Know your head-shapes! Generally snakes with "cheek jowls" are the ones you need to worry about.

Here is a link that might be useful: A photographic guide to California Snakes

NEVER put your hands/feet anywhere you can't see into/onto first.... like under a shrub; use a rake or hoe or long stick first.

A spray of water will send most snakes scurrying away from the source.

Rattlers eat gophers.

PLEASE DON'T KILL THE SNAKES. They feed on mice and gophers and that helps our gardens. The are usually never aggressive and will always leave if you do. Saw a king snake in my garden yesterday and I was surprised how my cat paid no attention to it (cat was within 4 feet of it while it glided through my flower-vegetable garden). Regards - Jim in Corona

Clear shrubbery about a foot off the ground so a resting snake is more easily spotted.

Clear away brush/rock piles, etc.
Look before sticking your hands or feet in places you can't see.

Always back away slowly from a snake if you see it. Quick movements will excite it and cause it to strike. Most snakes only strike about 1/3 of it's body length, but that can vary.
Learn what a rattler looks like. It's pretty much the only venomous snake in CA that you need to be concerned with.
If you are bitten by a non-venomous snake, clean the wound and treat it as you would any other minor wound. You will need medical attention only if it becomes infected.

Jim in Corona-you'd be pleased to know that I did come back home WITH the whiptail snake (after getting it ID'd and learning more about it) and actually released it exactly where I found it....where the edge of my landscape fabric ended at the fenceline :)

everyone-thanks for all the tips and reminders.....great website link......

----lucia

Sorry Jim, but the rattlers that come into my garden meet the end of a sharpened shovel. : ) After gardening with them for more than 30 years I know that they most definitely do NOT always leave, especially when they find a regular source of water and/or have had their little ones in your garden. If they become comfy you now will have a permanent and deadly new pet. We have plenty of king, garter and gopher snakes to eat the mice. But the sidewinders and rattlers best not be hanging around my roses. : )

Great tips, Wanda and Westelle. Long jeans and boots are also a must if walking/hiking through dense brush. And don't leave your sliders or other doors open. I had one come into my house last year when our slider was left open for just a few minutes.

Nice site, just relabeled a snake pic of one I found when the neighbor's gardeners were doing a very animated dance in her ivy. It was relocated to prevent snake panic and shovel wielding that would lead to its untimely demise.

{{gwi:535810}}

Bird netting will catch snakes.
They get their heads through then cant get the rest of their body through.
If you catch one you can decide to let it go or dispatch it.
Not sure if your fat headed Rattle Snakes would get caught this way though.
If we see a snake go down a hole we put the bird netting over the hole, then keep an eye on it so its not there too long

Yes, Rattlers do indeed get caught in bird netting. The Rattlers die, other kinds of snakes I cut free... if I find them in time.

Miketrees and Westelle:

What do you do with the bird netting?

Do you just cut a piece big enough to surround the hole and weight down the edges with stakes or bricks and wait? ...or is more crumpled?

I'd like to try this....I have several holes now....

By-the-way....I just read somewhere that gopher snakes actually do not kill gophers....gophers are too big........they just use their tunnels......wonder if it's true.....

----lucia in ca

lucia, you don't say where you live, but there's a lot of interest in Calif. snakes and a lot of literature, and it should be possible to find a book, list or museum literature that will help you to become familiar with the snakes of your area, at least to the extent that you can recognize what's a rattlesnake and what isn't. Rattlesnakes are the only dangerously venomous snakes we have in Calif. -- no coral snakes, copperheads or cottonmouths. If you're north of L.A. and not in the desert, then you only have one species of rattlesnake to worry about, and that helps to simplify things. As a point of interest, there are several species of native snakes that are "rear-fanged" and that have a very mild venom, but they are absolutely harmless to humans. Some non-venomous snakes will bite when picked up, and many will void the contents of their cloaca all over your hand, and some have a musk that they expel the same way. The California kingsnake in the photo is notorious for smearing your hand with this stuff -- but it's only an issue if you pick it up. Calif. kingsnakes can also bite without warning when handled, unlike, say, a gopher snake that will let you know if he really considers you to be a threat. Gopher snakes will sometimes feign being a rattlesnake, with a lot of huffing and puffing and tail vibrating. Having handled snakes since I was a teenager, bites of harmless snakes are all in a day's work of enjoying nature to me, but people leary of snakes should be aware of this. Some species never bite, regardless of the provocation.

I haven't actually ever used netting to capture Rattlers on purpose. I use it like a skirt around the base of my raised Vegetable beds to keep the critters out. When it was low to the ground the snakes would get caught, probably after a meal from the critters desiring to eat my veggies. I rolled the bottom up so the snakes wouldn't get caught. I would get 3 or 4 Rattlers every season, plus Gophers, Kings, Racers, Whips and Garters. Oh, and yes, The BIG Gopher snakes can indeed eat a Gopher; we have at least one that is a good 7-8' long and as big around as a man's arm.

semper anguis in herbis

Um... "always in the plants" ????

Hi again,

I'm way north of LA......in the SF Bay Area....West Contra Costa County......

I don't know if my eye sight is failing me, or I just don't know enough about recognizing a rattler....I saw the snake about 10' away and (for the life of me!) could not decide if it had a triangular head or not...... Is it that obvious from 10' away? If so, then maybe it was just a gopher.......Gopher skin and rattler skin look so similar to me.

I don't think I'd be so motivated to figure this out if I didn't have 2 young boys playing in the backyard everyday....I'm always cautioning never to try retrieving a ball from under plants if you cannot see completely under......

thanks everyone!
----lucia

lucia: Good, you only have the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus oreganus) to worry about. I know, some people would say to just look for the rattle, which is diagnostic, but what if you can't see it? What if you see only the loop of a snake sticking out from under a board? What if the tail is hidden in the brush? What if you're seeing the snake from a distance, as you were? Herpetologists could easily distinguish a rattler from a gopher snake at a glance at that distance, but others may not be able to do so.

Gopher snakes are generally tan with dark brown or black blotches on the back. You may be able to perceive the blotches as in being in staggered length-wise rows. Their head is proportionally rather small, though an angry one can spread it out somewhat to make himself look more imposing. Your rattlers will be gray, brown, or (occasionally) greenish, with big rhomboid shaped blotches on the back. Your local outdoors-people probably call them "diamondbacks," but that's another species. The point is, no way are you going to be tempted to call a gopher snake a "diamondback." Also, the rattler will have a prominent white line running diagonally down the side of the head. If you can see the head, then you can see that easily from 10 ft. If he sees you, even if he's not rattling or coiling, he'll probably be waving his long tongue slowly up and down, and the tongue has a blue base -- but you're probably way too close for comfort if you can see the blue!

semper anguis in herbis...
from the Latin, translates: "always a snake in the grass"
Carry on.

Yes lucia_ca just throw some off cut of bird netting over the holes.
Just remember you will probably end up with a dead snake, so don't do it unless you are prepared for that.
Not sure you will get every snake every time, so I would still heed the good advice given by this wonderful site

"By-the-way....I just read somewhere that gopher snakes actually do not kill gophers....gophers are too big........they just use their tunnels......wonder if it's true....."

Gopher Snakes preferred prey is pocket gophers. It is their number one diet item. They can eat larger rodents than pocket gophers as well.

For your entertainment.

Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus). About 7 miles s. of Palm Desert, Riverside Co., CA. 4 June 2008. This snake is an estimated 30 in. long.

This species lives in rocky foothills and mountains in the interior and deserts of so. Calif., s. NV, sw. AZ, and adjacent parts of Mexico, including all of Baja California. Not found in no. Calif.

Very difficult to photograph, because the head blends with the sand.

{{gwi:535811}}

Great picture! Perfect coloration to remain unseen by prey.

Send your gopher snakes over here. Got me a couple of wily pocket gophers that are doing serious damage to my front landscaping :(