Garden snakes, nicknamed garter snakes, come in many varieties, various colors, and have different markings, depending on your area of the country. These snakes are usually brown or black but may be a greenish color. Most have a checkerboard pattern near the stripes. Other colors of these snakes vary.
While they can give you a bit of a surprise, these snakes are actually a gardener's best friend. From slugs to small rodents, garter snakes eat many of your common garden pests. And since they're harmless to humans, these are great snakes to encourage on your property.
Look for snakes near their food sources.
Look for them near water, especially during times when fish are highly visible in your area. Amphibians are also a food source for garter snakes. They eat animals like small frogs or toads. These should be especially visible after it rains.
The average lifespan of wild Common Garter Snakes is approximately 4 years but they may live up to 10 years. Most Garter Snakes probably die in their first year of life. Common Garter Snakes typically eat earthworms, amphibians, leeches, slugs, snails, insects, crayfish, small fish and other snakes.
Those with some experience may be able to identify males by the taper of their tails. According to garter snake guru Jonathan Crowe at gartersnake.info, males have longer and thicker tails than females. Female tails are narrower, shorter and taper more sharply.
Snakes love nothing more than to slither through tall grass undetected. Piles of rocks, wood, and other debris have lots of crevices and crannies that make a perfect place for snakes to hide between or underneath.
In some tribes, garter snakes (also known as garden snakes) are symbols of jealousy or dishonesty; to other tribes, they are a symbol of water. In the traditions of the Arapaho Indians, garter snakes are associated with the Sun Dance and are represented in the hoop of the tribe's sacred Medicine Wheel.
Ammonia Repellent: Snakes have sensitive noses and don't like the smell of ammonia, so spraying it around the perimeter of your property can help keep them away. Epsom Salt: Sprinkling Epsom salt around your home or garden will create a strong odor snakes won't want to come close to.
Turns out, we can actually say that snakes can't climb. Rather, snakes have figured out a pretty nifty way to slither up vertical surfaces. To understand how snakes slither up surfaces, we first need to understand how they slither on the ground as well. They have extremely muscular bodies.
All outdoor (even in your yard) encounters with nonvenomous snakes should be resolved by letting the animal go its own way, most likely to never be seen again. Venomous snakes are another matter. If you encounter a venomous snake in your yard, take it seriously.
Garter snakes eat a varied diet including frogs, small mammals, earthworms and insects.
As a general rule, if a snake has a safe place to hide, plenty of food, a good place to bask, and an occasional member of the opposite sex, they'll stay where they are forever.
Ammonia: Snakes dislike the odor of ammonia so one option is to spray it around any affected areas. Another option is to soak a rug in ammonia and place it in an unsealed bag near any areas inhabited by snakes to deter them away.
However, snakes can stay away from white vinegar because it confuses their sense, (smell), and organs. But, if there is a source of food that snakes like, they might not mind enduring the smell of vinegar, just to eat and enjoy the food there.
Will snakes stay away from dogs? Snakes don't like to get in the way of dogs, the reason being that dogs are louder, bigger, and more annoying than a good snack. If your dog is present in an area, the chances are high that snakes will stay away.
How to Identify Snake Feces. When snakes excrete waste, it is actually a mixture of feces and urine that looks white and is more of a liquid than a solid, much like bird droppings. The pests' waste may contain bones, hair, scales, and other indigestible materials leftover from meals.
Mothballs are commonly thought to repel snakes, but they are not intended to be used this way and have little effect on snakes.
They can live for 10 years or more and grow quite quickly. Before acquiring a garter snake, you must be sure that you are able to provide the correct care and associated costs for the animal's entire life.
When not resting, these snakes prefer moist, grassy areas and are often found near water, such as streams and lakes. They also like areas that provide cover, so if your yard has piles of debris, such as rocks, logs, boards or dense vegetation, you are more likely to have a garter snake infestation.
At birth most garter snakes are less than 6 inches long. They grow little from birth in the late summer until their first spring. From that point, they grow fairly fast, reaching a young adult length of almost 2 feet by the end of their first year.