'Red on black - friend of Jack'

The milk snake is a widespread North American snake. It can be confused with another snake called a coral snake in areas where their ranges cross.

Remember this phrase: "Red on black is friend of Jack."

As you can see in the photo the orange or red color is surrounded by black implying "red on black." This tells you the snake is non-venomous and harmless to humans. It is a beneficial snake and you should not kill it.

The milk snake naturally prefers to live in the woods where as a juvenile it will eat insects, earthworms, small skinks and small mice. As an adult this slender snake can grow to over three feet long and its diet consists of mostly rodents and small animals. It can be found in or around old barns where rodents are plentiful. Long ago this snake was labeled "milk snake" because of this proximity to barns and a false belief that it would suck milk from cows. The milk snake has retained its deceptive name all these years, but it never had the physical ability to drink milk from a cow!

This very colorful snake truly is a friend of Jack -- aka, you -- because it will help keep your property more free of mice and rats. It is a member of the king snake family of constrictor snakes, meaning that it wraps around its prey to kill it before eating rather than biting and injecting poison to kill its prey.

Through the Woods is a weekly nature column by Aaron Horrell. Find this column at semissourian.com to order a reprint of the photo. Find more of Horrell's work at the Painted Wren Gallery in downtown Cape Girardeau.