i personally don't see the harm, but you might want to call your local extension office and see what they have to say.

I know this is what you've heard before, but providing the right environment is the best thing. Because if you import (leaving out the potential for foreign species, diseases, etc) into an inhospitable environment your snakes will either die or leave.

I offer an additional suggestion, add a wood pile (regular stove chunks will do, probably a foot or two tall and 3-4 feet long at least) to your property. Something you'll never move or actually use, just to sit, rot, and provide cover for snakes and other garden creatures.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Kyle

Hire the nearest 10 year old boy to bring you some. He knows where they are.

Now see, karchita, that would have been exactly how it was in the neighborhood where I grew up. We were always playing with ones the cats caught, before we let them go again. Here? My son is 9 and he's never seen a garter snake in person. A couple of neighbors have kids in that age range and they freak out about snakes. It's just weird.

Kyle, that's my main concern, that I would import them and they would die. I would hate to bring about their unfortunate demises. And the next door neighbors *do* have outdoor cats. I'll see if there's a place we can stack some wood. We have rats in the neighborhood too, though, so wood piles are kind of frowned upon.

Extension office, that's a good idea.

Thanks,

Kristin

We're doing battle with a couple of invasive plants by putting cardboard over them between whacking sessions, and the garter snakes love the cardboard pile. You might try breaking down a box or two, getting them nice and damp, and setting the cardboard several layers thick in a place that gets morning sun and afternoon shade.

I've got tons of garter snakes for anyone to come gawk at who wants. They do seem to like the cardboard. I've also a few old metal washtubs in the yard they like to hide in (upside down) and under the front porch. My sons picked up one of the washboards and there was a pile of 20 under there all huddled up together. Other than the occassional jump (they always seem to wait until you're right up on them to move:D) I kind of like them. My mom used to have tons in her neighborhood when I was younger, but now there doesn't seem to be any. Personally, I think it has a lot to do with spraying yards, pesticides, etc and I'm just glad my yard if "healthy" enough to be suitable habitat for snakes....hmmmm wonder if there's any deeper psychological meaning to that or it maybe it would just make for a good t-shirt :D

Yikes, I have damp cardboard lying near the garden in hopes of being used. I'm phobic of snakes (it's irrational, I know they have their place like the rest of us.) I'm going to move it tomorrow, or get my husband to do it! BTW, my father was the only other person in my family that was phobic about snakes. My mother and sister liked them! So it's not just a female thing.

Another thing that might attract them to your property is an old fashioned stone wall, made without mortar.

Garter snakes are much rarer west of the Cascades than other parts of the country. I don't have any, despite a very hospitable situation for them. But I do have cats, so I have never deliberately tried to bring them in. I have only seen them in this region once.

As for your son not knowing where to find snakes ... all I can say is, "Hmpf. Kids these days." ;-)

I too would like to have a few snakes as well as other things like frogs, rabbits, hawks, you know "wild life". I grew up as a child spending most of my free time in the woods. At a very young age I lived on 153 acres with a 1 acre pond and a 13 acre pond. I sure miss the wild life of my youth. I hope some day I will be able to afford a remote track of land but it will be many years if at all.

I live in a rather busy area of town. My neighborhood has the right habitat for wild life but it is surrounded by areas not suited. So there is no natural path of travel for wild life to migrate to and from the area. In the 5 years I have been here I have only seen a lost fox and a raccoon. Never seen a single snake, yes I have even searched for them. When I told my neighbor about the raccoon that raided my kitchen she called animal control. They asked me about it and I told them I was just joking. I didn't want them to go after it.

karchita, keep in mind many of us are rather forced to live in places where wild life is very scarce and many of our neighbors are happy with that. My neighbor I spoke of also frowns every time I plant anything that flowers because she is allergic to bee's and such. So no flowers at all is her preference. Not to be bad mouthing her though, she is a nice lady and likes the looks just not the bee's. So anyhow it is quite possible for a child to grow up with no more exposure to wild life than a visit to the zoo and watching TV. Now of course I don't mean no wild life at all. Certainly most anywhere you can expect to find ants, flying insects and birds. But Mamales and reptiles can be a rare or complete non existante site in some places.

The youth you described sounds so idyllic. So many kids today couldn't be less interested in going out to play, because the video games are inside. You have to MAKE them go out. It used to be you had to make them come in....

I remember those days! I used to run further into the woods win my mom called for us to come in. Or like if I was swimming in the pond and I new it was near dinner time I would swim around the back bend so I wouldn't be seen. She hated snakes and wouldn't dare trek thru the woods to reach the rear area of the pond. I hated going inside. I always prefered watching and playing with wildlife than watching tv or playing games.

I do agree that many kids today don't follow that scenario but I believe that the urban and suburban that most of the population lives in has a lot to do with that. I have a 13yr old son that lives with his mom in the middle of a metro city and he loves to go to the zoo or a remote park. The unfortunate thing is I am the only one that will take him to those places and I only see him once a year. At home in the city there is just no wildlife to draw him out other than birds and bugs. No snakes, frogs, turtles, or the likes. What little vegetation is in the city is so heavily sprayed with chemicals not much survives. I have 2 nephews that recently moved out into the countryside near the lake and they now stay outside most of the time. Before they moved they stayed indoors most of the time watching tv or playing games. Just more to support my idea that city life offers little interest to kids in regard to anything related to wild life. I realize there are school and church activities and even the scouts or simmilar but those usualy involve fees and transportation. Not something a kid can just go do at free will as he/she feels the urge. My son entered the scouts after I encouraged him to do so and he loved it but his mom and grandparents both got tired of the scheduling. so he suffers the loss of that activity.

You could provide all the right habitat for snakes but if the whole surrounding area is sterile you will not get any snakes no matter what you do. Where is the nearest stream to you? Where is the nearest woods to you? What kind of poisons do your neighbors lay down? Is the total habitat, not just your yard, good for snakes?

kimmsr - not sure who your asking seeing so many of us have joined in the thread. I for one am in a area that has a descent habitat as far as vegitation but lacks water. I am currently brain storming a pond/bog of sorts for the yard. I think it is a combination of problems in my area why we have no amphibians. Lack of standing water, A HUGE ferrel cat population and a complete surrounding of pavement/concrete. I hope to reintroduce amphibians in the area. We have plenty of bugs for the base structure that is why I believe the lose is largely due to the cats. I can spot as many as a dozen cats prowling for food from a single vantage point. While walking thru the neighborhood I see them all over the place. I would guess there to be a population well over a hundred. The area around me had 13 resturants before crossing the first street several years ago. Many of them have either shut down or relocated due to urban sprawl. I know have 4 1/2 resturants before crossing the first street. I say 1/2 because 1 location keeps getting used by a new tenant but none of them last. I have warned my neighbors to tag there cats because I plan to start trapping them. If a cat has a tag I will return it to its owner. If no tag is found it will go to animal control and most likely be put down. Friday afternoon to my surprise I watched one of these cats leap 7 feet up and snatched a squireel from a feeder. I had always wondered why I didn't have a real problem with squirrels here like I had evertwhere els I had lived. Bottom line, cats are killing or scaring off most any wildlife that can't fly.

Introducing a wild animal into your neighborhood probably isn't the best idea. They likely would not survive (feral cats and outside pet cats are a HUGE problem for native wildlife)but the inverse could be even worse--if they thrive they can become invasive and wipe out native species. I think your situation is just the price of urban/suburban life.

Your post gave me a laugh because I came close to stepping on a copperhead in my garden this morning as I was tying up tomato plants. Fortunately my dog saw it first and started barking. It's one of many snakes I've seen in my garden this year. Last summer I was walking across the yard and I felt something get scooped into the toe holes of my crocs, a six inch worm snake. We're also really hopping with toads this year. They have little burrows dug all over one of my garden beds, they're jumping all over the place whenever I cut lettuce. And lizards and skinks are going crazy this year, too. All over the place! With the exception of the copperheads, I welcome them all. We sure have an ample supply of bugs to keep them fed!

If it makes you feel any better, it's a five mile drive from here to a restaurant--35 miles to a decent one-- and no broadband, no cable, no isdn, not even a view through the trees for satellite internet. Oh yeah, there are also about 30 tick bites scattered around the most inconvenient spots on my anatomy. Your wildlife-free backyard is sounding nicer the more I think about it!

I always find black rat snake eggs in my compost heap, but rarely see them. I did find a huge one in the process of laying eggs one year (half in/half out of the heap). We haven't seen a garter snake for years, although there's no lack of habitat. Saw a baby corn snake once, though - it was gorgeous! We have had a hatching of baby (1 1/2 inches long) ring-necked snakes appear in in our below-ground level basement. Maybe they were after the baby toads - makes it interesting doing the laundry.

Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it. We have lots of snakes, rat snakes, corn snakes, garter snakes, and many others I couldn't identify, but we also have copperheads, cotton mouths and diamondback rattlesnakes.

We have a 5' diamondback in the rafters in our barn, making it not much fun to go up there. A couple of my neighbors have offered to come over with their shotguns and kill it, but since that would also blow a hole in the roof, we haven't taken them up on it yet.

In April I killed two copperheads who were mating in my flowerbed. Sorry to have to kill them, but hey, at least they died happy.

Six months ago I killed a 4' rattler on my front porch. He was curled up by the front door and struck at my ankle as I walked out. Fortunately he missed me, but I had a shovel on the porch and the little guy never had a chance to strike again.

Four years ago, my chickens stopped laying mysteriously and then one day they wouldn't even come out of the coop. When I went in I found a 6' chicken snake curled up in one of the nest boxes, looking glassy-eyed since he had eaten the plastic nest-egg along with the real eggs. I kinda felt sorry for him since he was already having a bad day, but he got the "shovel-treatment" too.

You can create an ideal habitat for snakes in your yard if you want to and hope for the best, but the snake who decides to live there might not be the one you wished for. Cheryl

YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!
I spotted my first snake today!!
After all these years I finally spotted a black racer just after sunset. I got up close to be sure what kind it was and he stopped dead in his tracks. Remember they are just as scared of us as we are of them. As long as you leave them be they wont bother you. Now I am sure many will disagree but that is rather true. Most cases of snake bites involve some sort of disturbance to them. Though the disturbance may have been unintensional. I mean how did you know there was a snake under that overturned canoe next to the pond. As a child I found myself in an emergency room shortly after turning over a canoe. No not a snake bite, I was raised around snakes it was routine for me to use a large stick to turn over the canoe. Well that day the stick I was using snapped and went into my leg from the downward force of the canoe. A common phrase: "well I just stepped over the brush pile and he struck". Well you startled him when you came across. So, Yeah I get it. But if you see one in plain view and just avoid going near it then you will be OK. Now I know that may not hold true for all species but for most that is true. So why should all snakes be killed just because they are a snake? I ask that because thats what I hear from a LOT of people! "well any snake is a dead snake in my yard" a phrase that makes me cringe. A friend of mine many years ago brought a snake he had killed bragging about the copperhead. When I told him he had killed a corn snake he just couldn't believe it. I had to get a book out to show him. I never understood how the copperhead got that name when the corn snake has a lot more copper color than the copperhead. I don't know, does "copper" refer to something other than color? I suppose it has the darker color of tarnished copper sometimes but not usually on the head. Those darker colors are usually more mid body. Well I will have to keep quite about the snake. I don't want my neighbors to know they would probably freak.

We get rattlers and bull snakes here as well as garters. It seems my garden has a rodent visiting and I sure wish a garter snake or an owl would pay a visit.
Plus it would keep the neighborhood kids from raiding it.

If I could have it my way, my family would still live in the country. Atleast we live in KC where there are miles of sprawling parks, creeks, and interconnecting forest lines. In the area I live in we commonly have deer in our yards daily, and during the rut you have to keep a wary out if jogging or riding your bike, esp. if driving. Turkeys, bobcats, fox, woodchuck, even a couple of otters have been seen and documented in my neighborhood. Snakes, yes, many different varieties. All the wildlife makes it a bit easier on this country farm boy having to live in the city. TiMo

Good God girlindocs...I wish you lived closer! I would fill your car with all the snakes, snapping turtles, frogs, woodchucks, foxes, skunks, etc. you needed. I live in a city, but on a pond and my yard is full of this stuff...and I don't like snakes (I know they do a good job and are important etc. etc....and deep down am glad they are there and I know my squeamishness is irrational...but I hate weeding for an hour and then seeing the guy right beside me. I don't know what it is about snakes...they love me!)
I don't know a lot about your area, but in addition to the pond, we have oodles of rocks. I do think you can build a habitat for them, but you have to give them lots of places to hide! They have lots of preditors. Maybe build a water feature with lots of rocks, etc. and then introduce them? I read recently in my Organic Gardening magazine of people growing potatoes by stacking tires (it makes the harvest easier because as you unstack them...there is your crop, no digging)...I was talking with a friend who tried this last year and she said it worked great, but it attracted way too many snakes. So...since you are in the market of trying to attract snakes...maybe try this tire/potato growing thing??
good luck...can't wait to hear how it goes
Kathy