Side stripe bordered below by a narrow, irregular black stripe along the outer edges of belly scales. Sometimes a midback light stripe is present. Belly plain yellow or off-white, the hind third with a faint dark line or row of dots down the center. Hibernates in crayfish burrows and burrows it excavates. Mates in late April or May and gives birth to 10-20 young in late July, August, or September.
Frequent prey are recently molted crayfish, but fish and frogs also are eaten.
Predators include other snakes, large shore birds, and mammals. Absent from the Wabash and Ohio river counties.