A reader recently sent in a photo of a couple of snakes in his neighborhood on Buffalo Bayou. His dog had cornered a snake in his yard, he said. The snake coiled, tensed and opened his mouth. Thinking to protect his dog, the man speared the snake with a heavy bar. A few minutes earlier, a neighbor had also encountered and killed a snake on his property. Hence, the photo of two dead snakes.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Two snakes recently killed in a residential neighborhood on Buffalo Bayou were not venomous.<\/p><\/div>\n
It turns out, however, that neither of these snakes was venomous.<\/p>\n
The snake with its mouth open is probably an Eastern Hognose snake<\/a>, according to our expert naturalists. \u201cHarmless but puts on quite a show,\u201d wrote environmentalist Bruce Bodson in an email. \u201cThe other one appears to be a Blotched Water Snake<\/a>, also harmless but will bite in self defense.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSnakes are generally beneficial, in that they eat plenty of rats mice and roaches,\u201d writes naturalist\/geologist Tom Helm<\/a>. \u201cThey have always been around the bayous, but with the last two years of wet weather they are becoming more abundant, mainly because their prey animals are becoming more abundant. Please don’t kill the snakes, they have a job to do!\u201d<\/p>\n More about water snakes here<\/a>. More about Eastern Hognose here<\/a>.<\/p>\nBeneficial Role of Snakes<\/h4>\n