C.Meens, is this home you are in a NEW home, or have you been there for a good while? If you've lived there a good while, I wouldn't worry much, BUT, IF you have just moved to your home, they likely have a spot close to your home where they overwinter. After I lost my past home in a divorce/bankrupcy situation, the guy that bought it (it's close to my present home) said there were Garter snakes living under the siding, they couldn't have been there long, so, he was able to get rid of them, OR they were living there unbeknownst to me when I lived there. BUT, they couldn't have been there for TOO long when I had been there, the double wide wasn't THAT old anyway. I wouldn't worry unless the house is new to you and keep finding more and more Garter snakes in your yard, There IS a house that was FAMOUS for having a swarm of them living in the walls and everywhere, BUT, I am sure THAT house has been deemed unfit for occupation by humans. I'd seen it on TV and REALLY IF somebody sold THAT house to anyone KNOWING the situation, they'll get sued big time. IT was MAYBE in Idaho or Iowa some place in the Midwest I THINK. Sorry, it may be the Vodka talking, but YOUR house is likely fine, I've seen a garter snake here and there, but, NOT this year yet. I've also seen a black racer snake many years ago. I am glad to see the snakes are NOT venomous ones. IF they do hang around you MAY have some rodents around for them to be hanging around your place. Do you have some animal feed that may be attracting mice? I HOPE this helps, I wouldn't worry, maybe they have overwintered in a hole in the ground near your place.

Nothing will repel a hungry snake no matter what kind of marketing stuff gets posted to our forum. Sandplum, Our son stepped out of his car one evening in summer, after dark but in the lighted area near the security light, and found his foot on top of a copperhead which did not, miraculously, bite him. He hollered "Copperhead!" at us and stepped back into the car, since only that one leg was all the way out of the vehicle. We were sitting in lawn chairs chatting with some friends. That snake, had it chosen to turn and go back into the neighbor's pasture from whence it came, could have and would have lived. Instead, it chose to head straight for the lawn furniture we were sitting upon. Maybe it wanted to seek refuge under the furniture. Big mistake. Tim shot it. I felt kinda bad about that since the snake hadn't even bitten Chris when it certainly had the opportunity, but there's no way we're going to sit there chatting in the yard while a venomous snake prowls around our feet. I hate snakes as much as you do. Dorothy, I wonder where the garter snakes went? We've never had a year that was free of garter snakes and I've already had one in the garden this year. Tim picked it up and carried it far from the garden and released it. I don't mind the garter snakes or rough green tree snakes, but venomous snakes automatically get killed if they venture into our people/animal space and I'm not going to apologize for that. We used to even catch and release rat snakes and chicken snakes, but they just keep coming back to the poultry coops over and over again, feasting on eggs and chicks, so they get the death penalty too if they are in or near the chicken coops. The only good venomous snake is a dead one. We live in too much of a wilderness area to ever be snake-free, and they serve the important function of controlling rodents, but I'm still not going to share yard and garden space with the venomous ones. Our little puppy dog, Princess, who is about six months old now, got bitten by something, probably a snake, in the dog yard last week. It likely hit her inside her mouth so I imagine she bent down low to the ground and tried to pick it up. Her mouth and snout started swelling up something awful immediately and she was in pain and whimpering, so off to the vet we went for a steroid shot. Since even the vet couldn't find fang marks, we'll never know for sure if it it was a snake or some sort of insect, but knowing our snake history, I suspect it was a snake. Our cat, Casper, had seen a snake a short distance from the dog yard several weeks ago (long before I would have thought snakes were active) and he tried to get it, then jumped back away from it, so I suspect it struck at him but missed him. With Princess, the swelling began going down as soon as she got the shot (and some Benadryl) and we continued to give her Benadryl for 48 hours thereafter to keep the swelling down. She's fine now and I hope she learned her lesson about messing with snakes. I would expect the snakes are really getting out and moving more now that we are having sunshine and warmer temperatures, but I haven't seen a lot of them yet. Keep in mind that to my way of thinking, even one snake is one too many. I've run over copperheads with the lawn mower that I never even saw before I hit them. I'm just glad I hit them with the mower instead of stepping on them. I know people who have been bitten by venomous snakes, including our next-door neighbor, and it was a horrible ordeal for them. The recovery is not easy and complications can last for months afterwards. We had tons of copperheads in our early years, but in more recent years we see them a lot less. Unfortunately, the situation is reversed with the timber rattlers. We didn't see too many of them in our earliest years here, but for about the last 10 years, we see higher numbers of timber rattlers every year. Last year was the worst ever and it is a miracle I wasn't bitten by one because I had way too many close calls where I came within inches to 2' to 3' of timber rattlers before seeing them. For a while I was seeing them almost daily. The one that was within a few inches of my foot was very small. Had it been larger, I might have been in trouble.

Well...I appreciate all your responses, and I'm going to assume it's a common garter snake...for my OWN peace of mind...LOL I believe he was so grumpy because of the flash from the camera...it probably scared the bejeezus out of'm. Plus...I'm wondering if it isn't the onset of hibernation time. I mean, afterall, he WAS way down under some pretty hard, clay covered by about 4" of mulch. He was probably sleeping...or getting his last full meal of night crawlers when I uncovered him. *I'm in SE PA, not Florida at the moment. He's gone now and I don't know where...hehehe...but I covered the hole back up with the mulch. BTW: When I let Picture it! automatically tweak the color and brightness levels, the colors of the snake were changed a bit. Here are two pics showing actual color...

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.