Quote Originally Posted by chip P.
im pretty close to positive that it iss an eastern. i worked at a nature center for 4 years. and i mostly worked with the snakes. we had 3 . but i could still be wrong..
and snakes are venomous..not poisonous
You're probably right, the markings on the top don't appear to be linked to the markings on the belly...first indication to me it probably wasn't an Eastern Kingsnake. The stripes are also not very well defined, even for a juvenile...BUT I just learned the further south the species the larger the markings are and found a few pics where the top and bottom don't meet.

There was a 4 foot long near solid black kingsnake on my parents farm for over 10 years (life span of 25). One day i'd see it climbing a tree then then a month or two later it would be coiled up under a bail of hay with a couple chicken eggs in it. Let's not talk about how many copperheads I've killed lol!

Touche on the poisonous...I was responding to how the title was worded. Venom is harmless unless injected directly into the tissue or blood, poison is absorbed through the skin or digestive track. That's why you can drink venom and not die...as long as you don't have mouth sores or stomach ulcers lol!