Snake in house not sure what kind?

I was working in pole barn on my Case 646 one afternoon at my moms place and she walked inside and said she has this snake inside her radiant heat exchanger in the living room. Said she was checking to see if there was any heat coming out of the exchange and she felt some move when she stuck her had down inside the cavity. She took a flashlight and could see this snake cureled up on top of the heat exchanger. I had my gloves on at the time but i couldn"t get my hand in far enought to reach it.
Went got a long screw driver an fished it out far enough to grab it. i was surprized how agressive it was when pulling it out. It kept wanting to bite my hand but just got the end of my glove. Finally got it out doors and knock it in the head.
It mesured 36" long. Colors are cooper colored brown like squares surounded by tan stripes. Mom says she never seen one like this one in 55 years living since they lived there nor have I. It still remains a mistery how it got in the house?
Anyways it had the comforts of home maybe all winter as far as we know and it was a hard winter this last year in lower MI. i"m not to fond of snakes but I have a friendvery parinoid of them! Don"t want to be near him if he see one, you"d could get out of his way fast enough before he runs right over the top of you! If anyone has an idea what kind of snake this is please let me know.
Mike

It looks very much like what we in the Southern states call a copperhead. I don't know how far north they range, but if it is a copperhead, be glad it didn't bite you, because they are poisonous!

Well, from the picture, it looks like a gopher snake. Not poisonous.

Milk snake is my guess found one in a house I was working in also be called king snake.

Did it flatten out its head. It looks like the blow snake I killed last fall. I always heard they run in pairs and the next day I got another one. It was very aggressive but they are not posion. The ones I saw in the past were a darker color than those I got last fall

Well, I just googeled "copperhead" and I don't think that one is a copperhead. Probably a relatively harmless type that was looking for a warm place for the winter and a mouse or two.

It's an Eastern Milk snake (harmless).

Greg

If you might get more of a closeup pic of the snake it might be easier to identify. In Michigan, we have only one venomous snake, the Missasagua Rattlesnake, usually found near water. Where was this snake found? Near what city?

Looks like a milk snake to me.
Check out the DNR's WebSite.
They have a list of all the species in Michigan near the bottom.

Yup--milk snake. I don't kill snakes any more. They have a job to do too. Good mousers.

Larry

Thanks you guys on the identity of the snake! I'll let mom it a milk snake.
Mike

I have trouble with snakes getting into the house. I have had 2 little what I call grass snakes (green) get into the house. They are only a foot and a half to 2 foot long. I just ran them out the door. What really bothers me is on 2 different occasions, I have had a black snake get into the house. And not little ones either. One about 5 foot, the other about 6 and a half. How do they get in?? Near as I can figure they start by getting under your house. Crawl space or somehow into your basement. Then they simply come up from there. A vent, hole in the floor, whatever. An oversized hole where a waterline comes up is about all it would take. I have heard of snakes coming up through the sewer line. They would come out your drain or toilet in that case. I have found to have lot less problems by keeping entire house, crawl space, and basement completely free of mice. Keep poison out all the time. This atleast kills the attraction of mouse hunting snakes.

Yeah, the snakes are just trying to keep warm and eat mice (been a long and cold winter).

For me, I would much rather have the snakes in my house than the dang mice. I catch certain snakes and turn them free in my house to help keep the mice population down.

Greg

I hate mice in the house. They are just a nasty little animal. And they get into everything. Boxes, clothes, drawers, and everywhere. I don't mind snakes under the house in the crawlspace, but I don't want them in the house either. I hate being supprized by a snake, even if it is a non-poisnous one. Large black snakes can rap themselves around you and constrict. Heard of a guy that had one do this on his arm. Had a heck of a time getting it off. Shut the circulation off to his hand on that arm. Anyways, if they got into bed with ya, and got around your neck it might be show over. Don't want them in the house.

looks like a milk snake to me, too bad you killed it they eat lots of vermin. I had one in the basement last summer but it was only about a two foot long one maybe I will see him again this summer.

You ought to post the find at the Michigan Herp Atlas. It's a place to record sitings in Michigan by county.

We've got those Milk snakes all over the place at our house in northern Michigan (Presque Isle County). They leave their skins down the basement and in the attic every year. They don't bother anything. But -last year when we'd been gone for a few months - came back and one came out of the wall in the kitchen and I accidentally slammed the door on it. I know our place is like a zoo. Snakes, badgers, skunks, porkys, coyotes, fox, half a dozen types of snakes, turtles, birds, etc. Last year I was trying to brush hog and had to keep stopping chase snakes, turtles, salamanders, etc. Even had a woodcock come out and just stand in my way. Here's a picture of a Milk snake in the basement. See them a lot there in the summer when it's hot outside. Note that I'm from NY. Seen plent of Milk snakes. But last summer I had a snake in my pole barn that scared the heck out of me at first. Hog Nose snake. Never seen one before. Also found a Blandings turtle that was big enough to be a state record. We let it go in an nearby pond.

I don't want any snake in my house. I put a critter guard cover over the dryer vent to make sure they couldn't get in there.

We had some rattlesnakes come around the house, but they left after they cleaned out the pack rats, so they weren't all bad.

Had one big gopher snake (that looks like a rattler) that wanted to make me back off, but I kept pushing him with a long handle hoe until he finally gave up and left. He could move real fast once he decided to leave.

"It still remains a mystery how it got in the house?"

Got any mice? A snake can get in anywhere that a mouse can.

Here in California, we have King, Gofer, and Garden snakes all of which are not poisonous and a benefit to the garden. The only poisonous snake we have is the Rattle snake. They frequent my area, and my dogs, and horses seem to become victims of them. I have never lost a dog to a Rattle Snake bite, but they go through a rough time before coming out of it. I always take the dogs to the vet’s just to make sure, but once my transportation was being repaired and I couldn’t take old Joey in. I called the vet asking if there was something I could do for him. He asked if I had some Benadryl which I did – he told me to give Joey about 6 of those tablets. Joey slept most of the time, and when I got the car going, he paid the vet’s a visit. By then, there wasn’t much left for the vet to do – just a shot to guard against infection.

I think it is a coperhead