irish pete ag06 said:Awesome! Thank you very much. I've lived in my house for 2 summers and I've only seen 1 snake...DaveAg02 said:irish pete ag06 said:Can you explain this a little more?1990AG said:
Great example of the telltale "mascara" on that Moccasin
It's that dark line right through the eye. Best way to tell a water snake from a moccasin.
I've already seen 3 this spring, so I bookmarked this thread to become better at identifying.
In that case, here's some more detail. They can be very similar when they are adults, both mostly black, both thick water snakes. Here's a good look at the heads. In the first one, you can see vertical black lines on the bottom jaw. Classic harmless water snake. Of course, they are bad mannered and will still bite, and it hurts, but no venom:
Next, the cottonmouth (moccasin). You can see the black line horizontally through the eye, and none of those little vertical lines on the jaw:
I picked two that are both hard to distinguish. Usually, they are a little brighter and more distinctive.
