# Colubrids > General Colubrids >  black and yellow snake in my yard.

## TylerxToxic

My mom saw a black snake with a couple of yellow stripes going down its body. I was wondering if anyone knows what kind of snake it is? 
I think it might be a milk snake or a king snake. but I dont think any of them look like that. I dont think it was poisonous so yea.
I live in south carolina. around myrtle beach.

----------


## dsirkle

If you were near me I would say a garter snake. But I have no idea what is where you are.

----------


## wolfy-hound

He's in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Probably a garter snake.  I can't think of any venomous snakes that would match that description at all.

----------


## aSnakeLovinBabe

Sounds like a garter or a ribbon snake to me!

----------


## blackcrystal22

I'm guessing a ribbon snake..
Look something like this?

http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mnh/nature/snakes/ribbonsn.jpg

----------


## TylerxToxic

Is a ribbon snake poisoness??

----------


## Beardedragon

> Is a ribbon snake poisoness??


Not at all.

----------


## mooingtricycle

Im not 100% Sure How closely Ribbons are related to Garters, but garters are actually a mildly venomous species, and since they are related i wonder if Ribbons actually are much the same in respect to producing venom, as garters do? 

 While considered non harmful to humans, they also lack the means to deliver it properly as well, and really need to chew on you. ( the effects that i can find around the web seem to all say the same: usually just mild itching, and or swelling if anything at all)  It helps that its produced in very tiny amounts too.
 Maybe someone who keeps them, would be able to elaborate on this information further, and whether or not Ribbons are also venomous similarly to Garters? Has this been studied?

----------


## aSnakeLovinBabe

Ribbons snakes and garter snakes are one in the same. People just came up with the names ribbon and garter, to differentiate between the long skinny ones, and the short fat ones. this is why i dislike common names, and would rather use the only true, correct names, the scientific latin names. They are all the same genus, _thamnophis_, and all thamnophis are actually by the books, a rear fanged venomous animal.  Don't let that scare you though, their venom is so incredibly mild that it won't do anything, unless you have some sort of allergy to it. They are all semi/heavily aquatic snakes that favor amphibians, fishes, earthworms, leeches, slugs, and snails as prey. I actually was priveledged to take a very good solid bite from a large female the other day and she dug in deep enough to get her rear fangs into me. You can very, very clearly see where they penetrated my skin, and the areas around those two teeth marks are swollen and tender, and my wrist aches a little. She held on for about 30 seconds chewing! If it's still as cool looking tomorrow I'll take a picture. You can literally see the entire tooth layout on my skin!!! Sure did bleed a lot  :Very Happy:   Anyway, you can refer to a nice species list of thamnophis here!

http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...itle=Main_Page

----------

_mooingtricycle_ (05-14-2009),_PythonWallace_ (05-14-2009),TylerxToxic (05-15-2009)

----------


## Skiploder

Thamnophis are not opistoglyphic - they are aglyphic.

In other words, they are not "rear-fanged" in the traditional sense, but they are definitely venomous and some species do have nominally enlarged rear teeth - vagrans being a good example.

Remember, most colubrids are venomous but only about a third of those are actually rear-fanged.

----------


## Patrick Long

> Is a ribbon snake poisoness??


No snake is Poisonous...they are venomous

Poison is ingested, venom is INJECted

----------


## mainbutter

Just in case anyone gets worried about "the scary venomous colubrids of north america" (lol), I've been bitten by plenty of garters and never had a reaction.. not even minimal swelling. I simply made sure to wash the bite area and apply some neosporin, because any animal bite can introduce infection.

----------


## Skiploder

> No snake is Poisonous...they are venomous
> 
> Poison is ingested, venom is INJECted


What if you drank the venom?  Is it then poison?  :Razz:

----------


## Patrick Long

> What if you drank the venom?  Is it then poison?


Hahahaha :sploosh:

----------


## aSnakeLovinBabe

> Thamnophis are not opistoglyphic - they are aglyphic.
> 
> In other words, they are not "rear-fanged" in the traditional sense, but they are definitely venomous and some species do have nominally enlarged rear teeth - vagrans being a good example.
> 
> Remember, most colubrids are venomous but only about a third of those are actually rear-fanged.


t. s. sirtalis "florida blue" have some of the best looking "enlarged rear teeth" (i don't type it this way because the phrase rather annoys me, I have always been taught "rear fangs") I have seen on a garter.

----------


## DutchHerp

> No snake is Poisonous...they are venomous


I know of at least one Asian colubrid that has poisonous neck glands.

----------


## Skiploder

> t. s. sirtalis "florida blue" have some of the best looking "enlarged rear teeth" (i don't type it this way because the phrase rather annoys me, I have always been taught "rear fangs") I have seen on a garter.


Some species of garters have nominally enlarged rear fangs.  That does not make them opistoglyphs like hydrodynastes, rhamphiophis, boiga, etc.

An opistoglyph not only has enlarged rear fangs, but delivers venom via a grooved channel in them.  It is an evolutionary delivery step above having rear fangs and no channel.  

The word glyph means carved or grooved channel............an aglyph lacks that channel.

So while a boiga, for example, has grooves in those enlarged rear teeth to make the venom delivery more effective, thamnophis does not.

----------


## Skiploder

> I know of at least one Asian colubrid that has poisonous neck glands.


Ring neck snakes also utilize poison.

----------


## aSnakeLovinBabe

> I know of at least one Asian colubrid that has poisonous neck glands.



would that be the red necked keelback? Rhabdophis Subminiatus?


And no, I didn't mean that garters are rear fanged like other rear fanged animals some of which are highly toxic, what I meant was, you can't deny that they have rather large rear teeth and there are toxins in there!!! That is all I was saying!

----------


## Skiploder

> would that be the red necked keelback? Rhabdophis Subminiatus?
> 
> 
> And no, I didn't mean that garters are rear fanged like other rear fanged animals some of which are highly toxic, what I meant was, you can't deny that they have rather large rear teeth and there are toxins in there!!! That is all I was saying!


I thought it was R. Tigrinus but I am getting old and may be wrong.

As to thamnophis having enlarged rear fangs and being venomous - you are 100% correct.

----------


## aSnakeLovinBabe

I thought about tigrinus also, and I can't seem to remember where I was reading about the poison the snakes were harvesting from their prey and storing in their neck. I thought it was subminiatus, but maybe it WAS tigrinus... or possibly both utilize it... I'll look around when I have more time1

----------


## aSnakeLovinBabe

it does appear to be tigrinus... I think what I was thinking about was when I kept subminiatus, I had read about this on trigrinus and noticed my female had this same exact gland on the top of her neck... possibly, that species harvests poison also but it's not as well known? I am not sure. She would arch her neck like that and stick it out, while at the same time flattening her neck to show off her red coloration, when she felt disturbed by my presence.

http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com...id=2&did=26284

----------


## Skiploder

> it does appear to be tigrinus... I think what I was thinking about was when I kept subminiatus, I had read about this on trigrinus and noticed my female had this same exact gland on the top of her neck... possibly, that species harvests poison also but it's not as well known? I am not sure. She would arch her neck like that and stick it out, while at the same time flattening her neck to show off her red coloration, when she felt disturbed by my presence.
> 
> http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com...id=2&did=26284


Found the paper.....

http://www.venomdoc.com/downloads/0610785104v1.pdf

----------

