I came out of my garage today and this was on my driveway. I’ve seen them before but never with all these symetrical ridges all over the body.
Pretty cool looking though.

I’m no expert, but dropping it into AI id, it says rat snake.

If it wasn’t for them stalking my ground feeding birds and bird houses, I wouldn’t mind their presence. I’m a birder and bird feeder, and they would only be my buddies if only they could eat vermin only.

From the look, most likely a black rat snake. One of the good guys - do him no harm. You have a self-feeding, automatic mouse trap.

NOPE!

Eastern Rat Snake (Black Rat Snake)?? - Very welcome around here. I'm in farm country and these guys keep the rodent population in check.

Black racer. Good to have around.

They tense up like that when they are threatened/afraid. I had one about that size live in my garage and would leave me a nice long skin every year.

I draped one over a bush outside and the wrens became quite agitated!

ID often depends on your location. I'd find out which venomous snakes exist in your area first, normally a short list, so you can quickly rule them out.
Almost all others are good to have around as they eat various pests that you don't want around. As many snake lovers like to point out, they're there because you are feeding them by having food they like in your home or yard.
Get rid of the food supply and the snakes will leave on their own.
Where I live, many snakes are killed because people are sure they are Copperheads. Most are some variety of Watersnake.

quote:

but never with all these symetrical ridges all over the body

Maybe he ate a bunch of peanuts?

Nope, gotta move now

Black Rat Snake they are the good guys, around here, vermin, and they kill and eat poisonous snakes.

When we first moved here the wife came out to a 6 footer lounging in the sun on top of the shrubs, freaked her out.

Leave them alone, and for the bird feeders, perhaps get them up off the ground if you have these snakes around.

Snake gotta snake...

Now if you find one of the Anaconda/Python combos in the glades, well, best to stay in the boat...

I have one that hangs out by my barn

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

but never with all these symetrical ridges all over the body

Maybe he ate a bunch of peanuts?

That’s actually why I posted this. I didn’t write it very well but I know what type of snake it is I’ve just never seen one with all those ridges on it. I’ve seen them with a couple of large lumps after eating something but never like this where it’s not actually caused by food.

quote:

Originally posted by 9x18:
They tense up like that when they are threatened/afraid. I had one about that size live in my garage and would leave me a nice long skin every year.

I draped one over a bush outside and the wrens became quite agitated!

Yeah it seemed pretty agitated. It sat there like this as we walked by.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
I came out of my garage today and this was on my driveway. I’ve seen them before but never with all these symetrical ridges all over the body.
Pretty cool looking though.

We have those guys. My wife says they are King Snakes, but I don't know, and she's not a snake expert.

I don't know what it is, but I'm certain that it's not venomous. The head is way too slender.

Side note:
Did you know that garter snakes are poisonous? Not venomous, as in biting you is bad, but poisonous, as in eating them is bad?

Black Rat snake. One of the most useful to have around. They will, among other things, eat other snakes to include venomous ones.

We have a 6+ footer that is a permanent resident under our house. We also do not to have a mouse problem. Here he is on our deck yesterday, completely fearless.



One of his skins



Heading into the crawlspace. This has been his door for many years.

The lumps I think are their muscles working hard at something.

Here's a pic of one of our locals climbing the bricks of my house. You can see the lumps where he's pressing hard into the gaps of the bricks.



We have lots of them, and lots of what they eat (no coincidence, that) and we are glad to have them. We had a pest control guy into the attic years back and he found a couple skins and when he told us, we said we were happy they were up there.

Apparently he doesn't get that reaction often.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
I came out of my garage today and this was on my driveway. I’ve seen them before but never with all these symetrical ridges all over the body.
Pretty cool looking though.

We have those guys. My wife says they are King Snakes, but I don't know, and she's not a snake expert.

plenty here,

black, or rat, or king snakes, all good
then there are the Racers, they tend to travel with the head a bit higher, and are very fast,

rumored to chase you if you piss them off,

either way, great snake to have around, they kill and eat copperheads, mice etc


grandma used to find them in the chicken coop and relocate them to the corn crib,

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
The lumps I think are their muscles working hard at something.

Here's a pic of one of our locals climbing the bricks of my house. You can see the lumps where he's pressing hard into the gaps of the bricks.



We have lots of them, and lots of what they eat (no coincidence, that) and we are glad to have them. We had a pest control guy into the attic years back and he found a couple skins and when he told us, we said we were happy they were up there.

Apparently he doesn't get that reaction often.

That makes sense even though he was just laying there. As someone else said if it’s agitated it could be posturing so who knows. I’ve just personally never seen one like that.

On a side note I was mowing the lawn today and got to watch a Bald Eagle toilet bowl all the way down to the lake in my backyard and catch a fish from about 50’ away and fly to the other side of the lake with it.