Snake Removal Laws in Maryland: What’s Legal, What’s Not, and Who to Call

Most Maryland homeowners who spot a snake near the porch reach for a shovel before they think to check the law. That instinct runs headfirst into snake removal laws in Maryland, which treat nearly every native snake as a protected animal rather than a pest you can handle however you see fit.

Whether you’re dealing with a garter snake in the mulch or a copperhead near the woodpile, the rules around capturing, moving, or killing that animal are stricter than most residents expect. This guide walks through what you can legally do yourself, when a permit or licensed professional becomes necessary, and what penalties apply if you get it wrong.

Is It Legal to Remove or Relocate a Snake Yourself in Maryland

It is illegal to kill snakes in Maryland, a fact that surprises even longtime residents. The protection comes from state regulation rather than a vague guideline; all snakes are protected from killing under Maryland Department of Natural Resources regulations, specifically COMAR 08.03.11.09.

That said, “removal” doesn’t always mean capturing and relocating an animal. If a snake is sunning itself in your driveway, you can try moving it along with a shovel or give it a light poke with a stick rather than picking it up. Handling or moving snakes yourself is only advisable if you have experience and can do so safely, since any wild snake can bite when it feels cornered.

Capturing a snake and physically relocating it to a different property is a separate legal question, and one that falls under Maryland’s broader wildlife removal framework. The table below breaks down the difference between actions you can take on your own and those that require authorization.

Action	Permit Needed?	Legal Status in Maryland
Encouraging a snake to leave with a hose, broom, or noise	No	Legal at any time
Gently moving a snake off a path with a shovel or stick	No	Legal, but proceed carefully
Trapping and relocating a snake to another site	Usually yes	Legal only through a permitted operator
Killing a snake, venomous or not	Not generally available	Illegal outside narrow, authorized circumstances

Neighboring jurisdictions handle this differently. Wildlife removal laws in Virginia follow a somewhat different permitting structure, which matters if you split time between the two states or manage property across the border.

Protected Snake Species in Maryland

Snakes are protected under the Nongame and Endangered Species Act because of their unique value to the ecosystem in Maryland. That protection isn’t limited to a handful of rare animals; Maryland is home to 27 snake species, ranging from tiny water snakes to venomous Eastern copperheads, and the law covers essentially all of them. You can browse the full rundown of native species in this guide to the types of snakes found in Maryland if you want to identify what’s actually in your yard before deciding on next steps.

Some of the more commonly encountered protected species include the Eastern Worm Snake, Eastern Hognose Snake, Northern Black Racer, Northern Water Snake, and Eastern Rat Snake, alongside the state’s two venomous species. Not every protected snake is rare — Rat snakes, Garter snakes, and Water snakes are the most commonly encountered snakes even in urban areas — but common doesn’t mean unprotected. At the other end of the spectrum, the timber rattlesnake has disappeared from many areas of Maryland and is now listed as Endangered in the state, which adds an extra layer of legal seriousness to any encounter with that particular species.

Key Insight: “Protected” in Maryland doesn’t mean “rare.” Garden-variety garter snakes carry the same legal protection from killing as the state’s endangered timber rattlesnake.

Permit Requirements for Snake Removal in Maryland

Maryland’s permitting system runs through the DNR’s Wildlife and Heritage Service, and it separates ordinary nuisance species from snakes in a meaningful way. A landowner permit is required to trap chipmunks, opossums, porcupines, rabbits, raccoons, skunks, tree squirrels, and woodchucks in Maryland, and this free permit can be obtained by calling the Maryland Nuisance Wildlife Hotline. Snakes don’t fit neatly into that landowner-permit category, since the underlying prohibition on killing them is separate from ordinary nuisance trapping rules.

Anyone operating commercially in this space needs a different credential. A commercial license from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources costs $50, and operators must follow conduct rules set out in state regulation — a wildlife damage control operator may not engage in false or misleading advertising about the work performed. For general context on how Maryland treats wildlife taking more broadly, the state’s hunting laws outline related licensing concepts, even though snakes fall outside standard game regulations.

Pro Tip: Before attempting any removal, call the Maryland Nuisance Wildlife Hotline at 1-877-463-6497. DNR Wildlife and Heritage Service and the USDA jointly staff this line and can tell you within a single call whether a permit applies to your situation.

When You Can Legally Kill a Snake in Maryland

The short version is: almost never, and the law doesn’t carve out a wide exception for fear or inconvenience. Some wildlife removal companies describe a narrow allowance for situations where a snake poses an immediate threat to human safety or property, but this isn’t spelled out explicitly on Maryland DNR’s own snake pages, which state flatly that killing is prohibited.

Important Note: Sources disagree on whether Maryland recognizes a self-defense-style exception for killing a snake that poses an immediate threat. Because state agencies don’t publish a clear list of exceptions, call the DNR hotline before taking lethal action against any snake, even one you believe is venomous.

This puts Maryland in rare company nationally. Maryland is one of only two states that doesn’t allow the killing of venomous snakes, the other being New York, which has a similar law that only applies to snakes native to that state. Compare that to states with more permissive rules, like those covered in this breakdown of wildlife removal laws in Wisconsin, and the contrast becomes clear — Maryland’s blanket protection is unusual, not standard practice.

This matters most for property owners dealing with snakes near livestock. If a snake turns up in or near a coop, the instinct to kill it is common, but the law still applies. Anyone managing backyard flocks should review backyard chicken laws in Maryland alongside the snake rules, since both sets of regulations can come into play at once when a snake is drawn toward feed or eggs.

Rules for Venomous Snake Removal in Maryland

Only two of Maryland’s native species carry medically significant venom. Only the copperhead and the timber rattlesnake have medically significant venom known to cause adverse reactions in humans, and both are pit vipers in the subfamily Crotalinae. The copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix, and the timber rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus, are the only two snakes homeowners in the state need to identify with real confidence before deciding how to respond.

Geography plays a role in where you’re likely to encounter either species. Mountain Maryland has two types of venomous serpents, the northern copperhead and the timber rattlesnake, and Allegany and Garrett counties have both. Statewide, though, encounters with venomous snakes are uncommon compared to harmless species.

Feature	Copperhead	Timber Rattlesnake
Typical habitat	Rocky, wooded areas statewide	Remote, rocky mountainous terrain
Conservation status in Maryland	Protected	Endangered
Most associated counties	Allegany, Garrett, and other rural areas	Primarily Allegany and Garrett
Share of annual snakebite calls	About half of Poison Control’s roughly 100 annual snake bite cases	Rare by comparison

Maryland Poison Control receives about 100 snake bite cases each year, roughly half of which come from venomous species, mostly copperhead bites. Despite that, both species are shy by nature. Copperhead venom is important for medical research, including breast cancer tumor treatments, and bites are rarely fatal, though poison control should still be contacted.

Possession rules are just as strict as removal rules. It is illegal to possess cobras and rattlesnakes in Maryland without the proper documentation, a rule that led to a multi-snake seizure from an Allegany County home and pet shop in a well-documented case. Anyone curious about the broader ownership question should read whether you can legally own a venomous snake in Maryland before assuming a captive-bred specimen changes the legal picture. States handle venomous species ownership very differently — wildlife removal laws in Arizona take a notably different approach to rattlesnake encounters than Maryland does.

Hiring a Licensed Wildlife Removal Operator in Maryland

Given how little room the law leaves for DIY killing or unpermitted relocation, hiring a licensed professional is often the simplest path to a legal resolution. It may become necessary to remove nuisance wildlife from your property, and the DNR Wildlife & Heritage Service maintains a searchable list of individuals or companies licensed to handle wildlife complaints by county.

Finding that list doesn’t require guesswork. The nuisance wildlife call center can provide a referral to a private licensed Wildlife Control Cooperator trained to respond to nuisance wildlife issues and evict wildlife from a home while preventing re-entry. This is especially worth doing for snakes inside a living space rather than a yard, since indoor encounters often point to a rodent problem drawing the snake in to begin with.

Licensing structures vary quite a bit by state, which is worth knowing if you own property or manage rentals outside Maryland too. Wildlife removal laws in North Carolina and wildlife removal laws in California both set up their own cooperator systems, and none of them mirror Maryland’s rules exactly. A quick call to a Maryland-licensed cooperator, rather than relying on advice built for another state, is the safer route.

Pro Tip: Ask any wildlife control company for their DNR license or cooperator permit number before letting them on your property. A legitimate operator will provide it without hesitation.

Penalties for Illegally Killing or Relocating a Snake in Maryland

The financial risk of ignoring these rules is real and documented. Snakes are protected animals under the Nongame and Endangered Species Act, with a fine of up to $1,000 for killing them. That fine applies whether the snake was venomous or completely harmless, since the law doesn’t distinguish species when it comes to enforcement.

Important Note: Some wildlife removal industry sources add potential jail time of up to six months on top of the fine for killing a snake without authorization. Maryland news coverage confirms the monetary fine but doesn’t always specify jail exposure, so treat any criminal penalty beyond the fine as a possibility worth avoiding rather than a confirmed certainty.

Unpermitted relocation carries its own risks too, separate from any fine. Moving a captured snake to unfamiliar territory can hurt the animal and disrupt the ecosystem it’s released into, which is part of why the state prefers coordinated removal through a licensed cooperator rather than a well-meaning neighbor with a bucket.

Accidental deaths, such as a snake struck by a vehicle, sit in a different legal category than intentional killing. If you’re unsure how Maryland treats wildlife killed unintentionally on roadways, the state’s roadkill laws cover that distinction in more detail. When in doubt about any snake encounter, the Nuisance Wildlife Hotline remains the fastest way to confirm what’s legal before you act, rather than after.