NATCHEZ — David Carter only needed one glance to know the snake recently discovered in Natchez wasn’t a local — and Carter said he hopes to keep it that way.

As the director of the Adams County Extension Service, Carter receives many pictures of plants and animals for identification. Most specimens are easy to identify.

When Andy Guida e-mailed a picture of a 2-foot long snake he just killed in the Duncan Park area, Carter didn’t know exactly what type of snake the reptile was.

“I knew it was definitely not from here,” Carter said.

The snake didn’t have any of the familiar markings of the venomous or non-venous snakes that typically live in the area.

Carter consulted with the extension service’s Raymond office where specialists identified the snake as a ball python — the most popular type of snake sold in pet stores across the country.

“It is the most famous snake pet there is,” Carter said.

Guida found the snake in his driveway when he was taking out the trash Thursday.

“I came back inside the fence and looked down and saw what I thought was a ratty tie laying next to my recycling bin,” Guida said.

A second look made Guida jump.

“I thought, ‘Oh no man. That is a snake,” Guida said.

Guida said he couldn’t determine what type of snake it was and whether it was venomous. With a 3-year-old in the house, Guida took no chances and killed the snake.

Carter suspects a neighbor released it into the wild after growing tired of feeding it and taking care of it.

“These types of snakes live 30 years on average,” Carter said. “(People) get a snake without thinking where they will be 30 years from now.”

Although the snake is not venomous and is relatively harmless to humans, releasing a pet snake into the wild is a bad idea for both the snake and the environment, Carter said.

“Chances are it won’t survive in our climate, because it gets too cold in the winter,” Carter said. “Even still we don’t need to introduce a non-native species into the environment.”

Carter points to the snake problem in south Florida as an example of what can happen when people release snakes into the wild. Burmese pythons, which are from Asia, have multiplied to levels that are beginning to prey on native animals and negatively affect the environment.

“The Burmese pythons are taking over the Everglades,” Carter said.

Unlike the Burmese pythons, which can grow to be 19 feet in length, adult ball pythons range between 2- and 5-feet in length.

In Mississippi other non-native animals and plants are causing big problems, Carter said.

“We have kudzu, wild hogs. If you think about it most of the plants and animals we have problems with are not native,” Carter said.

Carter said he doesn’t think a ball python would cause problems but would never want to introduce anything that could be a risk to the environment.

“Whenever there is an invasive species that we find, we do everything we can to get it out,” Carter said. “Thank goodness we are only dealing with a less dangerous kind of snake. It could be worse.”