Black rat snake. Probably just recently hatched.
Hopefully it didn't get killed. Harmless. Beneficial.
It appears to be a Northern Water Snake, but I'm not the best on my Indiana natives. I do know it's not a Copperhead, and Cottonmouths are pretty rare around here, and those are our only two truly venomous species.
We do have the Missaugua Rattler in the NE portion of the state. An endangered highly venemous viper that only gets as big as your snake on the porch. However, that isn't one...
We also have 2 species of rattlesnake native to Indiana. The Eastern Diamondback and the Timber.
Oops....
Got the E. Diamondback confused with the E. Massasauga.
They (can) reach sizes considerably bigger (about 3.5ft) than the snake pictured, and would be much fuller-bodied than the skinny little black rat hatchling.
Very true, but they are both so very uncommon that the likelihood of ever encountering one, especially on a porch, is pretty low.
The young snakes are always harder to ID I say Eastern Milk Snake based on the "Y" patten near its head. Could be black rat/black racer/king snake.
There have been a couple of Massasauga bite incidents at Pokagon State Park and at least one at Mongo in the Pigeon River Preserve in recent years.Oops....
Got the E. Diamondback confused with the E. Massasauga.
They (can) reach sizes considerably bigger (about 3.5ft) than the snake pictured, and would be much fuller-bodied than the skinny little black rat hatchling.