How to Use rat snake in a Sentence

rat snake

noun
  • Explore her life at the center and learn how rat snakes survive in the wild.
    — Joe Rassel, Orlando Sentinel, 25 July 2024
  • The Texas rat snake can be up to five feet long but is completely harmless.
    — Dallas News, 3 Aug. 2022
  • Just a rat snake…nothing dangerous.
    — Stephanie Giang-Paunon, FOXNews.com, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Just a rat snake… nothing dangerous.
    — Christina Dugan Ramirez , Larry Fink, FOXNews.com, 25 Apr. 2026
  • The rat snakes are common in Texas and usually prey on chicken eggs.
    — Brenton Blanchet, Peoplemag, 14 Apr. 2023
  • The Western rat snake is pretty common in this area, Janusz said.
    — Melinda Morris, NOLA.com, 6 June 2018
  • The same is true for snakes like the Texas rat snake or the western coachwhip, neither of which can sense infrared.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 14 Mar. 2010
  • While certainly startling to any homeowner, the snake was a non-venomous gray rat snake.
    — Leada Gore | [email protected], al, 19 Sep. 2022
  • However, certain species — such as rat snakes and rough green snakes — are better at climbing than others.
    — Sarah Linn, Sacramento Bee, 12 July 2024
  • Yet other ticks are finicky eaters, such as the rat snake tick, which feeds only on the blood of that particular serpent.
    — Susan Scutti, CNN, 15 Sep. 2017
  • Various rat snakes are also known for eating a bunch of bird eggs, as are bull snakes, kingsnakes, and eastern racers.
    — Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 21 Feb. 2023
  • However, certain species — such as rat snakes and rough green snakes — are better at climbing than others.
    — Sarah Linn may 1, Sacbee.com, 1 May 2026
  • The wardens assisted in untangling a six foot rat snake, which had wrapped itself around the engine parts.
    — Community Report, Houston Chronicle, 25 May 2018
  • The birds can fly in and out, but their principal predator, the rat snake, is prevented from entering by this sticky mess.
    — Pamela Weintraub, Discover Magazine, 28 Apr. 2011
  • The Texas rat snake is a non-venomous reptile that's commonly found in North Texas.
    — Jennifer Earl, Fox News, 25 May 2018
  • Watch how to tell the difference between a deadly cottonmouth snake and a nonvenomous rat snake in this video.
    — Joe Marusak, charlotteobserver, 15 June 2018
  • The homeowners believe that their temporary residential guest was a rat snake.
    — Peter Dawson, Houston Chronicle, 25 July 2019
  • Luckily for a 5½-foot Eastern rat snake, a Virginia woman noticed something was amiss.
    — Washington Post, 1 May 2021
  • Only last year, one Texas woman found a rattlesnake lurking in her toilet, and another also found a rat snake poking out from the U-bend.
    — Benedict Cosgrove, Newsweek, 20 Dec. 2024
  • The footage clearly showed that the rat snakes were just as quick as their venomous counterparts, with similar strike speeds, accelerations, and strike durations.
    — National Geographic, 18 Apr. 2016
  • According to Alabama Wildlife, the gray rat snake, also known as a chicken snake or oat snake, is commonly found throughout southern states.
    — Sarah Rumpf, Fox News, 24 Sep. 2022
  • In the winter, the animals will den underground, commonly returning to the same spot year after year, and often commune there with other snake species, such as rat snakes and rattlesnakes.
    — National Geographic, 22 July 2019
  • According to the Weixin post, snakes native to North America like the Texas rat snake and the milk snake were discovered in the smuggler's trousers.
    — Jasmine Baehr, Fox News, 12 July 2024
  • Snakes, such as garter snakes and thread snakes, eat snails, ant larvae, and other invertebrates, while gopher snakes, rat snakes, and other larger snakes are excellent mousers and will even take packrats, Amarello says.
    — Michelle Mastro, Martha Stewart, 6 May 2026
  • Pancho and Lefty are a little smaller than a typical 8-year-old rat snake, at around 2 to 3 feet long, but the snake is in overall good health and eats well, Michels-Boyce said.
    — Sarah Bahari, Dallas News, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Officials here are now required to prove that certain animals to be sold abroad, including Oriental rat snakes and Timor monitors, are genuinely captive-bred.
    — Rachel Nuwer, New York Times, 9 Apr. 2018
  • The good-guy snakes include but aren’t limited to the eastern hognose snake, Texas brown snake, Texas rat snake, rough green snake, garter snake, milk snake, bullsnake, kingsnake, indigo snake, black racer, water snake, blind snake and coachwhip.
    — Howard Garrett, Dallas News, 8 June 2020
  • Walking past cicada exoskeletons hanging from tree branches, a leaping fawn and a rat snake, Dana picked a cicada off a branch, inspected its underside, looked into its zombie eyes and flicked it forward to send it flying off again.
    — Morgan Greene, chicagotribune.com, 17 June 2021
  • Per social media commentators, the snake in the video appears to potentially be a non-venomous black eastern rat snake, which can grow up to 7 feet in length, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
    — Nicholas Rice, PEOPLE.com, 10 Aug. 2020
  • Snake found in drywall, secured in a bucket The non-venomous rat snake was reportedly found in drywall during a home remodel in the 7000 block of Lullwater Cove, McManus said.
    — Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, 23 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rat snake.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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