Common Kingsnake

Lampropeltis getula

Kingsnakes and Milk Snakes are powerful constrictors. They are most frequently found under boards, sheets of tin, and tar paper, and around abandoned buildings and old sawdust piles. In addition to rodents, they eat a great variety of snakes (including venomous species), lizards, and amphibians. They seem to be immune to pit viper venom.

Look For : A large, shiny black or brown and white snake with chain links, bands, stripes, blotches, or speckles.

Length : 36-82".

Habitat : Dry woodlands, pine barrens, rocky wooded hillsides to swamp edges, coastal marshes to prairies, deserts, and chaparral.

Range : In the West, from northern California through the Texas deserts; in the central plains north to Iowa; in the East to New Jersey.