So, Dave, when the snake bit you, did it leave any side effects..did you have swelling at the site or what?
As you know I am not the brightest kid on the block about Reptiles..but a snake that my son called a King snake fell out of a tree in my yard while I was walking under it..not a real happy time in my life, but survived. The snake was sort of a black with green stripes..how many kinds of Kingsnakes are there?

Black with green stripes sounds like it could be a garter Snake and not a King, especially if the stripes went the length of the body (as opposed to bands that cross the body's width).

you were correct in your DX..it was green lengthwise, thus a garter snake..oops..even as a kid, those were supposed to be harmless..Still what was one that size doing in my tree and why did it drop down?? So a garter snake is of no value,
something not to be feared, but not a killer as say a Copperhead or something like that?

Hi Merriss, it was probably up there either looking for food or basking on a branch. There's a good chance that when your son walked by he startled it, and it tried to drop to the ground to escape.

Garter snakes are perfectly harmless, and they eat lots of little animals around your house, including mice, frogs, and fish.

Wayne, what a beautiful snake. I would have been very, very tempted to bring that one home with me. Although, in the end, doing so would have bothered me enough to leave it where it was. Still, that is one fine-looking snake.

Hi Merriss,

The bites didn't have much of a reaction and I barely felt them. With nonvenomous snakes if you don't instinctively jerk away when they bite and just go with the bite and let them continue the bite its virtually painless..jerking away makes the bite hurt more although even then it doesn't hurt too much. The same principles don't hold for venomous snakes which have large fangs instead of tiny grooved teeth. Those hurt regardless (though I don't know this from experience as thankfully I've never been bitten by a venomous snake). All I did to treat the five snake bites was wipe with a handiwipe. Since the snake also musked me, the handiwipe made my hands smell better too. There was only a very tiny bit of redness and swelling where the snake had given its best shot of the five. I virtually pass out from the sight of needles when getting shots, but I could watch the snake bite me repeatedly and not even wince.

Its much better to be bitten by a nonvenomous snake than a mammal because we don't share diseases with snakes the way we do with our closer kin. I wouldn't even think of handling a squirrel or rabbit.

Getting bitten by a non-venomous snake is no big deal, unless it's a really big snake, like a python, which can inflict wounds requiring suturing. Our North American snakes simply do not get that big; I've been bitten by a large Bullsnake, one of the biggest non-venomous snakes on the continent, and by the next day I could not even find the bites. Like Wayne said, if you don't jerk back, their tiny teeth barely break the skin.
ALL snakes are of value, even venomous ones, since they perform valuable services in keeping rodent populations in check, and without them, we would be up the famous polluted creek without a paddle! Garter snakes love to eat tree frogs, so my guess is that this one was up a tree looking for tree frogs, and either lost its grip and fell(they are not as good at climbing as more arboreal species, like Ratsnakes)or got startled and fell out in order to get away. Copperheads, while venomous, aren't "killers", at least not of humans. I have not been able to find a single documented account of a person dying from a Copperhead bite, though it IS unpleasant, and I can testify to THIS personally!

Sharon McKenzie

I love the way the black is fading into the red, a beauty. I see very few selectively bred ones that look that clean.

wow nice snake.jeez i havent been to this forum in forever! hey wayne. Atrox and the old group still around?

See what I mean about you all helping those of us who are so very phobic about snakes..I learned so much. If one does try to bite me, I hope I do not jerk back. well, I know I will faint..no question about that.
We also have Bullsnakes..they do make a strange sound! Some say not but they do..I have heard them. We also have large amts of frogs..so am sure they hunt them also as well as the rodents that are just apart of farming.
Thanks for all of the great info