Five weeks later, the female will lay 12 to 20 eggs. Mating may last only a few minutes or it may span the time of a few hours. The male will then erect his hemipene and insert it into the female's cloaca while several small spines anchor the hemipene firmly. Some males will grasp the female, with his mouth, to hold her in place and prevent her from trying to move away. The male snake will approach the female, line up with her and attempt to wrap his tail around hers with their vents nearly touching. Males tend to wait for the females to pass through their territory, and by using pheromones, will communicate and initiate the mating process with the female. After a few weeks, the Eastern Ratsnakes will begin to seek out a mate, typically in late April, May, and early June. Between March and May, snakes will begin to emerge from the winter's hibernation. Most of Vermont's snakes give live birth, but ratsnakes lay eggs. All of the Eastern Ratsnakes found in the Northeast are Black Ratsnakes ( Pantherophis alleghaniensis), and all of the descriptions in this fact sheet refer to this northern subspecies.

The Black Ratsnake is the most widespread of the subspecies and is found from central Georgia north to Vermont and southern Ontario, and west to Illinois and Louisiana. The Eastern Ratsnake is a wide-ranging eastern snake that is represented by five currently recognized subspecies: the Black Ratsnake, Gray Ratsnake, Yellow Ratsnake, Texas Ratsnake, and Everglades Ratsnake. The Eastern Ratsnake is typically found in and around old buildings, old fields, and edges near rocky areas and ledges. Adults may be 5-6 feet long (the longest documented in Vermont is 75 inches). They are the only 'weakly keeled' snakes. It is a black and white checkerboard on the front half, and then turns to a solid dark tone towards the tail. The adult Eastern Ratsnake ( Pantherophis alleghaniensis) is black, but usually shows remnants of its juvenile pattern.

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