 there's really no mistake in them we have you know 18 non-venomous snakes in pennsylvania some are very common garter snakes black snakes water snakes especially in this area most people will misidentify copperheads as one of those snakes now i've seen plenty of the eastern water snakes that were killed in mistake for copperheads let's just talk a little bit about the difference most folks have seen a water snake you know with a pattern on it fairly dark in color