A friend toke these pictures last summer, they where
taken in upstate ny near the finger lakes. just trying
to figure out what it is. thanks

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George Jamison

The coloring resembles a Common Garter Snake. Size-wise it's a big'un.

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I'm with the banned ...

Looks like a "better off dead" species!

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RIP Shipmate

Eastern Garter Snake. That thing is really big. He looks like he's eaten some new york city subway rats.

absolutely not...snakes are very important if you don't want a lot of rats and mice around.

I caught many Eastern Garter Snakes as a boy but never one that big. Impressive!

Maybe that's a good thing. On one of my snake hunting forays I scored big, netting a number of different types of snakes. I took them home and put them in a big aquarium in our "Utility Room" which was off of the Kitchen.

While sleeping that night I heard my Mother scream so I ran to see what was going on.
This saved her from making the full trip to my room, because that's where she was headed.

She takes me to the Kitchen and points to the throw rug in front of the sink and said "That rug's moving!"
Something she discovered while standing on it getting a glass of water.

I didn't even have to flip it back to see that it was indeed moving and when I did there must have been at least 5 of "my snakes" under there. It turns out that the lid somehow came off my aquarium.

I don't know how long I worked at it that night, but I think I got most of the snakes back into their temporary home. I usually only kept them for a little while then let 'em go back near where I found them.

Needless to say snakes were no longer allowed in the house.
Can't say as I blamed her when she enacted that new rule....

I used to catch lots of them when I was 6-7 years old to the consternation of my parents. I haven't seen one in a while though. I keep them around because they keep the mice and big bugs out of the garden.

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Vaya con Dios

SOME snakes are very important...garters, bulls, and king snakes are great but if I see anything poisonous you better believe it will not have a head very long.

Speaking of the head, I guess the first picture might be misleading cuz the angle but that triangle looking shape is usually a could clue that you want to be careful until the snake is identified...

Would look better as a Belt.

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NRA Pistol/Rifle Inst. RSO

Yep, appears to be an unusually large and colorful specimen of a Garter Snake.... Probably just molted..

I don't hate snakes, but I don't like em too much either.. especially if they startle me! BANG! Bye-bye snake!

That is the biggest freakin' garter snake i've ever seen!

The first photo had me puzzled because the head looks heart shaped. That usually means poisonous.

Garters were all along our 4 acres with the creek flowing through. Thats a Grandaddy specimen!

That there, is one of those target snakes. (which is how I identify all snakes)

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Any snake on my property with a triangular head will likely soon be introduced to a Remington 870.

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A closed mouth gathers no foot

An example of a good size garter snake that startled me was last summer while trimming with a weed whacker... Trimming the edge of my cedar hedge.. (HEY, that's a rhyme!) The trimmer string caught about a 14 inch snake and flung it out of the weeds.. Well, I must admit I jumped a little. But without getting into the details, I'll just say weedwhacker vs 14" snake was kinda like watching a weird UFC fight! Bruce Buffer take it away... "And the winner is..... the 28cc Craftsman!!!"

I know snakes eat bugs and stuff... But they also eat my frogs and toads that I LIKE having in my yard... And they do a good enough job eating bugs and other creepy-crawlies.. The don't need any help from any stinkin, sneaky, side-windin, jumpin-out-and-scarin-the-beans-outta-me snakes!

...to me, it's adorable.

(No, not scared of ANY snake...the only animal that I have any phobias on are scorpions...and this is from a guy who "named" a black widow spider once!)

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The Last Standing Knight

Could introduce it too a Python, Anaconda, Cobra, king cobra or Diamondback?

Timothy Treadwell wasn't afraid of Brown Bears or Grizzlies...that sure worked out well for him

If you call being turned into a pile of bear poo working out well...

But to the OP: I just made the connection... Why on earth would someone handle a snake they did not know if venomous or not??!! I realize that venomous snakes are very few and far between in NY.. But when in doubt, don't touch!

Down here in the south we have an abundance of snakes, some good some bad. Good ones are better if I see them early on and not when they scurry across my feet. Saw one garter that was about 8' in one of the mgt areas I bow hunt. Have seen rattlers streached all the way across one lane of the road and cottonmouths the size of my arm.
The rat, chicken, garter, black racers,etc. I let go on their way. Posionious snakes I try to kill since I don't want them anywhere near my grand kids.
Was coming out of the woods one afternoon and as my son was about to start up the bank to the road I saw a snake head come out of a hole in the bank. Got him away and just stuck the shotgun toward the hole and pulled the trigger. After digging pieces out of the hole with a stick I was surprized to find parts of four copperheads that had been in the hole.
Larry

I must say... that is a big Garter snake. If... and that is a very big "if," so I say if upon seeing that sort of snake I could manage to restrain myself... that snake would live. But, that would be a very big "if." Out in the woods/fields... I'd let it just go on about it's business. But around the house... in the yard... it'd be hard not to put a bullet into it's head. I know that attitude is not politically correct. But it is the truth. JMHO. Sincerely. brucev.

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<><

Shoot'em, shoot'em!

...it does look like a tree'shaka

Don't know what kind,
Maybe the flooding pushed the big guys out from hiding last summer down there.

Looks a bit agitated about show & tell,,not one of my favorite animals..

No such thing as a poisonous snake.

Unusually large garter snakes are very rare to the NY region.
Large/giant garters are usually only found in the central valley area of California. They do bite and although they are not venomous it WILL hurt like hell from one of that size!

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I reckon so

Plus you know what Bear Grills always says... "Snakes don't brush their teeth"....

Eastern Garter Snake according to my book of reptiles. The book says that they can be over four feet long, so this guy must be close to proving it.

You can only fool Darwin for so long...

His name is Henry Jones.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

ArkiePrince water snake moccasin information

If it's a round head then I leave them alone. If they have a shovel head then I kill them.

Some garter snakes do have rear fangs and have seriously bitten people. It would happen more often, but the rear location in the jaw of the fangs and the small mouths of average sized examples prevent many bites.

Don't mess with them. Especially if you don't know what they are.

How long was this one? Looks pretty thick-bodied, too.

I would be pretty scared to catch a snake with my bare hands...

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Jorge

i'm kinda familiar with snakes, and even venomous snakes are important to the ecosystem.

i've never seen a garter snake that large, but supposedly they can. and the head did throw me as mentioned. i spent time looking for other snakes with similar markings and and the only thing i could come up with is a garter snake...a very large one at that.

Clearly, that is an Exwifeicus Reptilius. Forked tongue is the giveaway. This species lines it's den with stolen wallets.

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SOS USA

Did anyone else notice in that first photo the compression of the head in front of the eyes, giving a sort of vision tunnel, enabling the snake to have better forward vision? The African Bird Snake (Thelotornis kirtlandi) has that feature. An interesting survival adaption.

(I'm going by memory on the scientific name, but think that's correct. It is, BTW, very venomous.)

I've seen and handled hundreds of Garter Snakes in my life and only once have I seen one that big (and I've never been bit). Most of them get eaten by critters, hawks, etc, before they get that large. In the early spring you can come across a den than has opened and there will be literally hundreds of them coming out. They are easy to handle but can get feisty if its a pregnant female. They are a part of nature, harmless to humans, and I urge everyone to simply live and let (them) live. Thanks for sharing a great pic.

It would be hard for me to tell if it was a round head square head or triangle head while looking back over my shoulder running like hell!

This is hearsay, but I trust the fella that mentioned it...he said that most females, when bitten by rattlesnakes, are bitten on the lower extremities, because of accidentally stepping too near the snake, either inadvertently or while trying to evade it...on the other hand, most males are bitten on the upper extremities, because of doing something foolish like trying to pick the darn thing up, or playing with it, teasing it etc...makes perfect sense to me.

Yes. Of course.

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RIP Shipmate

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Thirty characters. Exactly...

There are two kinds of snakes....Live ones & Dead ones....I prefer the later!

Looks like my last boss. Can't ever forget that friendly demeanor.

Local herpetologist identifies it as the "Dreaded,Finger Lakes Region of NY, kill you right away snake".
Heck, I could make 4-5 Missouri snakes out of that thing with a proper hoe!
Thanks
Mike

P.S.
Rats and mice are important for the ecosystem too ya' know.

One of my old herpetology books list the record length for the Eastern Garter at 48 3/4 inches. That is an old record, and probably out of date. Beautiful specimen.

That is one of the only two kinds of snakes that scare me, a biiiiig one. The other kind is a little one.

The only thing I am going to say is every snake that I have ever identified was dead first.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

I take it the snake is still unidentified?

I believe that is Jake. My Drill Sergeant told me all about him while I was in boot at Ft. Benning in 1984.

I think the more realistic posters decided that it's an Eastern Garter Snake, but a very large example.

One that size could probably make someone very sick if it managed to deliver a serious bite. They have rear fangs, like the Boomslang and the African Bird Snake. Not that the Garter Snake is that lethal, by any means.

The Boomslang needs to inject just about 1.5mg. of venom to kill an average 150 lb. man, against some 20 mg. for most cobras and the Black Mamba. (The Cape Cobra/Yellow Cobra is more toxic, at some 15 mg. Books by Minton and Minton and the US Naval medical manual for snake ID and treatment provided this info. I'm going by memory, but think those figures are correct.)

If new member Frikkie sees this, he probably knows the danger of those snakes. Thought he might like to know the lethal dose.

Not much research has been done on garter snake venom, which seems fairly potent in some populations, although none has yet killed a human, to my knowledge. It's a neurotoxin.

I'm sure that snake's family knows who it is, and isn't that the most important thing?

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Ogy