Northern Ringneck Snake

[AtlanticBlu]

Need some advice and help...

I went downstairs to my basement tonight to finish laundry and noticed a black line attached to a spider web...thinking nothing of it until it started to move and coil...

I have identified the snake as the Ringneck Snake and think it is about 5 or 6" long.

From what I have read...this snake lays eggs around June and July and the eggs hatch around August. If you have had an encounter with this snake or know helpful information regarding this snake please help answer (or try to answer) my questions:

1) Could the size of this snake indicate it is a baby? If so, any ideas as to when it may have hatched?

2) Should I expect more to be hatching soon?

3) I am not a friend to snakes...is there anything I can use or put in my basement to get rid of the snakes?

Thank you for any helpful advise...

 

[toppick08]

Need some advice and help...

I went downstairs to my basement tonight to finish laundry and noticed a black line attached to a spider web...thinking nothing of it until it started to move and coil...

I have identified the snake as the Ringneck Snake and think it is about 5 or 6" long.

From what I have read...this snake lays eggs around June and July and the eggs hatch around August. If you have had an encounter with this snake or know helpful information regarding this snake please help answer (or try to answer) my questions:

1) Could the size of this snake indicate it is a baby? If so, any ideas as to when it may have hatched?

2) Should I expect more to be hatching soon?

3) I am not a friend to snakes...is there anything I can use or put in my basement to get rid of the snakes?
Thank you for any helpful advise...

Get some black widows.......

 

[jaksprat]

I used to get them in my basement when I lived in Bowie. Mostly small, about 4 or 5 inches, but the biggest was about 20" which I found stuck under the basement door (dead). It seemed they were all getting in through the basement door, so I installed a door sweep at the bottom which had several fins to it, designed for maximum protection. I made sure it was tightly fitted from end to end. Never had another one after that.

If I were you, I'd go around the house inside and out, looking for any holes, cracks, crevices which might allow snakes or any other critters to get in, and seal them up. It's a good thing to do anyway to keep mice out as well. Don't know of anything else to tell you regarding their reproduction, other than to do the obvious and make a periodic inspection of your basement floor for any more snakes. Good luck!

 

[sweetpea15]

maybe the spider was going to eat him!

Need some advice and help...

I went downstairs to my basement tonight to finish laundry and noticed a black line attached to a spider web...thinking nothing of it until it started to move and coil...

I have identified the snake as the Ringneck Snake and think it is about 5 or 6" long.

From what I have read...this snake lays eggs around June and July and the eggs hatch around August. If you have had an encounter with this snake or know helpful information regarding this snake please help answer (or try to answer) my questions:

1) Could the size of this snake indicate it is a baby? If so, any ideas as to when it may have hatched?

2) Should I expect more to be hatching soon?

3) I am not a friend to snakes...is there anything I can use or put in my basement to get rid of the snakes?

Thank you for any helpful advise...

 

[PrepH4U]

Need some advice and help...

I went downstairs to my basement tonight to finish laundry and noticed a black line attached to a spider web...thinking nothing of it until it started to move and coil...

I have identified the snake as the Ringneck Snake and think it is about 5 or 6" long.

From what I have read...this snake lays eggs around June and July and the eggs hatch around August. If you have had an encounter with this snake or know helpful information regarding this snake please help answer (or try to answer) my questions:

1) Could the size of this snake indicate it is a baby? If so, any ideas as to when it may have hatched?

2) Should I expect more to be hatching soon?

3) I am not a friend to snakes...is there anything I can use or put in my basement to get rid of the snakes?

Thank you for any helpful advise...

hmmmm according to your description of them, sounds like it may be the last of a litter or just the beginning with more to come. :shrug:
Don't look behind the washer!!

----------------------------------------
Ringneck snakes are sociable, which means they are often found hiding together. They also sometimes lay eggs in the same places. Northern Ringneck Snakes mate in the Spring and lay eggs in June and July. Eggs are whitish, and about one inch long. Each female lays up to ten eggs at a time.

Eggs hatch in about two months. Young ringnecks are four inches long when they are born.

Northern Ringneck Snakes can live up to 20 years.

 

[nomoney]

if you have spider webs that trap snakes I wouldn't be worried about the snakes - I'd be worried about what kind of friggen spiders you have down there!

 

[NatureCenter]

1) Could the size of this snake indicate it is a baby? If so, any ideas as to when it may have hatched?

2) Should I expect more to be hatching soon?

3) I am not a friend to snakes...is there anything I can use or put in my basement to get rid of the snakes?

Thank you for any helpful advise...

1 - yes it is a baby..well juvenile. Newly hatched babies are around 3-4 inches in length....very cute really.

2 - Unless the mother is healthy enough to double-clutch, you will not be having any more hatchings this year...ringnecks typically produce just one clutch of eggs in the spring...it's not often that they produce a second clutch in mid to late summer.

3 - Ringnecks are totally harmless. Adults are about 12 inches in length (basically the size of a pencil) and eat many worms, bugs, insects, and occasionally tiny tiny salamanders/lizards. The worst that a ringneck will ever do to you is "musk" you should you happen to pick it up (it does this as a defense to try to get you to leave it alone.. the musk is harmless, just very smelly and may take a day or two to wear off).

There is nothing you can really do to prevent the babies from getting in your house. Ringnecks are usually found inside houses and garages and sheds when there are heavy rain storms occurring. The hatchlings are tiny enough to slip in under the small space of doorways or gaps in the foundation to try to seek shelter from the tsunami of water flooding them out of their homes (from their point of view). The inside of the human house is not really suitable for them to survive long term. These are fossorial snakes that like to live in leaf litter and under rotting logs or flat rocks and such where it's moist and humid and full of food items.. you don't really see those conditions in the dry conditions that houses tend to be.

 

[Bay_Kat]

I had this one on my deck one morning eating a tiny frog. I have them in the pool all the time, once I thought it was a strand of hair, it was so tiny.

I've seen them with both orange rings with an orange underside and yellow rings with yellow underside. I pick them up with a net and put them in the yard.

 

[Bay_Kat]

if you have spider webs that trap snakes I wouldn't be worried about the snakes - I'd be worried about what kind of friggen spiders you have down there!

I have those too, I'm constantly getting rid of them, sometimes I think I need a machete to cut them down, terrible in the morning coming outside and getting clotheslined by a spider web.

 

[NatureCenter]

if you have spider webs that trap snakes I wouldn't be worried about the snakes - I'd be worried about what kind of friggen spiders you have down there!

Not unusual. The cobweb spider typically found in many people's basements and garages are closely related to black widows. These spiders like the black widow have VERY strong webs - quite capable of entrapping small baby snakes and lizards. While an adult black widow is large enough to kill and feed on baby snakes/lizards trapped in their webs, the cobweb spiders typically don't. Usually the baby snakes/lizards will struggle in the web until either they break free or die from exhaustion.

 

[Bay_Kat]

Not unusual. The cobweb spider typically found in many people's basements and garages are closely related to black widows. These spiders like the black widow have VERY strong webs - quite capable of entrapping small baby snakes and lizards. While an adult black widow is large enough to kill and feed on baby snakes/lizards trapped in their webs, the cobweb spiders typically don't. Usually the baby snakes/lizards will struggle in the web until either they break free or die from exhaustion.

Question: are these spiders poisonous like the black widow? I really hate spiders of any kind, but the biting kind really make me nuts.

 

[NatureCenter]

Question: are these spiders poisonous like the black widow? I really hate spiders of any kind, but the biting kind really make me nuts.

It's an iffy question. ALL spiders are venomous. Some spiders (such as black widows, recluses, hobo spiders, and yellow sac spiders) do have what is considered medically significant venom. However, the bites of spiders in general really depends on a person's sensitivity to the antigens being introduced into their system. And, for a lot of people they won't know their sensitivity until something happens. Much like bee or wasp stings, mosquito bites, poison ivy, peanuts, etc... some people have no/minor reactions while others can have very severe/dangerous reactions.

Also, spiders really do not go out of their way to attack and bite you. Most bites occur because the person did something to the spider. For example, suddenly slapping at a spider crawling on you can cause the spider to be pressed up against the skin hard enough that the skin is punctured by the fangs.

Black widows are really nice spiders to observe. I have always found them to be pretty good pets overall.