I think snakes will continue to exist in a healthy yard. I keep thinking we don't have snakes because I never see any but one day a hawk caught one and sat in a tree to have lunch. I think nature's finds a good balance in a healthy yard. We have a lot of birds which we feed in winter plus I try to make our yard attractive to them. I've planted some fruit bearing shrubs, flowers and herbs plus my vegetable beds. They have a source of water. I don't cut down my perennials until spring clean up so the birds can enjoy the seed heads. We have an area that is only mowed once a year but a permaculture gardener might only mow every other year. The birds enjoy the grass seed heads. Hopefully they are also enjoying bugs since Colorado potato beetles have shown up.

I have these slender stripey snakes too. I love seeing them in my garden, even though they sometimes give me an initial scare. Very interesting that I also very rarely see slugs/snails. This did puzzle me because we had many when we lived in England, and growing up in the northeast US I watched my dad battle them for years (with saucers of beer mostly) for the sake of his vegetable garden. I never made the connection between the snakes and the lack of slugs, however.... Fascinating!

We used to have a cycle of predators going on in our small barn back in the days when it was filled with hay for our horses (RIP). One year the barn would be overrun with mice. The next year a multitude of garter snakes would show up and eat the mice. The following year weasels moved in and the snake population declined. Then the weasels would move on, the mice would move back in, and the cycle would start all over.

Now, without hay for all these creatures to hide in, the cycle has faded. This year our entire property has become a multi-acre wide rabbit warren. With our old cat gone to kitty heaven, and the two neighborhood cats aging and past their prime, a new predator(s) is badly needed here! Perhaps one will show up. We used to have foxes, and I know coyotes are in the vicinity, so perhaps they will fill the void. Something needs to!

Here is one of our snakes from back in the day, posing as a garden tool.

The snake fits in well with ergonomic handles!

This is very unlike the green grass snake I found years ago in the cellar of the old house, trying desperately to blend in with the gray concrete floor. i carefully ushered it into a bucket and brought it outside.

Claire

John, I am always happy to have snakes in the garden and fields. The other day I was stomping vole holes and startled what was mostly likely a garter snake in the shrub next to me, though I only heard it and didn't see it. It was in a spot where I often see garter snakes.

Sped, while I like snakes a lot, I sometimes reach for tools before I look carefully, and I think that one would have probably elicited a startled squawk from me when I noticed it was there!

So far on our property we have seen a grass snake, several milk snakes, garter snakes, and as of a week ago, northern water snakes.