Can anybody ID this snake?

[Rick O]

Each year I find dozens of these snakes in my shrubbery. I've never found one over about eight inches. Since I found this one in Nov and it's also only about eight inches, I assume that it's mature. Any ideas what kind it is?

[reefguy]

could be a midland brown snake (look at the mid-back area and head)..

http://www.petcommunity.org/Sites/Mi...rightorum2.jpg

or it could be a a northern redbellied snake:

http://www.petcommunity.org/Sites/Mi...omaculata1.jpg

anyway, hope this helps....

[Demogarr]

I would have to guess a type of garter or ribbon snake(Thamnophis sp.) due to the double row of alternating black spots and well defined stripes (from a book I have) and due to your area and the fact that garter snakes are tolerant of colder weather. I would be hard pressed to pin it down specifically, there are so many color variations among garter snakes. It looks exactly like all the garter and ribbon snake pictures I have if you just substitute different colors. I could be totally off base though What color is the belly of the snake?
Best I can do
Alan

[Rick O]

I agree that it looks a lot like the first pic that reefguy posted. The belly is light gray, almost white. Would eight inches be a typical adult size or do they get bigger? I'm catching a little heat for not transporting them further away from the house since we find so many of them.

[asmith]

I would say that it is a midland brown snake. They are very closely related to the Red Bellied snakes. They share similar habits and feed off of worms and slugs. Neither of them are poisonous and range in size from 8 - 16 inches.

I found this info while doing a quick search on Lycos.

Andrew