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Being relatively new to Texas (about3years) I haven't had much experience with snakes. I've had 2 baby snakes on the front porch. The first time I wasn't home and very brave wife closed the front door ran and hid then called me. the second one I came up the front walk and saw the little booger in front of me, I grabbed a rock and got rid of him quickly.

So my question is, do I have a problem? Is there a nest near by? Was it the same snake twice? Hey knucklehead you live in Texas and we have snakes deal with it?

What kinda snake? What did it look like? Coulda been harmless, coulda been a copperhead.

Either way, baby snakes grow up to be grown up snakes, and they don't need to be porch snakes.

Crossfire wrote:What kinda snake? What did it look like? Coulda been harmless, coulda been a copperhead.

Either way, baby snakes grow up to be grown up snakes, and they don't need to be porch snakes.

I think they're water moccasins we have 2 ponds behind the house. They're very dark black "boxes" on the body and a large round head

Had one on our front enclose porch about a week ago. Was about a foot long. Had the markings of a rattlesnake but the head didn't look right.
The cat was playing with him....(not toooo bright sometimes).
Took him out and released him. Wish I had taken a picture of him so I could have found out what kind he was.
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If you have a swimming pool check the skimmer before letting the kids in. Used to find baby rattlers hanging on for dear life on the float in the skimmer. They swim like rocket ships too and apparently the small ones have a potent bite.

rotor wrote:If you have a swimming pool check the skimmer before letting the kids in. Used to find baby rattlers hanging on for dear life on the float in the skimmer. They swim like rocket ships too and apparently the small ones have a potent bite.

Great tip! Thank you

rotor wrote:If you have a swimming pool check the skimmer before letting the kids in. Used to find baby rattlers hanging on for dear life on the float in the skimmer. They swim like rocket ships too and apparently the small ones have a potent bite.

The youngsters will bite anything that moves and inject venom as everything to them is food and inject as much venom as they can. Older snakes may bite out of a defensive action but may not inject venom or limit what they inject, they aren't as aggressive as the younger snakes. Even in the animal world, typical teenagers, young and stupid....
Also I think the youngsters venom is a lot more potent than the older snakes but I am not sure of that.

I'm no expert, but abundantly cautious.

You should take pictures if they reappear. I would guess they are liking something under the decking or something else. You might have to do some re-designing to discourage that behavior.

The dog got bit by a diamondback a while back, luckily it was about 5' long. He survived, only because I saw it happen, got a picture and rushed him to the vet. He never saw it coming, they just crossed paths at the wrong time, and it nailed him behind the left front left upper leg, without so much as warning. I don't go out of my way to look for snakes, other than to avoid stepping on them, or getting near them. I don't want anything to do with water Mocs, from what I know they are very aggressive.

Absolutely right on the pool filter, they accumulate there. Watch your fingers LOL. We have had plenty of coral snakes here, occasional copperhead and an abundance of Diamondbacks. Any do not count on them rattling to alert you to their presence. I have run into several, who never make a sound. Sound = Dead and apparently they put that together.

I've seen a lot of baby snakes on boat docks after hatching, apparently the top side of the float is a favorite of snakes, and ducks for eggs. I imagine if there is a place to get cozy, they'll keep coming. Seal it off!!

Call it respect, call it fear, but I try to be very careful to avoid snakes. I've seen rattlers on county roads, walking trails, etc. I don't go out of my way to kill them either, just a good way to get bit.

Round head? Venomous snakes have triangular heads. In Texas there are basically four venomous snakes: water moccasins, copper heads, rattlesnakes, and coral snakes. Coral snakes have dangerous venom but have a small bite radius you'd pretty much have to be barefoot to be bitten by one (or put your hand within biting distance). The rest of them are pretty easy to recognize by head shape and eye shape.

Where I live most the of venomous snakes I see are copperheads. However, I've encountered more non-venomous snakes than venomous snakes on the whole. Most of the time even venomous snakes will avoid you though I've heard this may not be so true of water moccasins. I have a coworker whose wife got bitten by a copperhead that was in a bush near a water hose when she reached in to turn on the hose at night. It was not a pleasant experience. I'm careful about reaching into places where I can't see very well and I avoid walking around outside at night barefoot.

Couple of months ago my daughter was ready for the school bus and I was ready to go to work . We have a pet starling named Cutie . My daughter went to check her food before we left and screamed .........THERE IS A SNAKE TRYING TO GET CUTIE !! I ran over , a rat snake about two foot long was wrapped around a perch and he had a mouthful of feathers .
I told my daughter to get me something to kill it . She took off and I kept an eye on the snake . She came back and handed me a half used roll of paper towels . I just looked at her and told her I didn't need to clean him up and told her to get a claw hammer . While she was gone the danged snake took off out the back of the cage and got behind a shelf . Now it's time for the bus and we can't leave the snake in the house to eat the bird . We unloaded shelves , bookcase , guns , lamp tables trying to catch up to him .





We finally caught up to him and she got behind a bookcase and took him out with the claw hammer .





We had a heck of a mess to clean up that evening . LOL , Cutie is still with us .

Sounds like your a speciesist.

The other night, I was standing barefoot by our kitchen counter. We've had an invasion of little crickets. I felt something on the top of my foot, and looked down thinking it was a cricket. Then I thought it was a millipede. Turned out it was a baby gray grass snake. Maybe 5 inches long, its head was no bigger than a match head. Cute little guy (or gal). I took it out to the side yard and let it go. I suspect it was hoping to dine on the little crickets.

Here's a photo of one:

http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2011/0 ... fa9972.jpg

VMI77 wrote:Round head? Venomous snakes have triangular heads.

SNIP

No, no, no, NO, no... The Coral Snake DOES NOT have a triangle shaped head. You cannot use head shape, pupil shape, scales, vents, temperament or any other so-called characteristic to identify venomous snakes. Just know "The Four". There are only four snakes in all of North America that are venomous. Copperhead, three species of Coral Snake, sixteen species of Rattlesnake, and the Water Moccasin.

Rattlesnake is easy. Copperhead is easy. Coral Snake is easy. Water Moccasin is a short, thick snake, usually darker colored. That's it.

AJSully421 wrote:

VMI77 wrote:Round head? Venomous snakes have triangular heads.

SNIP

No, no, no, NO, no... The Coral Snake DOES NOT have a triangle shaped head. You cannot use head shape, pupil shape, scales, vents, temperament or any other so-called characteristic to identify venomous snakes. Just know "The Four". There are only four snakes in all of North America that are venomous. Copperhead, three species of Coral Snake, sixteen species of Rattlesnake, and the Water Moccasin.

Rattlesnake is easy. Copperhead is easy. Coral Snake is easy. Water Moccasin is a short, thick snake, usually darker colored. That's it.

It could have been triangle shaped. I smashed pretty good

VMI77 wrote:Round head? Venomous snakes have triangular heads.

Not necessarily. A non-venomous bull snake has a triangular shaped head. And they do a pretty good job of imitating a rattle snake. They are rather aggressive, and coil to strike, and will rapidly shake the end of their tail. If that's against leaves or dry grass, it will sound much like a rattle snake rattle.