I saw this (another view) in my garden this morning. It was suggested to me that it’s a checkered garden snake, but when I looked it up, the range for that snake is the US southwest into Mexico and Central America. I suppose it could be an escapee or a released pet (oh, how I hate when people do that…) but I can’t imagine it would have migrated thousands of miles to my back yard.
My main concern is that it won’t harm my dog. We lost a dog in Florida to a coral snake, and I don’t want to go thru anything like that again.
Garter snake. And the fact that they eat toads is the reason I have to catch every one my gf sees. I grab them, put them in a feed sack, and she hikes far from the house to release them. This summer I’ve had to catch one or two every weekend. (my gf loves toads)
It will help with your garden pests and can easily wipe out a full nest of baby moles. Garters usually take over burrows and evict the rodents rather than digging their own. That’s a good gardening buddy and will hide from your dog rather than threaten him. I hope you two can work out an agreement. Maybe two or three hard stomps when you enter the garden and the snake will make itself scarce until you go back indoors.
Ha! I like toads and hand feed nightcrawlers to the brute who lives under my deck. He comes out every evening and waits for his dinner and tolerates a couple scritches on the noggin. But it’s not cool to tamper with wildlife so don’t try this at home kids. /Troppus wildlife interpreter herpetology dept
I’m glad to have a pest-eater in my garden. I think snakes are really interesting, as long as they’re not a threat to my well-being. Our yard is well-wooded and the aforementioned moles have left a lot of tunnels around the yard, so this guy will have plenty of places to hide. But until he finishes swallowing that frog and moves on, I’ll be keeping the dog in another part of the yard when I take her out.
I’m glad my daughter is grown and gone - she’d have that poor snake in a tank so fast ---------------
If your dog is anything like the ones I’ve seen, he’ll keep a distance between himself and the snake if he knows it’s there. Having had pet snakes all my life, it’s been very funny to watch dogs come up to me while I hold it and you can tell the exact moment they know I’ve got a snake with me because they do a double take, back up a little, and then make a wide circle around me. It’s especially interesting because one of these dogs was my brother’s and the only experience it ever had of snakes was the one I owned… but it still stayed as far away as possible.
As for your daughter keeping it: garter snakes make excellent pets, but wild ones usually do not adapt well to being kept. They’ll always see you as a threat, and release this weird-smelling chemical when handled.
It’s a sneaky little critter - peed all over the ground and almost cause me to slip in the mud!!
**dracoi **- My daughter is 27 and tomorrow, she’s moving to Florida. Considering she’ll be traveling with a cat and a dog, I doubt she’ll want a snake. She teaches science and she always wanted a snake in her classroom, but too many people in the school were scared of snakes :rolleyes: so she couldn’t.
In any event, this one has moved on, tho from the size of the frog, I can’t imagine it moved very far.
I’m reminded of the time I heard a pitiful squeaking near my front door, looked around and spotted a garter snake which had a green tree frog in its mouth.
I rescued the frog, much to the disgust of the snake I’m sure. I felt no compunction about disrupting the natural order.
Not to alarm you, but it recently been discovered that garter snakes are indeed mildly venomous, although they produce very small quantities and are not toxic to humans and pets. They undoubtedly are only dangerous to the small prey that they eat.
Yes, it is beginning to appear that many Colubrids have mild venoms. Or perhaps we should speak of it as saliva, since there is no delivery system beyond chewing. Hognosed snakes have also been noted in this regard and there are some people who seem to be sensitive to bites from these. It produces localized discomfort, swelling, and redness. Some racers are also reputed to have mildly toxic saliva. I was once bitten on the foot by a local racer in the Bahamas, and had exactly that reaction.
These neurotoxins may be an adaptation to cold blooded prey that might otherwise be swallowed while still capable of considerable movement, perhaps damaging the predator even long after ingestion. The long teeth of these snakes is perhaps an adaptation to prey that inflates as a defensive strategy.
