6 Tips to Find Snakes! (FIND - not handle!)

*I do NOT recommend handling of wild snakes and animals! If you are not 100% positive on identification or your skills - DO NOT handle wild snakes!!!*
Here are six sure ways (with a bonus tip) to find more snakes while out herping. If you follow these steps, you are sure to find more snakes while out exploring their environments. Thiese are the methods I use to find pretty much any snakes I am looking for and it works nearly anywhere. Herping is always fun when fing snakes is easy! #herping #snakes #findsnakes

[wlodell]

Very good video! Excellent lessons! Searching for and catching snakes is fun experience for children of older ages growing up, and good for learning and teaching responsible care and handling of the animals and maintaining the environment. We learned early on of course to identify the venomous snakes (eastern diamond backs, copperheads, moccasins, coral) and we cautiously stayed away from them. If and when we encountered them. All snakes love water, it seems. The garters, blue racers, rat snakes, corn snakes, and king snakes were common and always fun and interesting to watch, especially when the snakes catch prey and eat. All snakes eat prey head first. (How and why?)
We learned garter snakes were always unpredictable, sometimes they would bite, sometimes wouldn’t. Blue racers the same, but harder to
catch and always aggressive. Rat snakes were easier to catch, they moved slower and always seemed calm or docile and didn’t mind being handled. This snake is also everywhere, and good climbers too, in trees, rafters, fences, ledges, etc. For that matter, all snakes can climb. At the same time, we learned to handle all snakes gently, or otherwise the snakes (most of them it seemed) will emit a stink musk odor that gets on hands and clothes. The hog-nose water snake was fun because when approached the snake will coil, lift and flatten its head and hiss. It will strike but won’t bite, usually. And then the snake rolls over with its mouth open and plays dead. After a while it recovers and we always let it move away. The most fun is the tiny ring neck snake, gentle, easy to catch, easy to hold and closely observe. These snakes were rarer to find and usually located in rich soil in highly vegetated and shaded wooded areas. The caution here is the deadly coral snake that also lives similarly (and near water). We knew about the coral snake but never encountered one in the wild, we lived too far north of its habitat. Another very interesting snake is the green tree snake, a small beautiful snake, easy to catch and handle, nonaggressive, overall behavior very much like the ring neck except that it lives in leafy trees. We encountered this snake while visiting in Alabama, a popular habitat.
In my military years, stateside, we always encountered rattlesnakes, copperheads and moccasins. Rattlesnakes are everywhere, lowlands, highlands, river valleys, mountains, deserts, forests, except jungles. Copperheads like water and rocks. Moccasins like all waters, creeks, streams, rivers, ponds and lakes, but no salt water, and they climb trees. Rattlers are aggressive being easily agitated. Copperheads not so bad, but will bite if near or stepped on. Moccasins are the lest aggressive, in my opinion. I’ve stepped over them, swam in same waters. At Victory Pond, Ranger school, Ft Benning, GA, we had to use the ‘slide for life’ which dropped us into a pond with several swimming moccasins. The snakes were not injured or killed, more important no ‘ranger students’ were bitten. On a mountain patrol in Ft Indiantown Gap I fell upon a pile of rocks and skinned my right leg. Four hours later I was unable to walk and was medevac to a field hospital. I was diagnosed with a snake bite unknown by rattler or copperhead and given an antivenom shot.
In various locations from Philippines to central and Eastern Asia, apart from an occasional sea snake, the only snake I saw anywhere was the King Cobra. It was virtually everywhere, even in many parts of China. The cobra is huge, and where there one, there are two. I saw one on the Great Wall on far western part and unpopulated. I saw another in Sichuan, and another in an unpopulated area in southern China.
Snakes are edible, as a boy at summer camps in Michigan during survival training we captured water snakes, field dressed them, roasted them and eaten them. In my military years, we ate rattlesnakes. In all of Asia, snake carcasses are sold by street venders. I’ve seen slabs of Cobra meat marketed and sold in an obscure exotic meat shop near Seattle. Snakes, can’t live with them, can’t live without them!

[AVEROGOT]

Funny story, I found an orange stripped ribbon snake (species of garter snake) and my mom told me “if you find a snake, you can keep it” so I showed my mom and she said to put it back, I asked her why and she said “I never thought you would actually find one” 😂

[jeffhall]

Great video. I have caught many snakes over the years, and have put on many informational demonstrations. One warning I would recommend is, “If you are not 100% sure what kind of snake it is, DO NOT PICK IT UP.”
Thanks for sharing.

[rebelbinx]

Tbh you are very under rated. The amount of knowledge, time and effort, and money you maybe invested into these cameras is awesome. I think you are a great educational source for everyone. Thanks for the information on how to find snakes.. It really helped

[thomaszaccone]

Love Ring-neck snakes. So beautiful and delicate looking. Do more on herps!!!

[SharingTheOutdoors]

Good advice. Lot of collectors out there. Artificial Cover, be careful not to get ticketed for illegal dumping.

[TheWildlifeBrothers]

These are all great tips, and will prove very useful in all of our herping endeavors. I particularly like the advice about searching at specific times of day, that’s some of the best advice Evan and I have ever been given when it comes to finding wildlife. Thanks Chris!
- Harrison

[pickle_boi]

I LOVE SNAKES! These tips were awesome! I found a snake under my tarp! Thank you so much!

[carljamessettlereptilemast]

I’ve been searching for all kinds of snakes throughout my home North America all my life, thank you Chris for these helpful tips on how to find snakes in the wild and It's so hard to see these amazing creatures in the wilderness. I will do my best to find snakes whenever I get the chance

[adrianfigueroa]

I have dealt with (handled/came across) many different types of wildlife over the years (Florida). Gators, snakes, etc. However, I always find myself learning more each and everyday. Thanks for your videos! Much appreciated. Stay safe

[sapelesteve]

Yet another terrific video Chris! Snakes are some of my favorite animals & I'm sure that your tips will come in handy. The bit about rolling the log toward you rather than away from you was brillant! Now I will never forget to do

[gameingboone]

I went out hunting a snake and the only thing I found was just a hippie

[kevinmyers]

I have found King snakes, Gopher snakes & small flower pot snakes. 2 of my encounters were the road technique driving slowly. Great video!

[bradhaak]

Just stumbled across this and plan to use your strategies on my local walks. We're in the Washington, D.C., suburbs and have come across a half-dozen species of snakes (garter, DeKay's, black rat, black racer, copperhead, northern water) w/in a few miles of home. We also have a couple species of skinks and a well-establish population of non-native (and highly invasive) Italian wall lizards which has surprised a lot of people. I'm sure there are others and simply haven't encountered them... yet. :)

[karenbutler]

Love the tip at 1:53! Helps a ton and is very knowledgeable!

[hunterdean]

Great tips. You should make one on how to find salamanders.

[lostinthewoods]

That was awesome! I'm sure this video will get plenty of young people into herping.

[Darhan]

All the venomous snakes in the US are easy to identify, at least for me, just by looking at them. There are rattlesnakes, copperheads, water moccasins, and coral snakes. Those are the only ones that are dangerous. If it's not one of those, it's not going to cause you serious harm, unless you have some kind of weird allergy to the bite of hognose snakes or some such. Many other snakes can draw blood. So can sewing needles or papercuts, which is about what a bite from most nonvenomous snakes in the US is comparable to. So I'll freely handle any nonvenomous snake I can catch. Sometimes getting bitten is part of the thrill of the chase. Racers and whipsnakes almost always try to bite me when I catch them, and usually succeed. Garter snakes and water snakes sometimes do. Most colubrids, however, only rarely try to bite, depending on species and individual temperament. In any case, all of them are fun to catch and handle, and I'm always as gentle as I can be with them, and think about their wellbeing and their experience of the interaction. The only things I can feel for them are love and admiration.

[Tonjit]

This was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Great stuff!

[loriminick]

Thanks Chris, great video man. Love the honesty and help very much. I’m just lucky to have acreage to do this on my own property so it’s safer. I love herping