Snake! For some, just the thought of a snake strikes fears in their hearts. I'm not one of those people that freaks out. Sure, I have a healthy respect for snakes and will usually give them plenty of space if I see one.

That's exactly what happened to me last week. I was working in my yard building a greenhouse for my wife and happened to notice out of the corner of my eye a snake slithering through the leaves by a large pile of rocks. It was pretty much all black and about three feet long. I know enough about snakes to know that it wasn't a dangerous snake and it was actually helping with our mouse problem living out in the woods.

Also, last week I wrote a story about a hike up to the Overlook Mountain House near Woodstock, NY and it was mentioned on several websites that the area where the ruins of the old Overlook Mountain House is an area that's well known for rattlesnakes.

I had heard that there are venomous snakes in New York, but I didn't know what kinds of dangerous snakes you might run into in the Empire State.  So, being the Google expert that I am I decided to find out what kinds of snakes we have here.

By the way, it was pointed out to me that snakes are venomous and not poisonous. I always used the words interchangeably. Something is venomous when they bite you and inject poison or venom in you. Something is poisonous when you eat it and it poisons you from consuming it.  Thanks for pointing that out JT Mittler.

According to the New York Department of Conservation, there are 17 types of snakes you might run into here in New York and only three of them are venomous to humans and pets. I was surprised to find out that we actually have not one, but two types of rattlesnakes and copperheads here in New York.

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