Common Garter Snake
Characteristics:
- Known to many people as the red-sided garter snake
- Bright yellow or orange stripe along the middle of back
- Yellow or orange stripe on each side of body on scale rows 2 and 3 (counting from belly scales up)
- Black spots on a reddish background along body sides
- Keeled scales
- Nonvenomous
- Diet: frogs and other aquatic vertebrates, insects, earthworms, and small mammals
- Habitat: grassy areas near wetlands
- Distribution: statewide