Lucky you to have those cute little snakes to help control insects. You might try contacting Texas A&M at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ask an Expert - Snakes

I agree - lucky you! We have a lot of them around our yard, too, but I don't think I've ever found more than 4 at a time lifting up rocks. If they're not bothering anything, they do eat loads of bugs. Our old house was a rental for 23 years before we bought it - absolutely filthy. And not a bug in sight, probably thanks to all the earth snakes and geckos. The owners lived out of state and I'm sure didn't spray for bugs or put herbicides or pesticides in the lawn.

If you have chickens, they love to eat earth snakes. I think our population has dwindled from our hunters, 2 adolescent wyandotte hens.

I love them. My chickens(now penned/tractored whatever....) only got ahold of one that I know of and were very dissappointed when I took it away. Earth snakes or TX brown snakes eat slugs and snails. I have never seen more than one or two slugs or snails here with a totally organic regime. I wondered why I had no slugs or snails until I found out the snakes eat them. That's a LOT of snakes. Can you even imagine the bug population you'd have after all this rain if the snakes weren't there? Your back 40 must be a buffet of bugs to support that many snakes! PJ

OK
You got me. What is a Earth Snake? I have a tank less than 75 yards from my house. All kinds of Snakes. Never heard of a Earth Snake.
gayle

Here is a link with some photos of Earth Snakes. It also seems to be a good site to get identification on various snakes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to photos of Earth Snakes

You're not the only one, Gayle. Earth Snake is a new one for me, too.

Carla in Rowlett

I've never seen or heard of them either. But, just yesterday, I found my chihuahua puppy chewing on one...good thing they aren't venomous!!

I wish we had some in my yard, the only thing invading it are bugs, swarms of mosquitoes of varying types and full caravans of slugs moving across the yard. I have sprayed, and put out one of those UV amps with bait to no avail. I'm trying to figure out if I put bat houses up somewhere would they move in. I think the birds have gotten lazy with the gluttonous amounts of crickets committing suicide everywhere.

I've seen more of them than usual in my yard also. My dog found a dead one yesterday, I found one in hay I was moving and a bird was attacking one in my yard a couple days ago.

Hi !

Here is a link to some photos I took of one recently.
edv7028@yahoo.com

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/559864002KSDbqJ?vhost=good-times

Here is a link that might be useful: Earth Snake Photos

Earth snakes hang out underneath things, such as rocks, landscape timbers, logs, whatever you might have on the ground that makes a good hidey-hole. They also just hang out underneath the dirt. I've accidentally dug one up occasionally while digging in the soil. They are completely harmless if you're not a slug, snail, or other ground dwelling critter.

Sally

Are Earth Snakes what my grandmother used to call Garter Snakes, or are they something else entirely? I don't know anything about snakes.

Garder snakes can get up to 48" and will take care of bigger pests like mice. Earth snakes only get 13" and are mainly insectivores. Kind of like a common lizard's diet. PJ

Years ago, my mom was doing some weeding around some brick edging around a planting bed. She pulled back one of the bricks and found a nest of those earth snakes. She stood up and started shreiking! The neighbor across the street was outside in their yard and came over to see what all the commotion was about and when he saw it was a few harmless earth snakes, he started chuckling. I was nearby and was already laughing at her reaction. I know - I shouldn't have been laughing at her, but I don't think I'd ever seen her jump up and move that fast!

I've got those little red snakes. This year, I've also been seeing some skinks. They are like a cross between a lizard and a snake. They move extremely fast. I haven't seen them in years. But as the rest of the reptiles, I assume they eat bugs, so I'm not complaining.

I don't know, Shimmer, it would have been hard for me to not laugh, either.

An interesting thing about garter snakes is that they emit a bad odor when startled. It's been years since I've seen any garter snakes in my yard, but when I did find one once and picked it up, I wondered what that smell was. I found out later what it was - the garter snake.

Sally

Thanks!

I looked and the photos. You have a much better appreciation for the little critters than I would have.

You can't smell anything in my backyard for the smell of moth balls to discourage snakes.

Gayle

Earth snakes also will put out a smelly musk if they're big enough and don't like you handling them. It's really nasty stuff.

I've never seen a skink in our yard, but I love them and would be very excited to find something like that here! We did have a monstrous load of mulch dumped in our driveway by some tree trimmers last month, and later that same day we found a dead yellow-bellied racer snake a few houses down. I think it probably came out of the mulch! Glad I spoiled the kids' fun and made them come down off the mountain - those are mean snakes!

I think all snakes will emit the odor if handled or scared. It is called snake poop. Ever watch the show, "Dirty Jobs" when Mike Rowe was working with the woman who had to catch those snakes for a living to measure and weigh them because they were a rare variety of snake in their part of the U.S.? He got pooped on a few times and also got bit a few times while helping her catch the snakes. I think you're just calling it "musk" as a nice way of saying snake poop.

I am so jealous, I love those snakes! When I was a kid we used to play with them all the time, even the mean boys next door couldn't get those snakes to bite them. I did not have any at my house so I went back to my mom's old home, turned over rocks, found a few and brought them to my house. I have a few now (wish I had more) but I love watching when my kids find one and we all play with it for awhile. I typically do not like snakes, but these guys are like pets, they are docile and fun for kids.