I wouldn't do anything. Any dog should be able to handle a snake, or certainly learn quickly to avoid them. Garter snakes are not poisonous and are quite shy. I wouldn't think they will bother you at all, even if they are hanging out in the siding. I would just make sure they can't get into the house--as much for their safety as for your reassurance.

Martha

Those garden spiders (banana spider) scare the crap out of me and I know they are beneficial to our gardens but ewwww. Did you know they are only a little less toxic than a black widow? I don't know which I am more scared of. At least I know if I see a black widow out and about, chances are it is a male, and at least they lose their toxin when they become an adult. Still I don't care for them and they freek me out and yes I use to be in pest control, LOL. We actually had customers that kept them as pets. OMW!!

Anywho, the best way to get rid of a snake is to eliminate the food source. Which that might be hard for a garter snake. I have heard about moth balls and people have good results with them. If it freeks you out being in your walls and I can't say I might not be bothered by it, wait for it to go out in the garden and try to cover the hole. Steel wool works great for mice so it should work for snakes also.

If that doesn't work try to get a cat, or a few outside cats.

Here in tennessee snakes are protected, can ya believe that. These dern rednecks I swear, lol. Though it doesn't stop some and I be dern I sure am not going to tell. This picture was taken a few weeks back. It decided to smile at me after I ran over it twice. Yes I said twice, once going down the road, 2nd backing up to get the shot. Now this is one nasty stinky ugly bad son of a gun cotton mouth. I would be spending the night in a hotel if it was in my walls and the realtor would be called the next day, LOL.
{{gwi:409021}}

Maybe I should clarify my statement of protecting my puppy.. all the snake repellents on the market- moth balls etc are toxic. I just want to keep the snake away from the corner of the house where it seems to have found a way into the siding but not do anything that could possibly harm my puppy. The steel wool is a great idea.

The chances of me ever seing the snake crawl into the siding again is about 0 but the puppy definitely lets me know when it is on the there.

OP I got nuthing to offer but my deep empathy.

And Carolyn... You are a braver woman then I ..I could not live in the south or anywhere w dangerous snakes. I will stay here in New England thank you very much!

You can send that snake to me. They eat slugs. I want one.

It really isn't that bad where I live. This was taking around my mother in laws, she lives on the lake. I keep my eyes peeled when walking in deep grass and in the woods around her place. I guess it is one of those things you just get use to.

To be honest I am more scared of spiders than I am a snake, LOL. All jokes aside when I first started in pest control I totally kept that secret. Then I learned which ones could hurt you and which ones couldn't so it helped me out a lot. Finally I got to where I could hold a small spider in my hand. The bad part is we grow things big around here, and even a huge wolf spider (pretty much harmless) still makes me scream and freeze any kind of movement. LOL

OMG...Snakes! I want to move to SC, but the main reason is SNAKES! I'll take a spider anyday. I'm scared of snakes and "The BLOB"! (They never killed it. Just froze it.) (Global Warming!) It's one of my favorite cult classic Monster movie!

Garter snake=harmless. Cotton mouth= Yikes! Too scary, countrycarolyn. I had an uncle from Ohio that was came to visit us in Alabama to hunt. We took him up to Mt. Cheaha where we saw some guy trying to capture a HUGE (my young mind remembers it being about 5' long, but I don't was know what it was in reality) rattlesnake alive so he could take it to some lady who milked the venom and did research. I guess she was not normal, having a hobby like that. My uncle hates snakes and decided right then and there that Alabama was a No Hunting Zone.

I was amazed when I moved to NH that there are NO native poisonous snakes. NONE! Hard to believe. My 11yo daughter can catch snakes with her hands. I guess she's not normal, either.

This week in the garden we saw a big garter snake with a huge bulge in its body. Don't know what it had for dinner, but it looked like it was about the size of a mole or vole. What a helpful snake!

P.S. Once in Alabama there was a small rattle snake underneath my bed. I have no idea how it got there, but it was quite a surprise to see it staring at me when I went to get a box out. Remembering my parents' adrenaline-pumped strategy to kill the thing is still a hysterical memory. I'm not too scared of snakes, and they would have been better off letting me try to catch it, but then I would have missed out on one of the most hysterically funny episodes of my childhood. The best paid comedy writer couldn't have made it any funnier.

Echo Carolyn on the big spiders. I admit, as a northerner, I have to have pest treatment around my house (not in my veggie garden area!) to adjust. Although it wasn't the spiders that got to me, but the voles/mice/rats. I can usually outpace a spider in the house, and it's soon a dead spider, but I don't stand a chance against the speedy small furry critters.

Spent a bit of my childhood in the Sahel in Northern Ghana. When we first moved there (I was almost 5), I remember the huge wind-scorpions they used to have. I remember waking up and seeing a saucer-sized wind scorpion (or flat wall spider, never could catch one and complete the ID) above my head on the wall. Later I learnt that they were totally harmless but for some time to me they were from outer space.

In MI, we don't really get anything to worry about, apart from the occasional Coppermouth. But my wife is paranoid about spiders so our house is full of stuff to get rid of them.. Apparently they are knocked out by these low sonic devices (again can't confirm that as I have never had the time to experiment).

They filmed the Blob theater scene in a town quite close to me. Every year the town has a reenactment of the crowd fleeing the building.

I have a garter snake, too. It seemed to move in when I constructed a raised bed garden. He/she likes to leave snakeskins in there. I am hoping he/she is also snacking on the zillion pavement ants in the raised bed.

I don't mind the garter snake at all, but it makes me wonder if harmless snakes are attracted to my yard, will the scary types be too?

Did your garter snake just climb up the outside of your house, or did he get up under the siding?

I think even a harmless garter snake under my house siding would freak me out.

Years ago I had a small raspberry patch in the back yard and one day I saw a garter snake in it. So the next day I went out side, reached into the bushes and shook um and said "go into your hole, snake, I am coming in." I worked in the patch and no snake. I came out of the bed and was standing in the grass and the snake crawl over my foot and disappeared into the raspberry patch. I guess he had been busy sunny himself in my grass. LOL