Snakes in Northern Kentucky?!

1. Eastern Garter Snake

Eastern Garter Snake
Image CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by David Marvin via Flickr

These charming little snakes are sociable, and they can remember and find their friends even in groups of snakes they don’t know. You’ll most often see these guys in spring or fall as they either prepare for, or come out of, hibernation. They have a broad appetite, eating just about anything they can catch, but they are utterly harmless to humans and even help keep insect and small mammal populations down.

2. Northern Water Snake

Northern Water Snake
Image CC BY 2.0 by Jay via Flickr

As their name implies, these snakes love the water. However, this love of water, combined with some of them having similar patterns to copperheads or cottonmouths, leads people to think they are venomous. They aren’t and will leave humans alone unless bothered. Should you get bitten by one of these, expect to bleed a bit, as their saliva contains a mild anticoagulant that prevents proper blood clotting. This is great for them when they bite their prey, but not so great if we get bitten. Fortunately, we are not on the menu, as the water snake prefers fish, frogs, or other critters.

3. Rat Snake

Rat Snake
Image CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 by Nathalie via Flickr

Rat snakes may be the most commonly seen snake on the grounds. The juveniles have multi-tone banding patterns, but the adults generally fade to a dull gray-black. While these snakes can be quite large, they are harmless to humans, often even tolerating being extremely annoyed. They just want to get away from people. That’s not to say they won’t bite; they will. They are just more tolerant than the water snake in general. They are also voracious eaters, willing to eat anything they can fit in their mouths, including small mammals, eggs, and anything else they can swallow. Sometimes their appetite gets them in trouble, as they are known to swallow golf balls, mistaking them for eggs.

4. Northern Black Racer

Northern Black Racer
Image CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 by Patrick Randall via Flickr

These snakes earn the racer title. They are super quick! It is very unlikely you will see these guys, but you may hear them as they zip away from you in the underbrush. If you see them, you may only see their heads, as they like to raise their heads above the ground like a periscope and look around with their excellent vision. Like the other snakes on the list, they will eat nearly anything they can fit in their mouths, but they leave humans alone unless bothered, and even then would much rather race away than fight.

5. Eastern Milk Snake

Eastern Milk Snake
Image CC BY-NC 2.0 by Andrew DuBois via Flickr

This snake takes its name from the fact that it used to be frequently found in farmers’ barns, where the farmers thought it was trying to drink milk from their cows. While that turns out to be amusing fiction, milk snakes are not fictional. They are, however, very secretive and peaceful. They just want to be left alone, and they have bright colors to convince predators to do just that. They are predators, dining primarily on lizards and small mammals, though, like the others on the list, they are not too picky to take easy food if it presents itself.

6. Others

We occasionally see other snakes on the grounds, usually the northern ringneck snake or the northern rough green snake. Both are very easy to identify—the ring snake by the bronze orange ring around its neck, and the green snake by nature of being, well, green. Neither is dangerous, except to the odd small vertebrate or insect.

There are only two venomous snakes native to the region, and both are exceptionally uncommon. The northern copperhead and timber rattlesnake could be found in the region, in theory, but appear so rarely that a large database of public snake sightings only registers the copperhead twice, and does not register the timber rattlesnake at all.

While we may fear snakes, in the beginning, God made them very good. At that time, a child could easily have picked one up and carried it around without fear. We are promised that, in the future, children will be able to play near snakes again (Isaiah 11:8). Just don’t try it between now and then.