Snakes in Indiana

Indiana is home to roughly 30+ species of snakes, and only 3 of them are venomous. The vast majority you encounter are harmless and beneficial, working through gardens, fields, and woodlots as natural pest control. Snakes are most visible in the warm months along creeks, fencerows, and forest edges, but they generally avoid people.

Indiana's habitats range widely from north to south. The glaciated northern third holds lakes, marshes, bogs, and remnant wet prairie. Central Indiana is farm country threaded with rivers and woodlots, while the unglaciated south near the Ohio River breaks into hills, limestone ravines, oak woods, and bluffs. These rugged southern hills are where the forest-dwelling venomous snakes hold on, and the northern wetlands are where the wetland rattlesnake survives.

The 3 venomous species split along these lines. The Eastern Copperhead lives in the rocky, wooded hills of southern Indiana, where it blends into leaf litter. The Timber Rattlesnake occupies remote forested ridges and bluffs in the south-central part of the state and is now rare. The Eastern Massasauga is a small, secretive wetland rattlesnake of northern fens and marshes, declining and protected. All three are uncommon and avoid confrontation.

Most snakes Hoosiers actually see are harmless. Garter snakes are common statewide, rat snakes climb trees and barns after mice, and watersnakes patrol ponds and rivers where they are routinely mistaken for cottonmouths, which barely reach the far southwest corner if at all. Plains and eastern hognose snakes put on dramatic hissing and flattening bluffs but are no threat. Bites are uncommon and rarely fatal thanks to antivenom, and most happen when someone tries to handle or kill a snake. Never assume a wild snake is safe to handle, and if a bite happens, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or 911.