Sadly, you can't convince a person that really fears snakes not to kill them.

Great pics, Lin, the skin shed with full head is something to see.

I guess with Coral Snakes you really won't get bit unless you handle it, but all this snake talk makes me think twice about reaching down to pull a couple weeds with no garden gloves on...

My boys were raised to understand living with snakes. Second pic is my middle son a couple decades ago with his pet snake, I think it was a Calif King snake.

What a cute kid Sherri! Good for you teaching them to live with snakes.

Thanks Ann, actually that is two different sons, they're both over 30 now.

I'm going to try and take a photo of the snake skin shed I found the other day just outside my greenhouse door. It is 5'10" long. My husband is 5'11. Scary thought

Let's hope it was shed by a black racer.

Wow, that is a big snake!

I think it must have been one of my greenhouse dwellers (I hope) there is no rattle on the end so that's good

This is my shed. The whole schmeel


Head at inch 1




Tail at about 5'10. Its actually about an inch or so longer if I were to try to stretch it

I enlarged the photo & there is no discernible pattern on the shed so I'm thinking black racer most likely. There are markings on sheds, at least when they are fresh - they may be faint but they are there if you look closely. Plus, a snake of that length - if it were poisonous - would be considerably fatter than what that shed indicates.
I think you're good to go with a bigger good guy Gina!

Yeh it means he will eat more mice! We have had some big (4-5 ft) rattlesnakes out here and you are right they get FAT

Gina1960 said:Yeh it means he will eat more mice! We have had some big (4-5 ft) rattlesnakes out here and you are right they get FAT

And maybe he/she will eat some baby rattlers too.

Wow, nice find Gina, that is a long snake, hopefully you see it around and get another pic of it. I keep seeing a pretty good sized one in my garden, but not that long.