually beneficial.

I love these little snakes, and all the toads, turtles and skinks which show up in our garden soil. To me, that's the sign of healthy soil.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Scott, The coral snakes are "supposed to" stay on the Texas side of the Red River, and we're surrounded by the river and by Texas to our west, south and east....and in 16 years of living here, and 18 years of owning this land, I've never seen a coral snake here in OK yet. I hope those coral snakes understand that they are supposed to stay over in Texas and not come here. Still, I remain conscious of the fact that the river (which often is pretty much dry in places for much of the summer) will not stop the snakes, so we still could encounter them here. I hope if I ever see one, it is from a great distance so I have time to recite to myself "Red on yellow, kill a fellow, Red on black, venom lack" and then I can study it and decide if it is venomous and if I should be worried.

On our property, we have had, at various times, encounters with western diamondbacks, pygmy rattlers, timber rattlers, copperheads and water moccasins. The water moccasins weren't a problem very often since they stuck to bodies of water. However, after Extreme and Exceptional Drought continually dried up most of our ponds and our creeks, they moved to the ornamental lily pond in our back yard. After fighting them there for several years, we let the pond dry up last year and this year we filled it in. I miss my lily pond but it wasn't worth the risk.

My closest encounter with a snake was with a pygmy rattler, which was about 2" from my hand. I rarely see those, though, unless I venture into the woods, and I rarely see a western diamondback other than sleeping on the rocks in a sunny spot alongside the creek. The copperheads often are found on the 'edges', like where the grassland meets the woodland and we most often encounter them while mowing. The timber rattlers, though, are a very persistent problem. They come out of our neighbor's woodland to our south, travel across his cow pasture with grass waist high or higher, and then come onto our property, where we most often encounter them in the driveway, in the veggie garden or near the chicken coop. They seem to travel the same little trails that the deer and rabbits use, so at least I know exactly where I am most likely to see one.

Over the weekend, one of my neighbors asked me if I had a snake-free summer, because normally he is the person who will come and shoot a snake for me if I am home alone and encounter one when I don't have a gun with me. I told him that I had plenty of snake encounters, including the one with the timber rattler last week, but this year the snakes scheduled all their visits for days with my husband or son were home.

When we first moved here, my experience with venomous snakes was fairly limited and I would run into the house and grab a gun and come back out to shoot it, and of course the snake wouldn't be there. I laugh at myself now when I think of that because I guess I thought the snake would just sit there and wait for me to come back and kill it. Obviously, they don't do that.

It has taken me a long time to accept the fact that snakes always will be in my garden at times, but I just try to take it with a grain of salt when I see a non-venomous snake in the garden. I know they are good garden helpers and aren't going to hurt me. We often have rough green tree snakes in the garden where they like to sit wrapped around the canna leaves waiting for something delicious to come along for dinner. They also like to sit up in tomato cages and will travel across the shade cloth I put over tomato cages in the worst heat of the summer in a drought year. It is sort of disconcerting to be picking tomatoes and to look up and see a green snake at eye level, but I've gotten used to it.

Dawn

And since coral snakes have been mentioned, I hope that everyone knows that the Scarlet King snake is the one in the rhyme about colors. They are superficially similar to coral snakes except that the red of the King is banded by black as the rhyme says. We see them here occasionally. They are so pretty and harmless.

No snake is harmless to people like me. I have almost cut my arm off with a chainsaw, almost cut my foot with a metal-bladed trimmer, fell into a pond, sprained ankles and knees, etc, not to mention had to go get a change of clothes (lower half) numerous times when I have had close encounters with "harmless" snakes.

If I can survive the initial sighting without harming myself, then I can rationally evaluate the situation.

Red next to yellow will harm a fellow but red next to black is a friend of Jack.

Scott, lol lol lol

There have been times I've taken such drastic action to avoid touching (eek!) a venomous snake that I've hurt myself. A woman my age should not be doing a backwards somersault from a sitting position in the woods even if she's doing it to avoid being bitten by a little Pygmy Rattlesnake. Just sayin'....Luckily there was no one around to witness that.....

I can tolerate rough green tree snakes for some reason. Maybe it is their beautiful green color, or their gentle nature. They're in my garden a lot, and I'm just hoping they are eating the grasshoppers and not my little tree frogs.

Believe it or not, I am more calm now around snakes (venomous or not) than I was when we first moved here. Now I can almost not get totally hysterical when I see a venomous snake, just as long as none of us humans or our pets are within striking distance of it.

Another "snake" that I really enjoy seeing isn't even a snake---it is the slender glass lizard, a legless lizard that to my eyes looks exactly like a snake. If you try to grab it by its tail, the tail breaks off. I haven't seen one of those in several years.

Dorothy, I'm glad you mentioned that. And I've linked a page that has a photo of a Scarlet King Snake right next to a photo of a Coral Snake.

I've never seen either one of them in the wild.

Scottcalv, I bet we could come up with another dozen versions of that little ditty, depending on where someone grew up and how they learned it.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Scarlet Kingsnake and Coral Snake Images

Good thing those ranchers who showed you the timber rattlers they killed weren't down here in Texas. They'd be fined for killing one of an endangered species. Ever heard the expression, "shoot, shovel, and shut up"?