Recently, I noticed a couple of garter snakes, one larger than the other, lurking in places where mice or chipmunks are likely to pass.


One favors a spot by a window well under the edge of the cover. Coming out the door, I can see its head, which draws back as I approach. Yesterday, a chipmunk was drinking from the water bowl on the porch. When it saw me, it dashed along the walk, towards the snake. The snake eased out, ready to strike, and the chipmunk made a heroic leap, clearing it by a good eight inches.


We live in a mountain valley that's very cold, with no venomous snakes. So we don't have to be nervous about their presence. In fact, I'm glad to see them as they are voracious predators of slugs, bugs, caterpillars, and mice, which can be a plague here, gnawing on seedlings.

Scanning the back yard, I figured out where the snakes den: there's a gap in the stonework on a retaining wall by the greenhouse. This morning, I saw a snake ease out. I wonder if they're a mated pair and we'll see a brood of teeny snakes.


Their choice of a den is quite shrewd: the rock wall gets afternoon sun, so it stays warm into the night. Being near the thermal mass of the insulated greenhouse, it's also warmer than the earth in general.

We used to get a lot of them here in IL. We heated with wood for years and the snakes would hide in the rows of split wood. Ours seldom got more than a couple feet in length. I haven't seen any since the middle of last year.

The Snake by D. H. Lawrence. Reduced size. Click to read.

Loved that poem, Chip ... no venomous snakes here either, which takes a lot of pressure off when one sees a snake. Years ago we had grass snakes and little "copper bellies" around fairly frequently, now pretty much all I ever see are garter snakes in the garden (I name all of them "Slitherin'", LOL). A few years ago a pretty good-size pine snake came home from the golf course with my husband - for some reason it crawled up into the undercarriage of his car, then we were sitting on the deck and our dogs started freaking out and we saw it crawling out from underneath the car. We thought we could shoo it out of the garage but it went back into the car, so he slowly backed up near the edge of the woods and I don't think it took 30 seconds after he turned the car off for that snake to come out and take off into the trees.

If it was cold, it might have been drawn to the heat of the engine.

Our resident pair of garter snakes started a family. I saw a tiny snake yesterday morning—cute if you like snakes.

Garter snakes are vivaporous: the young develop in the mother's body and are born fully formed rather than as an egg. The babies eat worms, slugs, and all sorts of little bugs. Not a bad critter to have in the garden.

I see quite a few garter snakes in my yard. Last week when I was walking the yard, my dog was following a snake through the grass. He was not sure what to make of it:) I am glad he does not have a killer instinct when it comes to snakes. On the other hand, he hunts rabbits and other varmints with a passion.

Frank, have you ever seen a rattlesnake where you are? I grew up in Jackson MI and never saw one (but then, I lived in town and didn't get to roam in the countryside very much), but I knew people who had.

I saw one in Ann Arbor at Matthaei Gardens several years ago. I am about 20 miles SW of the gardens and have not seen any out here.

A limiting factor for snakes seems to be low air and ground temperatures. They need external heat to digest their food and some sort of thermal protection for successful hibernation. There have never been many snakes up here at 8000 ft./2400 meters, and no rattlers. While areas farther north but lower in elevation have quite a few rattlers along the streams, e.g. Sybille Canyon. There's a cluster of mountains in central Wyoming, SW of Casper, called the Rattlesnake Range.

Our home pair of garter snakes had kiddies. I saw a teeny snake curving through the grass, likely hunting bugs.

One noticeable effect is that our mouse population has dropped: they usually infest the garage, chew things up, and get into the greenhouse.

Go Snakes!

I'm ok with snakes and usually see one or 2 in a year but surely there are more. Garter and black rat snakes. My chickens found about six worm snakes last year.. sad that they were trying to kill them. And I had never found one myself.
One fall I was unstacking some clay pots and found several little garter snakes .. I put that pot back and found something else to do

Saw a garter snake yesterday! It's medium-large, so it might be one from last year.

They really got rid of the mice, which are reappearing.

Go snakes!

Aw - I so rarely see snakes here anymore; I think the last garter snake I saw was 2, or maybe 3, years ago. Years ago I used to find the little "copper-belly" snakes (they probably have a different name, but that's what everyone here calls them) in the garden now and then. And occasionally a grass snake. It doesn't seem like a very good sign when things like that are just disappearing...

I converted 30 tillable acres over to the USDA Conservation Reserve Program. The practice I selected was to plant some 20 different wildflowers and 4 different grasses in support of Monarch butterflies and Pheasant. It must be working because I have been noting more of the birds and butterflies.

And, (probably not related) I have seen more garter snakes in 2 acres of gardens that surround the house. Fortunately, my dogs are curious when they meet up with one, but do not attack.

Frank thank you!

Frank, what a great project

Frank nice field of wildflowers, glad it is working, many are seeing a decline in butterflies this year.

Nice size black snake crossed the sidewalk yesterday. We actually see a black snake about once a year in the yard. By nice, not too big.