This came slithering up to my wife in her flower area this past Saturday.

[wolfmanrogers]

They do that to fool other animals who might eat them. Any human who has any knowledge of snakes wouldn't be fooled by it. A pit viper has something pretty distinctive on their head to let you know they are dangerous. They are called pits. Non venomous snakes don't have them. To my knowledge there is only one venomous snake in North America that is not a pit viper and that is a coral snake.
Maybe I should have said one look at the head instead of "one look at the shape of the head".

Plenty of folks kill water snakes for this very reason.

 

[CTS Tactical]

Plenty of folks kill water snakes for this very reason.

Because people don't know that there is only one venomous water snake in the US and that is a cotton mouth. All others are just water snakes. Pretty much harmless.

 

[Just Plain Bill]

I was fortunate enough to see a hognose a few weeks back. Not being one to carry my phone everywhere I go I missed the photo op. Most of the time I hate the phone this time I hated not having it.