It is an Eastern Milk Snake. They are harmless and nonvenomous. Many nonvenomous snakes, by the way, can and will vibrate their tails when alarmed or disturbed and if they do it in dry leaves it will even sound much like a rattlesnake rattling its tail.

Well, Pennsylvania is well outside the Corn Snake's range, but this certainly looks like one. It could be an Eastern Milk Snake, but I would suspect a Corn Snake that has escaped captivity. It should survive OK, but its native range is from Virginia south, with a disjunct population in Kentucky. This one looks like an upland form, with duller colors than the more coastal ones. Enjoy!

Hi Wayne. I was pretty sure it was a Milk Snake. The odd thing about it was the pattern, which is so much more like the "Intergrade" Milk Snake shown on plate 30 in Conant and Collins 3rd edition, or really like a Red Milk Snake. It was awfully large too; I have seen Milk Snakes, and they were rather smaller and had more of the pattern shown in the plate for the plain old Eastern (from the Boone area, collected by Wayne Vandevender). I am wondering if the "Intergrade" happens outside the Mid-Atlantic, and if we have them, or if it might be a rather odd color and pattern variation. Oddly, for all the years I have been catching and chasing snakes (probably over 50), and to live in Milk Snake range, I had never seen one. I saw your page Wayne. A neighbor of mine was proudly talking about her son killing a 5 foot rattlesnake, and I just walked away; I hope she heard me cussing and saying that the snake wanted nothing more than to live another day, and did not want to run into an ignorant human that just liked to kill things (he air guns squirrels and pigeons in the neighborhood; he was talking about air gunning Woodpeckers, and I offered to turn him in - federal crime! HAHAHA!). Ah well, we can only do what we can do...

King Snake. Lampropeltis triangulum, commonly known as a milk snake or milksnake, French: Couleuvre tachet�e; is a species of king snake. There are 24 subspecies of milk snakes. They are not dangerous to humans. Some milk snakes have a striking resemblance to coral snakes and this mimicry (known as Batesian mimicry) likely scares away potential predators. While both milk snakes and coral snakes possess transverse bands of red, black and yellow, a common mnemonic can be used to properly distinguish between the deadly coral snake and the harmless milk snake: "Red on yellow will kill a fellow, but red on black is a friend of Jack." "Red on yellow, deadly fellow; Red on black, venom lack." "Red and yellow will kill you fellow; Red and black is friend Jack." "Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black, you're alright Jack." "Red next to black is a friend of Jack; red next to yellow will kill a fellow." "Red to yellow, kill a fellow. Red to black, venom lack." "If red touches black, you're okay Jack; if red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow." "Red next to black, you can pat him on the back; red next to yellow, he can kill a fellow." "Red next to black, venom I lack; red next to yellow, run away fellow." "Red and black, friend of Jack; red and yellow kill a fellow." "Red touches yellow, Not a nice fellow; if red touches black, good friend of Jack." "Red touch yellow, kill a fellow; red touch black, you're okay Jack." "Red touch black, good for Jack; red touch yellow, kill a fellow." "Yellow and red, you are dead; black and white you're alright." However, the Eastern milk snake (L. t. triangulum) does not resemble a coral snake; instead it tends to have similar markings to that of several other snakes, particularly the fox snake, scarlet snake and most importantly, the Massassauga rattlesnake. Milk, fox, and scarlet snakes are killed because of a resemblance to the venomous rattlesnake. Juvenile milk snakes, which are more reddish than adults, are often killed because they are mistaken for copperheads. There is enough distinction among the five to make the Eastern milk snake fairly easy to identify. Eastern milk snakes also have a light colored v-shaped or y-shaped patch on their neck. Milk snake activity is mostly nocturnal. They are primarily terrestrial and attempt to blend in with ground litter. Juvenile rat snakes are strongly patterned with brown blotches on a gray background (like miniature fox snakes). Darkening occurs rapidly as they grow. Adults are glossy black above with white lips, chin, and throat. When startled, rat snakes may freeze and wrinkle themselves into a series of kinks. If they feel further threatened, they may flee quickly or vibrate their tails in dead leaves (a form of mimicry, which makes them sound like rattlesnakes). They are also capable of producing a foul-smelling musk, which they will release onto predators if picked up. They spread the musk with their tails in hopes of deterring the threat. When cornered or provoked, Black Snakes are known to stand their ground and can become aggressive. In some instances involving larger specimens, they will often launch a counter-offensive and attempt to chase the antagonizer away. Unlike other Elaphe obsoleta whose conspicuous juvenile pattern fades into adulthood, gray rat snakes do not undergo drastic ontogenetic changes in color, or markings. These snakes retain the juvenile pattern of dark elongate dorsal blotches separated by four, or more, pale gray body scales, a light gray crown with dark striping that forms an anteriorly facing spearpoint, and a solid band which covers the eyes and extends rearward to the posterior upper labial scales. The venter is usually off-white or pale gray with darker irregular blotches, and a double row of black spots behind the divided anal plate of the vent. The dorsal scale rows around midbody are usually weakly keeled. Because the gray rat snake shares its range with other members of its species, intergrades of black/gray and yellow/gray rat snakes are not uncommon. Check the snake's scales. Rat snakes have weakly keeled scales with ridges. King snakes have smooth scales. Then there are the pupils ... Despite the snakes common name of the snake, non venomous snakes have round pupils. Poisonous snakes often have a triangular head tapering towards the mouth, with the nonpoisonous species often possessing smoothly curved, U-shaped heads. However, some nonvenomous snakes may narrow their heads to warn off predators, while some may have a naturally pointed head. A striking example of the latter is the wine snake, which has a very pronounced 'tip' to its head. In most cases, though, it is wise not to approach a snake if it has a tapering head. -Soleil H. Here is a link that might be useful: Identifying your snake.