This was in my yard in NE Ohio.

[cv1972675]

What kind of snake is this? I live in NE Ohio, and it scared the crap out of my wife and kids. Is it harmless? Thanks for any help!

http://chuckvalot.com/snake.jpg

[infernalis]

Looks like a ribbon snake, harmless.

[youngster]

An easy way of figuring out if a snake is harmless or harmful is to look up the snakes in your area. I typed "venomous snakes in Ohio" to get this page, Venomous Snakes of Ohio (http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/resourcesreptilespoisonoussnakes/tabid/5685/Default.aspx)
You can see from that page there is 3 venomous snakes in Ohio, 2 of which have rattles on the end of their tail. The only one that doesn't have a rattle is the copperhead, which looks nothing like that snake. So for future reference that's a good way of doing it.

[stephanbakir]

Ribbon snake, totally harmless.
Welcome to the forums.

[infernalis]

Ribbon snakes are commonly kept as pets.

another kind of garter snake.

[SSSSnakes]

Ribbon snakes are commonly kept as pets.

another kind of garter snake.

They are kept as pets, but they are very fast and make a mess in their water bowel. They are very water oriented.

[infernalis]

They are kept as pets, but they are very fast and make a mess in their water bowel. They are very water oriented.

Yes, and are excellent climbers too. Easy to get taking small fuzzy mice, and quite interesting as display animals.

I kept a couple Thamnophis Proximus orarius for a few years.

http://www.thamfriends.com/MPFG/images/ribbon.jpg

[SSSSnakes]

Yes, and are excellent climbers too. Easy to get taking small fuzzy mice, and quite interesting as display animals.

I kept a couple Thamnophis Proximus orarius for a few years.

http://www.thamfriends.com/MPFG/images/ribbon.jpg
I use them as display snakes in my shows. Mine thrashes around a lot when you hold it, but it never had tried to bite.

[presspirate]

I had a couple. It was good fun to watch them fishing.

[It'sKourtneyYo]

that was my first snake ever :3

[alessia55]

Maybe the pic is deceiving, but that snake looks much larger than a garter snake? :confused:

[Gungirl]

Maybe the pic is deceiving, but that snake looks much larger than a garter snake? :confused:

I would guess based on the weed leaves( Dandelion ) that the snake in the picture is about 14 ish inches... ??

[Jacob1750]

Maybe the pic is deceiving, but that snake looks much larger than a garter snake? :confused:


Im with you on this one. It does look a bit big for a ribbon snake, and the pattern is a little different than the ones in the other pics.

[alessia55]

cv1972675, I found this pretty amazing PDF about Ohio reptiles: Ohio Reptiles PDF. (http://www.flipseekllc.com/wildohio2009reptiles.pdf) I can't really tell by your photo, but I would lean towards it being a queensnake rather than a garter snake. :)