How To Identify Oklahoma’s Non-Venomous Snakes

As the cold nights warm into hot days, Oklahoma's native creatures are sure to start stirring first around SWOK. This includes our legendary venomous snakes. Sometimes caught in the crossfire, we have far more non-venomous snakes in our neck of the plains. Before you reach for the hoe or shovel, you might double-check to make sure you're not about to destroy an ally in your personal worry against dangerous snakes.

I live in West Lawton, in the middle of a large neighborhood, and even I run across snakes every year. Most of the lined variety, but I've seen bull, rat, and corn snakes close to the local park before. While your first instinct might be to start chopping off heads, it'd probably be better to just let it be. Especially if you're lucky enough to have a King snake slithering around your hood, they eat rats, mice, and other snakes including cottonmouths and rattlers. Not a bad bro to have around the house.

When I find these little fellers in my garden or along the side of my house, I usually leave them there. If I stumble across many of them, I've been known to spread them out around the property. I like to keep a snake near the shed to keep the rabbits and opossums out from under it. Snakes sure are easier to place than lattice work I'd have to weed out every year. As always, you don't want to be handling these danger noodles. Not only do they strike, they also wallow around in their own feces. That's just nasty.