Wife met one of the locals today in her morning walk.

Non venomous gopher snake.
She figured he is maybe little over 3 ft long.
It just layed there in the middle of the road soaking up the morning sun.

She let him be and walked around it.

Snakes scare the crap out of me.

Scorpions where you’re at?

Worked for a place that had a subsidiary in Mesa AZ

….they had a line up of Scorpions they had caught/killled walking through the plant floor.

Scorpions, black widows, gila monsters, rattle snakes. Everything that crawls in Arizona wants to kill you.

We have several kinds of snakes around here, the only ones I will kill are the copper heads.

I'm not picky, I kill them all. Most anything that crawls on the ground is game to squish. I figure good or bad, the environment will survive OK with however many I'm going to kill in my lifetime.

I can't tell them apart so unless I'm with someone who does know I hate them all. The small safe ones are interesting to touch and hold tho.

Pretty big boy

yes, but most are less than a few inches in length .







Ive seen one around here a little bigger than that.

I leave them alone. As I rarely see them at all.


We have a Gila Monster we see from time to time thats maybe 12-14" long


In all honesty. the biggest threat ,,,,is the plants. Seems like everything has thorns on it


One thing ive learned since moving to AZ.

Look before you put your foot down .

It's hard to tell from the photo, but it appears to have a pointed nose. If so, I think you're dealing with a Western Hog Nose. Like a gopher snake, they are non-venomous. Unlike a gopher snake they often play dead when scared, whereas gopher snakes in the wild tend to be aggressive. It's hard to say without a closer look at its head, but they looks similar to each other.

I've always liked snakes, and had several snake "pets" over the years when I was a kid. I sort of became a snake-nerd.

I've caught snakes of all breeds since I was 8 yrs. old, most of the gopher snakes I caught were a lot bigger than the one in the picture, normally over 5 ft.
Bull snakes and Gopher snakes look a lot alike to me, I've only caught one baby bull snake (about 9 inches long) and that little rascal was ferrous acting, hissing and striking like a professional cage fighter. I didn't know what it was and it didn't act like a gopher snake even though it look a lot like one so I caught it in a big bottle and took it to work, one of our foreman was Indian from the Bishop,CA reservation and had lived in that area all his life. I show it to him and he told me it was bull snake, very aggressive when trapped or caught. they are trying to B.S. you with their actions hoping to be left alone.
Most gopher snakes will try and bite you several times (2 or 3) and then quit, that stupid little bull snake never quit striking and trying to bite anything it could that got close to it.
The Black Racers and Red Racers will bite the heck out of you also, they draw a little blood when they get you and they won't quit biting either so you have to hold their heads to not get bit I have always tried to not hurt them when catching them but sometimes they will bite themselves hard like a Rattle snake will if you mess with them long enough
i use to kill all the rattlesnakes I could but not up here in Oregon due to not seeing any snakes at all in the wild, maybe it is to cold for them to survive the winters.
I did see one wild snake several years at the race track in Madras which is 45 miles north and around 2000 Ft. .lower in elevation than here in the Bend area of Central Oregon. Our house is around 4300 Ft. elevation and we live in the tall pine trees with no snakes according to the local who have live here all their life's.
The Coral snakes in AZ. and further back east have way more deadly venom than most of the rattlesnakes found on the west coast states of CA,OR and WA.. The Mojave Green Rattle snake only found in the Mojave Desert in SO CA does have a worst venom than any other rattle snake found west of the Rockies.
Lesson of the day is now complete

Words to live by around here.

Their habitat is into small areas of neveda, southern utah, western north to south eastern corner of arizona (lower half) and into mexico.

Mojaves are the most venomous rattler... Venom of the predominant population is the worst mix (Neuro/Hemo) of all rattlesnakes. There are mohaves in AZ that don't have the more toxic mix.

Another that is potent in the region is the Southern Pacific... nasty bite with neuro and hemo toxicity.

Definitely a gopher snake, and the larger ones can get quite a bit longer than 3 feet. Their bull snake cousins can get to 6 or 7 feet long. Totally harmless, but can give a bit of attitude if they feel threatened.

Small female western hognose pictured here, for comparison... much stockier and shorter. Females may get up to about 3 feet, but males are generally around 2 feet long. This is one of our critters.

A turkey was in the middle of the road the other day, Had to stop and wait till the cars stopped coming the other direction so could go around him. He was looking at me like i belong here! I almost hit a duckling that decided to run across the road. I think they should put up a sign there(same spot) for "wild life" crossing.

I learned the hard way and so did the turkey, they dont move or run they get punted.

We've seen one around here maybe a year or so ago. He had to be at least 5' long and thick as my wrist .
He was a big one but have not seen one that big since.

Biggest rattlesnake Ive seen around my area was no bigger than 2-1/2 or 3' tops . Most are usually under 2' OAL

Maybe a month or so ago , We were walking in about the same area as the one above. And a similar size diamond back was in the road . I got within maybe 3 foot or so and he could have cared less I was there . He just crossed the road and disappeared in the brush

Ive seen some black snakes good size as well. Probably over 4' on a regular basis


I'll go out of my way to leave them be . And will stop in the middle of the road to allow them to get off the road