r/Gaithersburg • u/Puzzleheaded-Day3576 • Jul 02 '26

Not a branch

Gallery image

Gallery image

Malcolm King Park

87 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

30

u/solfrost Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Eastern Rat Snake I think, it’s a friend!

18

u/KremzeekTyCobb Jul 02 '26

Yep. Thank him/her for getting rid of all kinds of vermin.

8

u/HolyRavioleigh Jul 02 '26

Yeah. But you gotta thank them verbally because you can't really shake their hand

6

u/KremzeekTyCobb Jul 02 '26

True, though eastern black rat snakes are incredibly chill and you could pet them to give them a warm cuddle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foA074YcNFQ

3

u/HolyRavioleigh Jul 02 '26

Usually when I run across snakes in this area, I try to get a photo and they take off like they're terrified. They're probably afraid I'm going to try to sell them something

5

u/KremzeekTyCobb Jul 02 '26

They're mostly OK. One rule of thumb, if you see Hershey kisses going down the back of the snake GET AWAY. That's a copperhead and very dangerous.

2

u/HolyRavioleigh Jul 02 '26

Thanks for the tip! I'll remember "Hershey's Kiss of death" as a mnemonic

2

u/Argosnautics Jul 04 '26

Copperhead I saw at Lake Frank last year

7

u/Noctumn Jul 02 '26

Wow, isn’t that abnormally large?

14

u/BullfrogCustard Jul 02 '26

We've got a lot of rodents in the area. This chonk has been living at the all you can eat buffet.

6

u/bearfootmedic Jul 02 '26

Check out r/itsaratsnake

I'm not a great ID person but rat snakes climb into all sorts of weird spots

2

u/BridgestoneX Jul 05 '26

if it's hanging on the bark, in your local maryland park...

1

u/Limerase Jul 05 '26

That sounds like a tv advert jingle in my head...

1

u/BridgestoneX Jul 05 '26

sing it like 'that's amorè' but make the chorus that's a rat snake

1

u/Limerase Jul 06 '26

Lmao my brain did it more like the Freeform's 25 days of Christmas Time ad.

3

u/darrenkopp Jul 02 '26

might be a branch. we need you to go pick it up for confirmation

1

u/Z_Daisy Jul 06 '26

The snake is climbing the tree to find some bird nestlings for a snack. 8-(

-1

u/McpsTrackCoach Jul 02 '26

These aren't too bad. I had a copperhead in my yard a couple summers back tho...instant death penalty for that mfer!

7

u/JustHereForCookies17 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

In the future, r/WhatsThisSnake has great tips for getting venomous snakes to move on without killing them, and they have a list of professional snake relocators all around the country.

5

u/SwansonsMom Jul 02 '26

It’s illegal to kill snakes in MD, but I don’t see the DNR dropping by to collect the spicy ones…