oh my...both of my neighbors on either side of my house have snakes or
perhaps the critter enjoys both yards. one neighbor sees the snake
laying across her flowers and the other found a snake skin on her
porch...i am grossed out. i suppose i have one or that one visits my
garden as well!! i thought the hole that goes under my sidewalk, was
from a chipmunk i often see...now i am wondering...any suggestions as
what to do? i feel creepy...or should i say, "crawly???" YUCK
*~*Deidre*~* Baltimore, MD. Zone 7
Applaud that you have snakes! Rejoice! Probably a garter snake or maybe a
black snake....sign of a healthy ecosystem, will kill unwanted rodents,
etc., depending on what type. It is important to avoid poisonous ones, but
they, too, play a role and usually should be left alone to do their thing.
Ask your neighbor what the snake looks like and you can probably ID it...
Debbie
-----Original Message-----
From: Gardens & Gardening [mailto:GARDENS@LSV.UKY.EDU] On Behalf Of Deidre
Snow
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 12:24 PM
To: GARDENS@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Snakes in the garden!!
oh my...both of my neighbors on either side of my house have snakes or
perhaps the critter enjoys both yards. one neighbor sees the snake
laying across her flowers and the other found a snake skin on her
porch...i am grossed out. i suppose i have one or that one visits my
garden as well!! i thought the hole that goes under my sidewalk, was
from a chipmunk i often see...now i am wondering...any suggestions as
what to do? i feel creepy...or should i say, "crawly???" YUCK
*~*Deidre*~* Baltimore, MD. Zone 7
Hi Diedre,
Learn more about snakes. You will either feel better or understand why
you are worried. I have actually been wondering where my garter snakes
are and hoping that the chipmunk population hasn't pushed them out of
the homes that they've enjoyed in my rocks for years.
They are very good insect killers I hear.
I don't know if you have any to worry about in MD, i.e., poisonous,
maybe one of our members who lives closer knows. But we don't have any
poisonous ones here so I just enjoy the ones I see. And I think the
eeeek reaction that we have to them is also normal. Once you are sure
that they can't hurt you, enjoy it; like a scary movie.
Esther
Deidre Snow
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 12:24 PM
To: GARDENS@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Snakes in the garden!!
oh my...both of my neighbors on either side of my house have snakes or
perhaps the critter enjoys both yards. one neighbor sees the snake
laying across her flowers and the other found a snake skin on her
porch...i am grossed out. i suppose i have one or that one visits my
garden as well!! i thought the hole that goes under my sidewalk, was
from a chipmunk i often see...now i am wondering...any suggestions as
what to do? i feel creepy...or should i say, "crawly???" YUCK
*~*Deidre*~* Baltimore, MD. Zone 7
In a message dated 12/07/2003 17:49:05 GMT Daylight Time,
eczekalski@GAIAS-GIFT.COM writes:
> I don't know if you have any to worry about in MD, i.e., poisonous,
> maybe one of our members who lives closer knows. But we don't have any
> poisonous ones here so I just enjoy the ones I see. And I think the
> eeeek reaction that we have to them is also normal
The snakes here are adders and poisonous. Unfortunately they are to be found
on the cliff top. A few weeks ago the children next door found a baby one in
their garden. I gave lots of advice, lent suitable receptacles in which to
catch it etc., but all from the other side of the was. I have a total horror of
them.
Mary in England
Found my greenhouse snake down at the pond having lunch on one of my
poor toads, this pm when I went to check the fishes awhile ago. It is a
brown garter and it is nearly two feet long. Usually it suns on a mat
left from our dog, on the floor of the greenhouse and catches mice as
they dash under its nose, if snakes have noses. I have been trying to
come up with a name for it.
I like them as long as they don't pop up at me when weeding. In-laws are
frightened to death. Maybe a blessing, at times, Marg
eczekalski wrote:
I'd be thrilled! I'm actually looking for a black snake to encourage to
move into my basement to take care of any mice and our 'resident' red
squirrels - the snake won't be any more interested in spending time w/ us
that we will be with it. We do have poisonous snakes around here (the
neighbor killed a young copperhead out in the lane last year; wish he'd
just left it alone to go home, but most people would do what he did. I
guess the feeling of revulsion which you experienced is the norm, and
probably goes back to prehistory on the veldt or something. I don't
happened to have it, though I can certainly be startled by a snake. MY
atavistic fear response is to insects - totally illogical, but very
strong. I can feel the hair on my arms rising just writing this. Only a
few bugs don't stimulate it - ladybugs, dragonflies, I guess that's it.
When I was a kid and my Grandma would take me to the Bronx Zoo, I always
wanted to go the the snake house, but she was having none of that - she'd
insist on the monkey house, even though the monkeys were doing some very
impolite things, insisting that she didn't know where the snakes were. I'
of course, could home in on them from any part of the zoo. Oh, well.
Joan
--
Talent without genius isn't much, but genius without talent is nothing
whatever.
------------------------------------------------------
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Deidre, you're fortunate to have snakes. They won't bother you. Why
is it we never have what we think we want? With a few specie
exceptions, we'd like to have snakes. We have none.
So how does one attract 'good' snakes to the property? We have lots
of snake food... field mice and voles galore. The only predator for
the voles is hawks. Our doggies also think catching voles is great
fun. That isn't enough.
We let an acre of fescue grow tall, thinking tall grass might attract
snakes but all it did was to help the vole population. When we cut
that grass (because the city said we had to), the voles were like
dark popcorn, jumping as the lawn tractor scared them. It was the
strangest thing. So again, how does one attract snakes to the
property? Linda in NW Ohio.
growing up in Fl we also had snakes around. In one house there was a
huge black snake that lived in the crawl space under the house and would
creep out to the orange grove for hunting. When I was pregnant my ex
decided to raise red rat snakes in the garage. As soon as my daughter
could walk she would be out there helping with the snakes. We took her to
Bush Gardens when she was 12 months and out of the large crowd of
people surrounding the lady carrying the large boa, she was the only one
who wanted to hold it. Three years ago the ex accidently ran over an
indigo snake. It was injured on it's head. He brought it home and she
kept it in her room until it had healed, then let it go out in the yard. All 3
kids can tell the difference between poisonous ones and non. Non
poisonous ones have round eyes and venimous ones have slanted oval
eyes. I am always coming across snakes in the garden although we have
had young copperheads this year and those I don't want around. Mostly
because the kids hate to wear shoes.
Kacey
Fayetteville GA
> oh my...both of my neighbors on either side of my house have snakes
or
> perhaps the critter enjoys both yards. one neighbor sees the snake
> laying across her flowers and the other found a snake skin on her
> porch...i am grossed out. i suppose i have one or that one visits my
> garden as well!! i thought the hole that goes under my sidewalk, was
> from a chipmunk i often see...now i am wondering...any suggestions
as
Hey Esther....I don't like scarey movies.. or snakes. Marge Mac : )
I've seen snakes in wood piles and rock piles. They seem to like to sun
themselves in yards or gardens. Had one come in the garage door and get
in the basement once. Ended up killing it because it wouldn't cooperate
and let us remove it and it was getting madder and striking out at us and
we were afraid of getting bit. I felt bad about it though. It's not the
same as killing a wasp in the house, which doesn't bother me since I hate
the things.
Karen in Pittsburgh, PA (zone 5b/6)
On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 17:41:44 -0400 Linda Baranowski-Smith
I don't think I want to be close enough to look at their eyes to tell if
they're round or slanted oval.
Karen in Pittsburgh, PA (zone 5b/6)
Nature, on PBS is doing a series on reptiles and does one hour on
snakes. I only caught the end of it last night but I did catch the part
where they were repatriating snakes in the rice paddys of some country
because without them they'd lost a third of their crops.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/reptiles/snakes.html
Esther
Here in Australia there are more poisonous snake varieties than any
other part of the world.
It is said that as Oz is on the opposite side of the world to Ireland,
that all the snakes St Patrick chased out of there came to Australia. :-)
Having worked in the bush most of my life, I have only been bitten once
and that was in my mothers garden. With proper treatment I was only off
colour for about 3 weeks.
It is illegal in most states here to kill a snake.
In parts of The south west of Tasmania the only place for the snakes top
sun themselves is on the animal tracks, and these are also the only way
to easily navigate through that country. When I was working there it
was step 1 step 2 step over a snake.
As with most wild animals, they are just as scared of us as we are of
them. I have made it a habit of making noises when working in areas
that may harbor snakes. As a result, have often seen them slither away
Bob
Catch yah later
