i work under the impression .. that the snakes eat the mice, voles and moles ... so they are NOT unwanted ....but we dont have poisonous ones up here ...

that said.. i never though of your method for removal ... lol ...

maybe you can charge him up.. and rent him out for removal services.. lol ..

ken

Holy cow, Raye, as a sometimes-wheelchair-user, that story gives me the shivers. :(

Hi Raye,

I think you have to assume snakes are in your garden. My sister lives in the heart of a town called Winchester. It is a town of about 35,000 in Kentucky. She is in the downtown area and literally EVERYONE has snakes in their yards. They are mostly black rat snakes and they are abundant. She sees one almost every day, and sometimes two. Her roommate is absolutely petrified of snakes and won't let Sis plant anything near the walkways for fear it will hide a snake who will then jump out of the foliage and devour her.

I asked her why snakes are so abundant and she said the town has an old, unused city cistern and sewer system that the snakes have discovered and use as their habitats. I think a lot of towns and cities have similar, abandoned, underground systems.

I would actually like snakes to be more plentiful in my town. We have a terrible mouse problem in this town because everyone has an old garage or toolshed on their property, or a woodpile, and of course oak trees are everywhere to provide food.

It's smart to be wary of copperheads, even though they eat a boatload of vermin. Too bad, because they are beautiful.

All of this is ancillary to my original point which was going to be that for the last two nights, I have found big toads in the garden. They are not unwanted, in fact they are most welcome. It's been wet enough to bring them out of hiding to sing at night. It's wonderful to hear them and know that they are each eating 78,000 bugs per night.

Lainey