I encountered this little fellow in my garden last night

[CatWoman]

it was either him, or a close relative



Scared the crap out of me!!!!

I left him alone, hoping that he would return the favor.

[supernova]

1. Plain old garden snake

looks cute to me. Keeps the mice down.

[CatWoman]

2. he is kinda cute, isn't he

but I'm still scared of him.

[CottonBear]

3. What a cutie!

There is a very nice 4' long black rat snake who lives under my office in the crawlspace. He suns in the backyard and drinks out of the water basin that I've provided for him. We no longer have a mouse problem in our office. :)

Snakes are good! Look for the skins which have been shed. They are very interesting.

:hi:

[Droopy]

4. I hear that snakes will help keep the pests down

But you couldn't tell that to my grandpa. Any time he saw a snake on his farm he was breaking out his .22 with snake shot or some heavy garden tool.

I guess I can't really blame him. He lived in an area known to inhabit poisonous snakes and he had a lot of farm animals as well as little grandkids.

[CatWoman]

5. My grandmother had a vegetable garden

and she could wield a mean hoe when she came across a snake.

Me? I'm of the mind of most of you guys - they really keep the vermin down.

[skygazer]

6. Ooooh, he's beautiful!

I love snakes. One day, I was walking out of my house just as my upstairs neighbor lady was getting out of her car by the door. I looked down and saw a HUGE garter snakem, plucked him up and said, "Hey, look at this guy!"

She took one look and fainted dead away - only time I've ever seen anyone faint. THAT scared the crap out of me! :rofl:

[japple]

7. I like snakes, too, but sometimes they startle me when I'm

not expecting to see them. Last summer, I went to take out the garbage, and there was a beautiful young copperhead sunning itself on the carport right by my garbage can. My dad beheaded it with his garden hoe. One Sunday a.m. about 20 years ago, my mother opened the door to the carport to find an extremely large, greatgrandaddy (4' and about 3-4" diameter) rattlesnake on their carport. She said it had a very strong odor and she smelled it before she saw it. Dad beheaded it. My brother skinned it and made a wall hanging out of it (and a hatband out of the little copperhead). We wouldn't kill them if we found them out in the woods, but don't want them close to the house. We have a 4' blacksnake under the house that eats voles, mice, and probably other snakes. We try to keep him/her happy!

BTW, we live in an area where they still "take up serpents" at some of the remote primitive churches.

[blindpig]

8. A good little guy to have around.

I think that's a ground snake, you're in the West? Those little suckers feed upon centipedes and/or scorpions if I remember correctly.

In any case, it is utterly harmless.

[jukes]

9. wedge or "arrowhead" shaped head is scary

anything else is not. mind you, you can get an infection from a bite from a larger garden-variety snake if you pester him, but they are't aggressive.

your little guy will keep buggies from nibbling your plants. be happy he's there!!!