This is a little Texas Rat Snake (more info here). Lots of people are quick to kill them and say they have no choice because these snakes are “agressive”. They are not what they are is defensive.
They will strike, they will bite, they will rattle their tails in the grass and leaves but ONLY if you mess with them. They will never come after a person and being bit is less of an issue then being scratched by a house cat. They do tremendous work in ridding areas of rodents and if you have them around, you have rodents or they would not be there. Letting them be is the best course of action. My only reasons for even catching this guy were to
1. Be able to show it to you guys so you knew what they looked like.
2. Get him out of the middle of our field before the dogs got to it and killed it.
He was released in a bushy area of our back pasture with lots of woods and other stuff to hide in. I welcome his presence and honestly you should too. All irrational fears should be banished folks and fearing something like this is irrational.
This snake couldn’t do any real harm to anyone not even a child. A wall corner in your home is more dangerous to your children then one of these. Our daily episode will be out soon but for now I just wanted to share what I found during my morning walk with a cup of Muhi Tai Coffee.
See the Texas Rat Snake Video on Youtube
