Snake identification help!

[kimberleyX]

Hi all!

My name is kimberley and I am from Australia.

My sister in law is American and lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They found a baby snake in their pool yesterday and decided to come to me to help identify it...because i am Australian and they assume I would be like Steve Irwin lol! I am not familiar with snakes from the US so i thought i would see if anybody here could help identify it.

Sadly, her husband decided to chop it's head off (i'm not happy about that at all!) so I am not sure what it's head looks like but hopefully this pic will be enough to help identify it.

Thanks everybody!!

Kimberley

[RedSidedSPR]

Banded Water Snake.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

100% sure it's a banded water snake which is harmless.

[RedSidedSPR]

...yet they chopped the poor guys head off..

[guidofatherof5]

Crud, another innocent snake killed.

[RedSidedSPR]

I know. Little harmless baby water snake.

[BUSHSNAKE]

im sure they get mistaking for cottonmouths...very unfortunate...surprisingly both species are still fairly common

[kimberleyX]

Oh no I understand your disappointment....I feel the same way. It is illegal to kill any snake in Australia regardless of if it is venomous or not. We have to call the wildlife people and they will come and get it and release it elsewhere so to hear my brother in law just thoughtlessly killed it was a huge let down I wonder how many poor snakes have that fate every year?

Thanks so much guys...I will continue to try and educate my in laws on conservation and respect of animals, reptiles etc ( this isn't the first time their respect for animals has been questioned by me, unfortunately!

Thanks again .

[katach]

That's very sad Poor little snake.

[guidofatherof5]

im sure they get mistaking for cottonmouths...very unfortunate...surprisingly both species are still fairly common

Kind of like the Plains Garters (T.radix) around my town. Killed on sight by so many but yet the thrive.