Garter Snakes
mulberryknob
12 years ago
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cactusgarden
12 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Garter Snakes
Comments (24)That house was a snake hibernicula and it makes me not only feel sorry for the occupants, but the snakes who depend on dens for surviving the winters. There is one state, and I forget which, where their local garter is going extinct mostly because they are killed by humans. No, I don't expect the family to have to co-exist with hundreds of snakes but neither did I appreciate they killed over a hundred harmless garter snakes when they knew full well what they were getting into. I have a garter snake up in one of my g'houses now. It has decided that laying on the benches daily is a good thing to do and I work around wherever it happens to sun itself. Last year it was a big rat snake who lived there. I also have a resident black snake in the cellar and we just watch what we pick up. Obviously I am not afraid of them and appreciate their role in prey/predation. No, I don't relocate them. We did remove any delapidated outbuildings on our property so they wouldn't be drawn to occupy structures near the house. It's rare now to have one 'get in' the house and if one does, my husband leaves it to me to pick it up and remove it. LOL....See MoreAnyone want a garter snake?
Comments (2)No thanks Larry. Our older dog managed to kill 6 baby rabbits this spring but he didn't get all of them because when I was hand watering the peas this morn early I ran two the same size out of a 20 ft section. Then when DH was mowing this afternoon he ran one completely out of the garden and into the woods. And the dogs of course were way at the other end of the yard asleep under a bush....See MoreDo garter snakes change color?
Comments (6)Snakes seem to be around areas where there are frogs. That has been my experience. Do you have frogs, like tree frogs, at your house? At my last house, we were not near a stream, but we had lots of tree frogs, and the occasional snake. At a park there are occasional frogs (that we saw go plop in the water when we walked by) and we found 4 snakes in 30 minutes! At my present house I have never seen a frog (occasional toads, about 1 per year) and I have never seen a snake....See Morewhat to do with large garter snake?
Comments (4)Well, you aren't going to end up with a large den of them because densites are not chosen by where it is easy to live in the summer but rather where they can survive the winter. If you were going to have denning gartersnakes on your property, they would already have been there for decades. As for protecting them from your dogs, you could train your dogs to leave them alone. Unfortunately, trying to teach a terrier not to chase animals is like trying to teach one to read Russian. I like terriers, but this is their one fatal flaw for me. Maybe you could treat the area where the snake hangs out with a chemical that is aversive to dogs but not snakes? If you could find a dead snake and cover it in habanero chili sauce and let your dog play with it, that would teach the lesson pretty well and not hurt the dog. The other solution is to provide the snakes safe passage and hiding areas that are difficult for the dog to access. I actually knew a person who installed a plastic pipe under their dog kennel to give snakes and toads a safe path to their pond....See MoreKelly Andrews
9 years agoSandplum1
9 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
9 years agomulberryknob
9 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
9 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
9 years agomulberryknob
9 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agomulberryknob
9 years ago
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