Snakes give me the creeps, too. But look at the bright side- you won't have rodents.

Karen

LOL Karen just frogs. For some reason I have different frogs visiting my brug plant in front. I go out and almost daily have a frog on top of it. So far two different types from what I can tell. I took pictuers of them. I just got a kitten about three weeks ago. Yesterday he had something in his mouth when he came in. It was a poor frog. I couldnt get it from him. Do frogs like brugs? Barb

I had a snake up in the poles for my pole beans two years ago. I found him when I reached up to pick some beans and the "pole" moved! It really startled me although I did not mind having a snake in the garden. I haven't had a problem with moles in my garden since.

This year I've had hoppy toads in my garden. I'm very happy to see them and they are a lot less startling!

I keep hoping to see a snake or two,no luck because I think my psycho neighbor kills them or relocates them. Their yard is in no way providing anything for the environment,just grass and a swimming pool,that is it,( oh, and a bucket of dog pooh! YUCK!)! I have had tons of toads this year which has really put a big fat smile on my face,I love them,they are so darn cute! Especially when they are teeny tiny babies,I am always watching out for them ,I'd hate to step on one! Barb,make sure it isn't a poisonous snake,if it is safe you have nothing to worry about and they can be a real asset to your gardens. When you see one,just turn your head and pretend it isnt there...lol....

My dad always had tons of garter snakes in the back. I was sitting on a cinder block once and one slithered out of the whole and scared me into the next neighborhood.

You NEVER saw in slug in that yard tho, they eat them. Wish I had more snakes here.

:)

You guys crack me up! Big smile here. Oh my god on the pole. I would never return. LOL I cant imagine sitting and one slithering out to greet me. AGHHH

Angie how about them frogs. No frog problem here. Some of the enviroment people say they are decreasing. I dont see it. They are everywhere and all sorts of different types. I think not sure some can be poisonous. Ohh that creeps me out too. LOL I love you guys your the best....Smiles Barb

Here are my two cuties. they love sitting on this brug. I like the green one I think it is a tree frog. I am not sure. We need alana poisondartfrog here. The other one is kinda creepy he is gray with black. I dont know what he is any guesses. I would love to know hwta they are. Barb

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Oh Barb They are so cute! They are tree frogs I am pretty sure,and dont worry about the poison unless you intend on licking them...lol...actually if you touch them just make sure no milky stuff comes out of their pores and you should be alright! You should hear them peeping at night,during the day they mainly keep still,they must like something that frequents your Brugs,lucky you,you have an adorable means of pest control! :)

I drove by my neighbo4s the other day and there lay a black snake in the road in front of his house without a head. I thought what a waste! Yes, they startle you when you first come upon them but they do so much good around the house and garden. As long as it isn't poisonous I'll let them stay. But if they are poisonous they are goners endangered or not!

Rosepedal,

Yikes! I would have been doing the heebie jeebie dance for sure. It is funny how the little creatures can turn us into 6 year olds. The good news is that any snake you find in YOUR garden is not likely to be poisonous. According to Wisconsin's DNR, there are only 2 poisonous snakes. One is endangered, and the other lives in Southern and Western Wisconsin. Still, I would have no intention of playing with one, just in case ;)

Two days ago, my kitty found a little garter snake and I came over to watch his antics. Kitty grabbed the snake with his paw, freaked out, and threw the snake at me. Needless to say, I screamed and jumped around like an idiot. Then I realized the mail lady had seen. I think she was the only one not scared.

Gardening has definately gotten some of the girly girl out of me. I'm a lot less scared of snakes, spiders, bats and bugs. Now my new fears are ants, wasps, and wrinkles.

Take care in your jungle.

Squirrel Girl

Here is a link that might be useful: Wisconsin Snakes

Barb,

The thing about snakes is that you don't expect them when you see them and so they 'surprise' you. I had one scare me in the gardens this summer, but after calming myself, I told him he could stay. There's moles in that area that resulted in the loss of three mature Lupines. These Lupines were wild, planted by Mama Nature in 2001 and I'll surely miss them. They were the staples and anchors of the June gardens growing to 5 feet with over 30 blooms on one plant this year. :O( Makes me wish I could buy a boat load of snakes...

LOL Squirrel girl isnt it embarrassing. I bet my neighbors thought I was dying I was screaming. Thank you fro the information. I have to build up my nerve to go to the website. I grew up in california with snakes. Rattlers. When we went horseback riding we used to say. The first horse wakes them up the second horse pisses them off and the third horse gets bit. Guess whos horse was almost always number three. Yup me. And I had a pony. So I was really low to the ground. LOL

Tiffy you are so right. It is that element of surprise that just gets ya everytime. I hear ya on the lupines. We have wild purple ones growing in a field right down the road. When you drive by you see this field of purple. It really is quite a sceen. I had fiance get me some. I think only one survived and it did not bloom this year. I heard they can be fussy about transplanting especially if they dont get what they like. Thanks everybody. I am still afraid of them and that frog creeps me out too. The gray one. He sat on that brug all day and didnt move. I went out at 6:30 pm and he was still there. They are lazy critters..LOL

rosepetal - baby! You are reading a post from a former New Yorker living in NC! I never posted this, but now is a good time to do so... Three weeks ago, I was walking through my overgrown path towards the end of my side garden. On one of the slates was a huge copperhead sunning himself (hope it was a "him") - I freaked out - ran up the path towards my garden house (muttering "omg, snake, get shovel, snake - get shovel)... The stupid snake was still there (even after seeing me - goes to show you they are not afraid)... and what happened? I MISSED the darn thing with the shovel!!!! Now, I realize he/she must be living where I saw him because behind the huge hedge of lorapetalums are eight x ten feet wide helianthus angustifolius - with a rock wall separating the loras from helianthus -

So, now this winter, I have to remove that rock wall and hope that deters snakes from hiding in that thick foliage during the summer.

I now wear high boots in 90 degree weather - NOT a pretty picture and hot as "heck"...

good luck

Carrie

PS - Someone on the Gardening in Carolinas posted a thread "Copperhead bite" - Her dog was bitten and he DIED! Terrible story.

You probably don't have copperheads, but we do - hate them!

(Black snakes are good - too bad I didn't know that when we first moved in... ;0(

Carrie

Carrie yuck. I would have gotten the 22 and shot him between the eyeballs. Took out a few rabbits this year eating the garden up. Lived in alabama for a year. I was a navy brat lived everywhere. We had a swimming hole called the blue hole it had no bottom. It was made from the caves down there. They had water mocassins. Oh my stomach is actually hurting talking about these icky animals. I heard about the copperheads. They are nothing to mess with. No more shovels girl you are getting way to close. DO you know how fast they can jump at you. You are a brave girl...

I love it just came in from checking the brug again. It has three frogs today. Yippee Yahoo. Angie I tried laying in bed last night to hear the peeps. All I could hear was the grasshoppers. I love that sound. I am gonna try again tonight. I wanna hear a peep peep. LOL That reminds me. Anybody ever have a whipperwirl bird in there yard. This damn bird this spring sat up camp on our garage by our bedroom window and all night all you heard was whipperwill whipperwill. It was funny the fiance was losing his mind. Cracking me up thinking about it. Here are the babies from today. I am really enjoying these frogs can you tell. Carrie stay away from snakes........at least get a gun.....

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someone suggested I get a hoe next time I see one -

Gosh, never knew they could JUMP!! Geez!

Carrie

I've seen my share of snakes this year.. it's been crazy around here. I go 8 years and only see 1 or 2 and then this year I've found one in the pool, one in the mulch that I had forked into my wheelbarrow, another one I stepped right on and another black one out by the compost that I sprayed with the hose.

I'm scared to death of snakes. Stepping on one caused my brain to melt and the one in the wheelbarrow freaked me out and I fell running from it. I bought black knee high rubber boots that I call my "snake boots" and I wear them all the time now when I go out in the yard. I also decorate all the beds with mothballs now and bought "solar molers" in the hopes that driving away the chipmunks would cause the snakes to leave too. I dunno...

None that I've seen have been venomous, thank you Jesus. I'm most scared of coming across copperheads in my area.

I'm jealous of all of you. I live in a pretty meticulous suburb with perfect lawns and well behaved flower beds. No where for any critters to hide. Somehow the rabbits seem to do fine, and the squirrels, and I've seen a skunk and smelled a few more, but I'd love to have some reptiles and amphibians. Any snake that might come my way would be unlikely to be poisonous. I'd be happy to have one feast on some baby rabbits, as long as I don't have to watch! We used to have a hawk that visited my bird feeders. How cool! Haven't seen one in a few years. I'll try to enjoy what I have and keep working toward making my yard inviting to all wildlife.

Martha

I'm lucky when it comes to snakes in my neck of the woods. We only have rattlesnakes that are poisonous. You'll hear the rattle before they strike. Even then, I'm bigger than they are. They would most likely take a defensive position. They are less likely to give a venomous bite if they are in defensive mode.

Even so, I'm glad I haven't seen my "poles move" this year!

Hi Docmom,

The wildlife federation say place water food and habitat to raise their young and they will come. Let me tell you it is a zoo here. LOL We put in 5 water features and make homemade suet for three years now. Feed sunflowers and corn. Plus have planted lots and lots of flowers and shrubs. Now the problem. I went out today and the deer ate my red dogwood and my Morning glories. LOL I dont mind as long as they stay away from my daylilys I bought. I pray they do. We have racoons now. Argh they are cute when they are little though....Oh and the baby bunnies I cant bear to shoot them. I wait till they are big than comes the 22. Especially they do so much damage.
Gnomey Paul james the gardener guy was talking about that this morning boots for snakes. i cant imagine stepping on one. I would have nightmares for a long time. LOL
Booberry they have rattlesnakes in NY? Grew up with them. that is nice how you can hear them rattle. You can get to high ground. Seen many of them in my lifetime. Oh and tarantulas. My cousin use to gather them as a kid in california. Oh yuck!!!

carrie, its not jump, ohhh no, ya ever see those springs that are so fast you miss it?? well a copperhead is more like that!! if ya see one again, get!! don't even mess with them, **shuddering**
water moccasins **shuddering again** ya i live in ks, so i know about them things. and as a kid, i swam in creeks, so ya, those things are downright creepy sick!!
we see them gardener snakes all the time. they don't bother me so much. now my neighbor she's korean, she's so funny, if she even see's a snake she totally freaks and won't come back over!! she has lester do the gardening most of the time because of the snake she might encounter. LOL and if he might not do it, he'll have imprints of her shoes on his buns!! LOL they are just cute!! LOL although one thing does totally creep me out, spiders, cuz you can't see them. EWWWWW!!!! ~Medo

I was wrong! We have two other types of snakes that are venomous in NY. I've only seen the rattle snake out in the wild. That was when I was a kid too. It was in the dirt on the side of the road. We heard it. Looked down and there it was. We backed a few feet crossed the road & ran.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snakes of NY

I just found out patchouli is used for venemous snake bites. Lol I defiantely need this plant. We dont have venemous snakes thank god. We do have one my neighbor master gardener said when you come across it it blows up. Not what you think though. They are not poisonous. I still cant get the nerve to go and look up WI snakes. Michelle the things we do as kids. I wouldnt swim in a pond if you paid me. LOL Barb

... a possum fell in our pool last night and died...he's one of the critters digging up our lawn... too bad..
NOT!

Carrie

Rosepetal,
When you get up the nerve to visit the Wisconsin Snake site, they are divided into nonpoisonous and poisonous snakes. The first 7 in the right hand column are in my opinion the least scary. Several are striped garter snakes, and a couple are small snakes. There is also a really pretty green one in the left column.

Staring at web photos and learning about the markings of spiders has helped me get better about my reaction to them in the garden. I still get the heebie jeebies, but don't do the spider freak out dance quite as often.

Good luck with the critters in your garden. I hope you can get back to that side of your yard again this fall.

I have voles and will gladly pay if anyone wants to send me their snakes! No water mocs though, I grew up in Kansas too! I have only had one siting of a snake, it was the same year my sister came up to visit. We came around the corner and it came out of the plants and crossed right in front of us! I thought she as going to tear down my arbor trying to get away!! I know you can buy ladybugs and praying mantis eggs, but can you buy snakes?
Carrie-that poor possum-NOT!!
Maybe I should get a pool for the voles?!?
Brandy

LOL Carrie that is funny. Did you get him out or the hubby? Brandy I will send you some. Not just kidding. Squirrel girl I cant do it. My stomach says no. I cant even look at them. I watched the planet series on discovery last night. They had lizards on the desert program they were not bad to look at. Anyways wanted to share my suet recipe cheaper to make than buy it. My property is called woodpecker acres for a reason. the woodpeckers love this suet....Save your plastic containers you buy your suet in. Just wash them up. You will need approximately 6-8 containers.

1 Lb lard
1 small jar peanut butter get it at aldis cheaper
2 cups oatmeal
2 cups flour
2 cups corn meal

Melt lard and peanut butter in microwave. Add rest of the ingrediants and mix away. Place mixture into suet containers and keep frozen. I place chunks of suet pieces outside. I have something coming in at night eating the suet. If I put the whole block out it would be gone the nest morning. So I break it into chumks last longer that way. You can add anything else you like nuts berrys so forth. This is not an exact recipe. I dont even measure anymore. Alittle of this and a little of that. they love it... Well gotta go dig more plants up. Barb

My husband uses the pole/screen (like a scoop).. scoops the dead possum (they are cute, poor thing...)(they have funny faces but they're kind of cute..) and tosses it into the back of our woods.

Now that may sound cruel, but he's just had it with the critters. When he found a dead cat in the road, he carefully put it in a cardboard box and buried it (with a bunch of flowers) in our back woods...

But the possum didn't get that same treatment...see what ya get when you dig up our lawn?? :0/

Carrie