New!: Rat Snake Mating Season

If you’ve ever walked outside in April or May to find a tangled “Gordian knot” of serpent bodies in your driveway, don’t call the fire department. You’ve just stumbled upon the most dramatic dating show in the animal kingdom. Forget romantic candlelit dinners. When a female rat snake is ready to mate, she doesn’t swipe right. She lays down a trail of pheromones so potent it acts like a dinner bell for every male within a quarter mile.

The result is not a "couple." It is a .

It is not uncommon to witness a mating ball dangling precariously from a tree branch, a wisteria vine, or—most terrifyingly for arachnophobes—a wooden power pole. They seem to defy physics, holding onto a knot of writhing bodies with just their tail tips while dangling over your backyard patio. If you find a breeding ball in your yard, do not panic. Do not spray. Do not get the shovel. rat snake mating season

But once a year, these common neighbors turn into something out of a nature documentary. Welcome to . If you’ve ever walked outside in April or

If you live in the Eastern or Central United States, you’ve probably met a rat snake. Maybe it was stretched across a hiking trail, looking like a fallen tree branch. Maybe it was scaling the brick wall of your garage, defying gravity. Or, if you’re really lucky, you found one curled up in your chicken coop looking for a free omelet. When a female rat snake is ready to