IF I had any, I would certainly leave them. They eat slugs and other bugs I don't want...

they startle the bee-gee-bees out of me.. but their typical reaction is to move away faster than i can catch them.. once i stop screaming like a girl ...

its not that i am afraid of them .. its just the movement out of the corner of my eye.. when i am focused on something else .. startles me.. and the reaction its not pretty ... lol ... luckily the neighbors already know.. and dont find this reaction all that odd for me ...

ken

ps: like when you are reaching under a giant hosta for a stick.. and it starts slithering in your hand ... man .. go change the underwear after that ... but i digress ... rather completely.. dont you think ...

My resident snake is named Esme. I'm glad to see her but even when I don't I'm glad she's living here to eat bugs, slugs and whatever else is on her diet. She harms none and as Ken pointed out, they usually slither away at top speed as soon as they see or hear you.

She had my 6' 3" neighbor cornered one day when I walked across the lawn to help him identify plants he'd lost the tags for. He was sitting in a lawn chair close to his house and refused to move while she was in his driveway so I got a stick and tapped her tail end to get her moving. She rose up like a cobra and hissed at me--all 2 ft. of her. Cracked me up. She's no bigger around than my thumb so I was pretty sure she wasn't about to swallow me whole.

C'mon, a few garter snakes around the garden is no big deal.

It's not as if you bought a house built on top of a garter snake den.

I am also terrified of snakes.

For years, I have had a resident garter snake in my tomato patch. For years, I would make a bunch of noise upon nearing the tomatoes and it would leave for a bit.

Last year, I found garter snakes in most areas of my yard. At first, I was alarmed but took it to be a sign of a healthy yard/garden. I let them be, and stopped wearing flip flops while gardening and started wearing gloves while weeding.

This year, I found mating bull snakes in my yard. I am guessing they are also a sign of a healthy yard/garden but one was aggressive enough to think the yard was hers.

I have two young kids and she took up residence near my front door; stretched out she was 6'.

She came out one day and I sipped whiskey until I had the guts to catch it; before it climbed back into it's hole. From inside the house, the kids and I watched it slither to and fro across my front yard - with a MAD MAD MAD momma robin pecking at it.

Thankfully, I have a fearless friend who came and eventually captured both snakes. We relocated them FAR from my house and I wish them a great life.

After seeing that bull snake, the garter is less scarey, but I still want them to keep their distance. I must have a yard amorous to snakes, because I nearly stepped on mating garter snakes recently; was wearing flip flops....

I am guessing that new bull snakes will come and replace the ones that I relocated, so moving the garter snakes is also pointless; in my yard.

Well I will share my recent snake viewing to freak everyone out. :) My dog was hanging out at the corner of my house and was acting like she 'got' something. hmmm there is my puppy and a snake battling. I proceeded to watch the snake retreat and slide right up the siding of my house. Now what do I do? Great feeling knowing that a snake likes to hang out there. I am thinking of trying the moth balls in a coffee can to 1- deter the snake with the smell but also protect my puppy. thoughts? Anyone else have any experience similar where you need to protect a pet.

I haven't seen any snakes in my suburban yard in over 20 years. The neighborhood got too built up, I guess. I'd be happy to have them there. How can you tell if you have them, but just never see them?

Ha, I think snakes are cool and would not mind one in the yard unless it's very large or is poisonous. I notice a lot of people are very afraid of snakes. I am not sure why.

Larger snakes are dangerous to birds and pets, but it would have to be pretty large. Most garter snake are pretty tiny and would likely be eating stuff like slugs (good) and frogs (bad).

Paul

After the snake experiences I had while gardening in Texas (encounters with various giant legless reptiles, including the water moccasin that came through after a tropical storm, another snake I discovered at eye level while working around a shrub, the large snake that boiled up out of a water feature while I was removing muck from the bottom one night (explaining why my goldfish kept going missing), the big coiled one (apparently venomous) that I barely missed stepping on while I was home alone, the huge green one that reportedly was the biggest snake the Sears man had ever seen and which you could hear moving along at a distance, etc. etc.), a few garter snakes are easy to accept.

My wife though is not a fan of any snakes, and will shriek when one appears on TV (including the opening credits of "Cops").

I wish a had a few friendly snakes. I like them.

Years ago, my dear departed grandma was visiting my aunt and her family down in Atlanta. My grandma's eyesight had been terrible for years. She reached for a broom to do some sweping and well, you can guess the rest! I don't know who was more startled.

Ha,

I had a similar story once where I try to take down the bird feeder in the middle of the night and reached for what appears to be a bag. It turns out to be a large skunk. Fortunately, it ran away instead of spraying me. Never picked up a snake by accident. Frankly, snakes are uncommon in my area.

Paul

I used to catch garter snakes on the school playground and chase the other little girls with them....I have always loved snakes. My father is terrified of them but he'd pick them up and yell for me holding them by the tip of the tail as far away from his body as he could.

I have never understood how some people can be so afraid of them. Spiders too. I just don't get it.

There are several garter snakes in the yard, but they have never been a problem, unless the cat catches one and brings it in the house. Fortunately, he never hurts them and I just take them outside again. I think he is always catching the same one, and I'm sure the snake is pretty tired of that, as I am.

Black snakes live here too, which is probably why there isn't much of a vole problem. The cat never catches those. Black snakes, that is, he does catch an occasional vole for me. Unfortunately, a black snake wiped out a flying squirrel nest that was in a big oak by the back door, and I hated that.

I've never seen a copperhead here, thank goodness. The resident snakes and I live pretty amicably, for the most part.

I've built an immunity to snakes as a child as my brother would place garter snakes around my neck to taunt me, in which eventually I'd just laugh at him. Then we took one home from Grandma's place up north as a pet. My Mom didn't know, of course, until she found the empty milk carton, and the snake wrapped around my bicycle.

But, I have the same reaction Ken does when it comes to spiders in my world. The thought of touching one gives me the heebie jeebies and I go running, screaming and crying, get it off of me! get it off of me!!! is it off??? is it off???? jumping up and down making sure it's not hanging by a web. What a spectacle.

I have never seen any garter snakes here in my neighborhood, however. To answer your question, if I were running them over with a lawnmower, then yes, I'd want to relocate them.

For about three weeks last month, we noticed the clothes had a funny smell after they came out of the dryer. At first we thought it was mildew, that things were not drying fully and I wasn't taking them out of the dryer in time.

So I spent a lot of time re-washing almost everything and STILL couldn't get rid of the smell, which was getting worse. We finally realized it was coming from the dryer itself. When we took off the duct to the wall, we discovered that the smell was coming into the house from the duct.

Called a duct cleaning company and with much work the guy got out a very dead black snake that had gotten past the wire around the duct outside, come into the vent and made a nest! Fortunately there was no sign that it had given birth, but we had to replace all the duct work because the smell was so bad.

Every time I washed the clothes, I was re-stinking them! I have had to throw away some things that just won't lose the smell.

BTWNext time I'll tell you about the pair my husband found two weeks ago, one on the driveway and one on the roof (!) of the garage. I would have had a heart attack!

chris

I have a lot of garter snakes and encourage them to live in the garden. They don't bite and are not poisonous. I'd be afraid for the snake, not the puppy. My cat caught one last year and carried the poor thing around for half the day before I could get it away from her. It was bleeding when I let it go. I hope it survived.

I read the link about the snake house. No sympathy from me. What kind of idiot doesn't take disclosure seriously?

They were lied to, though, by the real estate agent. I've had that happen to me (not snakes, though). It seems like a succession of real estate agents are being unscupulous here. I just hope they didn't shell out too much in a downpayment.

True - but again, what kind of idiot does not take disclosure seriously!?! If not idiots, really, really REALLY naive to trust the agent when the **seller disclosed there was a problem**.

Although, I wonder if the agent will end up losing their license over this and/or if the agent will be found liable, at least in part.

That house was a snake hibernicula and it makes me not only feel sorry for the occupants, but the snakes who depend on dens for surviving the winters. There is one state, and I forget which, where their local garter is going extinct mostly because they are killed by humans. No, I don't expect the family to have to co-exist with hundreds of snakes but neither did I appreciate they killed over a hundred harmless garter snakes when they knew full well what they were getting into.

I have a garter snake up in one of my g'houses now. It has decided that laying on the benches daily is a good thing to do and I work around wherever it happens to sun itself. Last year it was a big rat snake who lived there. I also have a resident black snake in the cellar and we just watch what we pick up.

Obviously I am not afraid of them and appreciate their role in prey/predation. No, I don't relocate them. We did remove any delapidated outbuildings on our property so they wouldn't be drawn to occupy structures near the house. It's rare now to have one 'get in' the house and if one does, my husband leaves it to me to pick it up and remove it. LOL.

Chris-e, I had to laugh out loud at your post. How gross.

In the future, if you can't get rid of the stench in clothing, go to a pet store and purchase natures miracle. Douse the clothing, and let it dry on its own. Enzymes in the product remove common pet odors. Or in your case, dead snake. LOL.

I wish we had a few snakes. I would jump and yell if I saw them out of the corner of my eye as Ken said, but I would be happy to have a black snake and be rid of the mice and chipmunks. Maybe I just don't see them. We have every other kind of wildlife here in our suburban/urban neighborhood-foxes, deer, opossums, raccoons, and even a coyote, or so neighbors say-there must be some garter snakes and/or black snakes.

That snake house story should be made into a move-lol. Not funny for the people living there though. They should tear down the house, plant the entire lot and leave it be.

We are over run with them this year. Also milk snakes seem to enjoy themselves this year in my covered compost pile(warmth)
I'd gladly send anyone some snakes who wanted them!!

I too wish that I had snakes (not to mention toads and frogs)... anything to consume my overpopulation of insects and rodents. The snakes won't hurt you, and think of all the pests they're eating. Although granted, finding one in your home or running over one with a lawnmower might be a bit traumatic.