I have always heard that you should not kill non-poisonous snakes because they will keep the poisonous snakes away. Like copperheads and rattlesnakes will not come around if there are black snakes,king snakes or garner snakes around your house. Is this true?
Answers:
King snakes eat mammals, birds, even other reptiles! Some king snakes live completely on rattle snakes (many of which are bigger than the king snakes!)
-quirks an eyebrow- Let me see if I'm understanding what you're saying: You SHOULD kill poisonous snakes? -scowls- Well sure, let's go and blame the snake and mess up the food chain. Good ra, just leave them alone!
yes ... expecally king snakes they are faster then most of your rattlers or other snakes. they do eat other snakes and rodents.
IM not sure about garter snakes, but i knw for sure king snakes keep ALL snakes away usually poisonous or not. They are just known for killing poisonous snakes like rattlers because hardly any other species will.
It's true that you should not kill ANY snakes, venomous or not.
However, kingsnakes do not seek out other snakes. Yes, they will eat other snakes, including venomous, on occasion, but their diet consists mostly of rodents and birds.
Black rat snakes seldom eat other snakes; Black racers, like kingsnakes, will if the opportunity presents itself.
Garter snakes do not eat other snakes.
One more time: King snakes DO NOT keep venomous snakes away!
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Technically, the competition or resulting lack of prey will drive the slower, venomous snakes into a smaller hunting area, giving us the illusion that the non-venomous snakes have directly driven off the venomous ones.
ReplyDeleteBut I have also heard that the 'musk' smell produced by black snakes will drive away most snakes,so who knows..