Hi Lionheart...I would really consider getting a mongoose to handle the snake problem...cos then you might attract some cobra's...then you would have a problem...:-) Get yourself some hardware cloth with quarter inch holes...make yourself a framework box big enough to handle your nearly finished compost...line the box with the wire...install the compost...have box set on the ground...worms can move in and out of the box through the bottom...snakes can't get in...problem solved...:-) Franklin

Hi Franklin.

Hardware cloth? Why, that's just too elegant and straightforward. :-)

I think it might be easier to get the mongoose. Btw, you made me snort coffee through my nose when I read your post, lol.

Yeah, I didn't plan this too well. I'm an accidental composter; starting it all several years ago by just piling up the grass clippings against the hedgerow of lilacs, wild grapevines, privet hedges, and trees. It just grew from there.

Nope, didn't plant that well at all. The compost "pile" is now 20 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 3.5 feet tall. It's gonna be difficult to get hardware cloth around it all, especially up against the hedges of wild vegetation.

Hmmm, I know what I'll be doing next weekend. And, the weekend after that and, probably, the weekend after that.

Started a new compost pile in a less challenging location. Hardware cloth it is! Duh, I didn't think of that, and I actually have hardware cloth for another project! I'm not building rockets in my spare time. :-)

Thank you!

-- Deb

Hi Deb...I would like to figure a way to get rid of my vole problem...left a short row of parsnips in a raised bed to overwinter...and ya know when I went to dig them this spring all I had was caps from their tops...with a little sprig of green of each where they had started to grow...;-) Those d--- voles had removed the bottoms as nice as you please...:-) Gonna have to dig out and line one of my raised beds with hardware clothe I guess...Franklin

Whereever did you hear the earthworms are the Garter Snakes most favorite food? They eat a wide variety of insects, arthopods, etc., including some worms but because of the worms normal habitat, underground, these snakes will eat many other thingys rather than the earthworms. Slugs are one of the first things to disappear from my garden when the Garter snake appears.
Are you sure the worms did not move out because the compost they were in has become too dry for them to stay in?

I'm with kimmsr on this one and it also sounds like turning your pile every once in a while might keep the heat up enough to keep the critters at bay.

has anyone else had garter snakes in their compost? is that something common? i've been composting for years and have never seen a snake in the pile, or in my garden. for me that's a very good thing. no matter what i know about how good they are, i'm phobic about them. spiders and anything else can crawl on me and they won't bother me. but, for whatever irrational reason, i can't stand seeing even a photograph of snakes.

i mention this because i'm also in z5 NY!!!

I'm in zone 7 on Long Island, and have found a few garden snakes in my piles. I"m not too fond of them, but better snakes than mice, yuck.
Alberta

Alberta: I agree! I'd gladly trade you my rodents for some of your snakes. I discovered the hard way this year that rodents (field mice, voles, chipmunks, squirrels) love lasagna beds. Or maybe they just like any organic matter.

Everyone around here, even people from different parts of the city, seem to be having similar problems this year. I'm wondering if it's due to the extreme heat and drought we're having.

Karen

Dear heavens, you don't have to tell me about mice, voles, chipmunks, and squirrels. I've got a bumper crop of them too.

As usual, kimmsr is right (a sweeping bow to kimmsr). The pile is quite dry.

Although garter snakes do eat earthworms, they also like other things, and I suspect they are hunting baby voles and baby chipmunks. Slugs don't seem to be present in the compost, but the snakes will go to my gardens to hunt slugs and toads.

I have a crazy neighbor lady who feeds the squirrels and chipmunks. Bless her heart (She goes out every night with a bucket of unshelled peanuts and puts them in the feeders for the rodents. Gee, I don't know why the rest of the neigborhood is having a chipmunk infestation. I find chipmunk holes all over the place, along with empty peanut shells.

I had a general chat with her, just to see what she's thinking, and she informed me that she hates the hawks that hang around because the hawks are after her squirrels and chipmunks. She is not of this planet. I'm rooting for the hawks. :-)

Sure enough, when leaving for work one morning last week, a beautiful red tail hawk was tearing apart a squirrel on my front lawn.

Anyway, it looks like there is a 'munk nest (probably voles too) hanging out in the compost area. A garter snake buffet!

Ah, voles. Don't you hate them? Honestly, aside from snakes and a cat, there's not much that works. Neither the snakes nor that cat are all that good at eliminating large numbers of rodents in a short period of time.

I tried the granules -- you know, the sharp ones that are supposed to be uncomfortable for voles. It obviously didn't work, but then I learned that voles, especially the females, have very complex underground runs with many exits. They also seem to make new ones quickly. All I did was give them an obstacle that caused them to use alternatives.

Did the predator urine thing too. Coyote urine. Despite the fact that we have 2 dogs that pee in the yard and it doesn't seem to deter the voles, we thought it clever to purchase expensive, smelly coyote urine.

But again, given their ability to use alternate runs and their propensity for making new tunnels, it had little effect on the voles.

Of course, neither voles nor chipmunks are as simplistic as we are, lol, and I found a study that essentially said that predator "byproducts" may keep the vermin at bay for a day or two. Eventually the drive to forage for food and/or find mates outweighs the risk of *possibly* encountering a predator. Success breeds success, and when the critters venture out to eat or mate and find no imminent threat, they start to ignore the urine.

Sigh. I use mouse traps baited with grains, apples, or peanut butter and put them at the entrances to the vole runs. If you're worried about something coming into contact with the trap, cover it with a pail turned upside down over both the hole and the trap. When and if the vole is attracted by the food and exits the hole -- snap! It's ugly, but it's the only "sure kill" of any given vole. Keep doing it until you go several days without catching anything. Then try moving the traps someplace else where there are entrances to vole runs.

My only concern is accidentally killing moles. Those star-nosed moles are especially cute. It's usually easy to tell the difference between a vole hole and a mole hole, as the mole hole will usually show loosened, slightly piled, soil around the outside of the hole. It looks obvious that something pushed up some dirt.

Vole holes are usually "clean" with no sign of loosened soil at the entrance of the hole.

I let the cat handle the chipmunks. It's not terribly efficient, but I don't want to deal with chipmunk carcasses. I used a havahart trap once to catch the chipmunk that was burrowing under the house's foundation. Ok, now that you've caught it what do you do with it? Drive it down the road a few miles and let it out at someone else's house? How to win friends. :-)