Posted by Jennifer Pavlosky on July 21, 2005

Q: About a week ago my four year daughter came running in the house crying that she saw a snake. She described the snake as being blakc and yellow. She showed me how big it was and it was about 12 inches. I went out to look for it but I couln't find it. We live in a developing area which used to be a lot of farms. Our neighborhood backs up to a stream. I am not sure how big the stream is or were it goes. Our house is in the middle of the neighborhood so we are house is not next to the stream. My question is if it is possible that a water moccasin could have or would have traveled that far from the stream. I do know that this is a snake that is in Delaware. If it was not a water moccasin what type of snake could it have been. Should I be worried about my young children, ages 4 and 2 playing in our backyard. I don't now if this is important but we do have a septic system in our yard.

State: Delaware

Habitat: suburban/yard

A: There are quite a few snakes that have black and yellow (or some variation of those colors) on their bodies. I can't give you a reasonable ID without more information. But, it doesn't sound like a Water Moccasin (Cottonmouth) to me since they are more brown/olive/black. I realize that people get very nervous about snakes but most are nonvenomous and won't bother you if you don't bother them. I wouldn't be concerned about a snake in your yard but I'd let my children know that snakes do bite if threatned but otherwise will crawl away whenever they can. Hope this helps a bit. If you can provide some details about the snake, write back and we'll see if we can pin down your "visitor". Thanks for asking.

John Wiessinger ( July 22, 2005)

A: I suspect the snake your daughter saw was a ringneck snake. Ringnecks have dark gray backs (that can look almost black) with bright yellow to orange or red bellies. They are small snakes — rarely longer than 15 inches or so in length, and are quite common throughout the eastern US. They are entirely harmless.

The only poisonous snake found in Delaware is the copperhead. The subspecies of copperhead found in southern Delaware — the Southern Copperhead — does prefer lowland habitats. However, in my experience copperheads are rarely found in developed areas and are probably uncommon throughout your state. Along a stream system it is vastly more likely that your children will encounter one of several species of harmless watersnake: these are quite common and often misidentified as poisonous. I would not worry about your kids encountering anything dangerous.

Solon Morse ( July 23, 2005)