We have a variety of wildlife visit our garden, most of which you don't have to worry about stepping on. This Western rat snake has been hanging around for a few days, in the utility shed, flower bed, and wandering about the yard. We have to be careful not to step on him since he will bite, although he is not venomous. We like snakes and appreciate their help in keeping the vermin population down. Guess why they are called "rat" snakes.
We have the Indigo snakes here and they are really good at keeping vermin populations down. I saw one a couple years ago that was crossing the street. He wasn even stretched straight out and he took up the whole road widthwise !! They have a shiny purpley black color to them.
I agree have the small garter snakes here and those little strange lizards they are’ t really lizards but hang out near water. I have a few potted plants where the snakes hang out. We see a lot of them out warming up on sunny days .
I've only seen the little garden snakes here. There are lots of frogs, though. Their chorus serenades us at night.
Majority of snakes are beneficial to the garden. I get garter snakes and they more than welcome in the garden.
I have a fun story about a snake. When I lived in South Florida I had a grey snake living in my yard. The soil was very, very sandy and this snake, as I was crossing the yard one morning, actially ran into my foot as he travelled over to the area where the septic tank was. This snake raised himself up off the ground like a cobra and commenced to turning his body into a corkscrew shape then plunged himself into the ground and disappeared. When the men came to clean out the septic tank I told the foreman (the one without a shovel who was leaning up against my house with his arms folded and feet crossed) about the snake and if they were to disturb him, he may come up from under the ground. He had 4 men with shovels with him who looked on. This man, as I spoke, was smirking, looking up and away as if I were some nutcase. All he said was "yup.....yup..... " as people do when they wish you would just shut up and go away. So, I went inside and it was just a few minutes before I heard: "Whoop !! Whoop!! Whooooop !!" from outside. When I came out, here the foreman was, standing on one leg and violenting kicking out with the other. He looked up at me and said: " Lady, if that snake didn't come out of my pant leg, I was going to drop my drawers right here infront of you !! " The four guys with shovels were LTAO !! They were doubled over laughing !! I said to the Forman: "Ah-hah!! And you didn't believe me, did ya? So, the next time a Lady takes time out of her day to inform you of a snake living underground, you're going to belive her, aren't you?" YES, MA'AM !! YES MA'AM !! he said.
