Red Milk Snake

Red touches black, friend to Jack; red touches yellow you're a dead fellow! How many of us have heard this little rhyme or one similar to it to help us distinguish the harmless milk snake from the potentially dangerous coral snake? I think most of us have. It reminds us that animals often use mimicry to help them survive in their day-to-day lives. Mimicry is used by many animals to avoid predation. The viceroy mimics the monarch, which contains a toxic poison gleaned from milkweed plants they feed on as caterpillars. Potential predators know this and avoid anything colored like a monarch. The viceroy through adaptation has cashed in on this by adopting the same coloring and markings. So much so they often fool humans into a wrong identification.

 

Milk snakes are just one example in a long line of mimics that have benefited from looking like their potentially dangerous counterparts. The premise is "if you look dangerous, you must BE dangerous." However, the reality is this may not always work in nature, just like with the monarch and the viceroy, milk snakes are often subjected to mistaken identity. There are many instances of milk snakes being born with aberrant (odd) markings, colorations, or patterns that do not follow what we consider the norm. For example, there are milk snakes that exhibit all black coloration with yellow striping or marks. Or some that have a red and black checkered-like pattern with orange markings on their head. One thing that is apparent-----Mother Nature does not always follow the rules. There are actually more harmless species in the United States that fit the “kill a fellow” part of the rhyme than there are coral snakes that the rhyme is designed for. Did you know there are four species of non-venomous snakes in the United States that feature coloration like the coral snakes, even going so far as to have the red touching yellow? So how is a person to know what snake they are looking at? The best thing to do is research.

https://www.quora.com/What-snake-looks-like-a-coral-snake-but-is-not-venomous

Learn to identify snakes by other key characteristics, and not rely solely on color and pattern. While it is true that this rhyme started somewhere and probably has at least some basis in fact, and in most cases may guide you to a correct assumption in your ability to identify the snake you are faced with. In Missouri red milk snakes are the typical red, black and white, although some may be muddy looking and be more grayish in color than white and the red may be shades of orange-red, copper, or a dull red. Some are vibrant fire engine red and stark white with black stripes. So even among Missouri’s population there is high variability in the coloration. However, the pattern is nearly always the same with red, touching black.

 

Red milk snakes are related to the family of snakes that include king snakes, and like king snakes are fond of a serpent diet. They frequently feed on other snakes, including venomous snakes. Anytime I have ever encountered red milk snakes it has been in the same habitat as copperheads or rattlesnakes. This may elude to their preference for or certainly their ability to eat vipers. Their diet will also consist of small lizards, and various rodents. Reaching lengths of approximately three to four feet they are medium-sized snakes with a somewhat docile nature. They will bite or musk to defend themselves like any snake may, but they are not as feisty about confrontation as other snake species can be, say for instance a water snake!

Perhaps no other snake in our country has as much myth surrounding it as the milk snake. When Europeans were settling into their new home in a new country and were faced with the milk snake, it reminded them of the dangerous species they were familiar with in their home country. Adders are a European snake that somewhat resembles a milk snake, enough so that these early settlers often referred to the harmless milk snake as the checkered adder or spotted adder. Consequently, many milk snakes were needlessly killed from a gross lack of understanding about the strange fauna of this unfamiliar territory they were living in. This mistaken identity and misinformation persists today in much of the milk snakes range and they are still persecuted. It seems old habits and wives tales do not disappear overnight. On top of that, many who recognize the milk snake have been informed at some point in their lives that they got their name from their habit of stealing milk straight from the udders of livestock in the barns they frequent. While this sounds ridiculous to our ears today, in those days people were often more naïve and knowledge was not at their fingertips as it is today. We can laugh at this seemingly ignorant belief, but to those early settlers having spotted a snake slithering out of their milk barn---- that snake could have only been there for one reason----to help itself to a tasty milk treat straight from the source. Not once giving thought to the amount of rodents also attracted to that barn and the feed within. Little did they realize that snake was removing potentially dangerous and damaging vermin.

Thankfully, there is a shift taking place in our country and people are beginning to understand the importance snakes play in a healthy ecosystem. While it is true that snakes generate fear in people and many are still needlessly killed, fortunately this is not as prevalent as it once was. Younger generations are adopting more positive attitudes about snakes and are playing an active role in educating older generations about the importance of snakes. Even those who loath or fear snakes often admit they understand that snakes play an important role in rodent control and balancing the environments where they live. Next time you reach for the hoe to eradicate your yard of an unwelcome slithery visitor, consider taking a step back and appreciate the role this guest is playing in keeping rodents away from your home.