I have a problem with some snakes (garter and milk, from what I’ve seen of them slithering about) making their den in my basement laundry room. I think I know how they’re getting in, and I want to seal up the room while the snakes are out and about doing their thing, so they can’t get back in. Are they generally hunting during the day or during the night? When will they start hibernating? I need to take care of this before then (I live in upstate NY, if that influences the answer).
Thanks.
The garter snakes I always kept as pets were most active during the day.
Part of your challenge when it comes to snakes is that they’re not active like mammals. They can be perfectly happy to sit and digest a nice meal for a few days or even a week. They don’t feel the need to go out and get food and water every single day.
What makes you think they’re either diurnal or nocturnal? They could be something else entirely, like crepuscular.
I think they are intermittently active, as dracoi indicated. I may have to lay out “traps,” to lure them into a pile of rags, and then remove the rags. It’s also been brought to my attention that a) garter snakes hibernate in large groups, so god knows HOW many snakes might be in the ceiling, but b) milk snakes eat garter snakes, so maybe the milk snake is my only concern at this point. I understand that milk snakes are mostly nocturnal.
There’s a koi pond near my son’s preschool, and I see garter snakes swimming around in it, seeking fish and frogs to eat every morning.
They MAY be active at night, but they’re DEFINITELY awake, out, swimming and hunting during the day.
Crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk) best describes both of these species, but that description is not a helpful predictor of when any individual might be in or out of your house. Any individual snake will be active when it feels it needs to be, regardless of the general tendencies of the species. Things that cause snakes to move around include hunger, mating, skin-shedding, and the approach of hibernation.
Garter snakes are seen more often during the day because most of their prey is out in the open. Milk snakes are generally much more secretive than garter snakes, and their hunting method usually involves seeking prey where it hides, rather than out in the open.
These are both harmless species, although garter snakes often bite when picked up. I think your best course of action would be to seal the entrance and catch and release any snake which is trapped inside. Persuading a snake to crawl into a kitchen trash can lying on its side can be safely accomplished with a broom. Good luck.
Not sure if it will help you in this case. Occasionally when I open up a well pit a collection of snakes will have made their home there. My solution has been to dump some bleach around and come back the next day. They don’t stick around in the chlorine vapors.
Crepuscular. Crepuscularcrepuscularcrepuscularcrepuscularcrepuscular. I love that word.
You know those amazingly beautiful light rays that come shooting through clouds and look like they’re lighting up some special patch of ground? Crepuscular rays. How awesome is it that there’s a name for the phenomenon, and it’s as cool as “crepuscular rays.” How much cooler is it that there’s such a thing as anticrepuscular rays?
Crepuscularcrepuscularcrepuscularcrepuscularcrepuscularcrepuscularcrepuscular…
What a word. 