Iris draw snakes. I have both in my yard, only seen black snakes in my iris, oh yeah and they like blackberrys too.
I absolutly abhore snakes, don't care what kind it is, but I have been told that if you have a black snake in your yard you won't have copperheads, so I resist pulling out the machete when I see one (it is illegal to kill ANY snake in the state of MO. so unfortunatly, I have to do alot of resisting) my neighbors break the law all the time, always saying "it's a copperhead, kill it!" 9 times out of ten it is a harmless snake they are killing, I have a book on them just to make myself feel better about having these snakes around. I know how your wife feels belive me.
I have never not once seen a snake in my hostas, usually snakes like to hide under things, like leaves and landscaping timbers things like that, not having hostas is not going to stop them.

I would say NO. Snakes like it hot. I have never seen a snake right in my Hosta beds, but i did have a very aggressive bull snake a couple years back nearby. My little dog spotted it to begin with, then a circus started! I am not scared of snakes. My first inclination is to catch them, (frogs, too LOL)
I caught the snake, He ended up being over 2' long, had to put the barking dog inside, ended up just walking back across the road, walk a bit, release.

What is wrong with drawing snakes? I welcome the little darlings in my gardens, but that is just me, I am a natural girl.

To answer your question, no hostas do not draw snakes anymore than any plant does, snakes have no interest in plants of any source, that is not their food. What draws snakes is the right conditions, food and shelter. It does not matter what you plant, snakes do not care about plants, it's a matter of keeping their food source out of your gardens. But on the other side of the coin, they will keep so many of the pest that plaque any garden regardless of what is planted under control. Even if you do manage to keep mice, voles, moles, grasshoppers, toads, birds, ect, totally out of your gardens (and why would you want to with most of those), think about it, an impossible task, if you have snakes in the area, they will still show up from time to time in their hunting expeditions. They are only natural critters just trying to live, they are not out to get you.

A snake I came across one day while gardening.

Which snakes are semi-poisonous?

I can't say that I've ever seen a snake in my hosta beds. I did watch a snake try to go into one of my irrigation valve covers, quite an impossible task considering it had recently eaten a mouse. Good snake. Now just to stay on the subject of hostas, I repeat I've never seen one in my hosta beds.

As far as snakes go,most of the snakes you will see are non-poisonous. I live in a wooded area,and have never seen a poisonous snake yet,and we could have most of them here. We do have one huge blacksnake in the area of my house,and aside from scaring me occasionally,I let them alone. They like rats,mice and voles,so what's the bother? Basically snakes just frighten you occasionally,but as Choc says,they are useful. Phil

I wish a couple would move into my hosta bed . . . I'd rather have a couple of garter snakes than voles in the hostas! But then, I was the teacher whom the other teachers called when one got loose in the classroom . . .

highjack, "semi poisonous" is probably not the most appropriate term - that's just a term commonly used for snakes that are venomous but will not cause serious harm if you are bitten. I should have said "mildly venomous". Examples are mangrove snakes or various other colubrid snakes (vine snakes, some vipers, etc).

About that pic of the snake, could/would a garter snake that small actually eat slugs on hostas?

garder snakes are our fiends. The more the merrier I say.

Andrea, I learn something new about you every day.

I used to raise, sell and educate on reptiles - lizards.

You'd love my friend Gina, she has a huge Iguana as a pet.

I have never seen a snake in my hosta. I did find a couple living in my zinnias where it was nice and hot.

Mostly all I ever find under my hostas are my cats lounging in a cool place. However, it is a bit disconcerting when you reach under a hosta and something moves... :)

Diann

Usually when I reach under a hosta and something moves, it ends up being a chipmunk. The other day it was a baby squirrel, man are they ugly!

Hostas don't have any particular snake drawing qualities other than those qualities that all vegetation has that make vegetation an attractive place for snakes. Shade in hot weather and attracting prey items make vegetation popular with snakes, but Hostas are no more or less popular than any other plant you will have.

Sassy, actually the smaller the snake the better it eats slugs since it is not big enough for larger prey. Garder snakes start out as insect eaters and then move on to bigger things as they grow.

Margo, I had a 6 foot iguanna for years, raised her from a tiny baby, had a huge, and I do mean huge cage, 6x6x8ft cage in the corner of my livingroom for 10 years. And even so, Bubba was taken out everyday to lay on the back of the couch to watch tv with me, I ate popcorn, she ate her veggies which I feed to her between nibbles of popcorn, she really was the sweetest thing, actually very affectionate. I lost her due to my ignorance after 10 years, she became egg bound and I did not reconize the signs in time, something I have to live with. Not an easy thing to live with for those considering exoctic pets, sometimes they require care than we are not warned about, I sure never expected this after 10 years of having her.

My best friend's iguana has it's own room in their house. He's about 5 feet long right now. It does have a huge cage that it goes into when they are not there. Gary's (the iguana) favorite food is squash, he will do anything for squash. Right now he is sick with a bacterial infection he got from some vegetable the vet thinks. So my friend has to wrap him up like a burritto and feed him antibiotics. Sorry to hear about your iguana.

I lost my biggest and favorite iguana to calcium deficiency issues from when he was young. I got him (Marley) when he was already over a foot long and when he reached about 6.5 years old he turned into rubber lizard...his bones lost calcification. I had to put him to sleep at almost the same time a Jackson's Chameleon I rescued from some idiot died from being eggbound, as well. I closed down the reptile "anything" and have never had or sold one again.