Hi Bev- they are not venemous and are a constrictor type- squeezing their prey until it suffocates. The UPS delivery man was telling me that he sometimes sees the on the roads that he drives and will stop and pull them off the roads so as to prevent them from being run over. A lot of people will mistakenly kill them as they do somewhat resemble the venemous rattlesnake both in looks and behavior. Mary