Well, NC is a "different bag of snakes"!! First step might be to identify what you have. According to: North Carolina's Coop Extension (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/watersnakes.htm) Of the 37 species of snakes throughout North Carolina, only six are venomous: Copperhead (found throughout NC) Canebrake Rattlesnake (found throughout NC) Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (found in southeastern NC) Pigmy Rattlesnake (found in southeastern NC) Cottonmouth or Water Moccasin (found in wetland areas in the eastern half of NC) Coral Snake (the rarest, found in the south and southeastern areas of NC) Hopefully you are splashing around in the northwestern part of NC - fewer poisonous snakes! The site below, Snakes of North Carolina, has good pictures of the snakes you will find there. Good luck and stay safe! Anne Here is a link that might be useful: Snakes of North Carolina

I found a baby snake in my pool today and the top of him is blackish and the belly is like a yellow with black stripes all the way down the tail and I was wondering if this is a baby cotton mouth or something else please help it looks like a hatchling so the mother must be around as well as more babies and I have my 2 gradkids that live with me and I want to be aware of what comes in the pool thank you

Most of the Cottonmouths I've encountered do the "Ball Python" thing, too. I did a photo shoot a few years ago with a huge female Cotton that was freshly-caught by a friend of mine. She'd do the mouth-gape thing, but I wanted to try to get a video of a strike. She refused to cooperate, and just tucked her head underneath her body and coiled into a compact ball when the mouth-gape failed to scare us away.

Love the picture, Floral! There are patterns to warn and to hide. This is a hiding pattern. I'm not a herp person so I can't tell you the species but it is one of our very small, northern snakes. The snakes pictured are only as big around and my index finger. Glorified worms in size. They could only eat bugs and tiny amphibians and be prey to birds, larger snakes, and a variety of mammals. Growing up we always called them "garter snakes" or "grass snakes" but neither may be right. We have an old hand-dug well that is no longer used and these snakes den each year in a fair number there. We rarely have these snakes around so they collect up at our place in the fall. And in the cold and frozen North, good winter denning spots would be something to travel for. I don't always see the collection or them waking up and leaving but I've caught it enough times to suspect it happens every year. Here is some pictures from one spring jamboree wake-up that lasted through a whole weekend. Subtle patterns to be sure.