Wild Facts About The DeKay’s Brown Snake

What and How DeKay’s Brown Snakes Eat

• DeKay’s Brown Snakes feed mostly on earthworms, slugs, and snails.
  • Although earthworms are beneficial in home gardens, slugs and snails are notorious garden pests. So consider these small and totally harmless snakes helpful.
  • They will also eat insects, spiders, and small salamanders.
• Earthworms and slugs get swallowed whole. DeKay’s Brown Snakes simply grab prey with their mouths and swallow it alive.
  • However, when feeding on snails, the snakes first yank the snails’ bodies from their protective shells (Gibbons and Dorcas 2005).
• These snakes are mostly nocturnal, as their prey is most active during the night.
  • But individuals will sometimes bask in the sun to warm themselves or break cover if disturbed (like when humans do yard work, for example).
  • As with all snakes, DeKay’s Brown Snakes rely on, and are impacted by, the ambient temperature of their environment to function. They don’t function as well if temperatures fall above or below an “operating body temperature” (OBT) range.
    • A study that researched the operating body temperature of 15 different snake species found in Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Fairfax County, Virginia, tested the body temperatures of 12 individual Brown Snakes. The mean body temperature of the tested snakes was 23.8 degrees Celsius (75 degrees F) (Ernst et al. 2014, https://doi.org/10.1656/045.021.0205).