Snakes are not everyone’s forte.  We here at Ramsey Central LOVE snakes.  We have some lovely black snakes in our yard, and last summer we found a garter snake had taken up residence in our playground area.  She was pretty small.  Did you know that garter snakes do not lay eggs?  They birth live snakes!  This one was a pretty small snake, you may recall it bit Audrey last summer...it was pretty funny bc it was so small Audrey could not even feel it!  We also, for the last several years have had baby ring neck snakes in our house.  We find them in the early summer, everywhere from our basement to our upstairs!!  They are really tiny (about as long as your pinky) and we just gather them up and put them out in the garden.  We have tried to keep one as a pet on a few occasions, but they always escape, so now we just let them go. 

 

Many of my neighbors hate snakes.  They kill them every chance they get.  I am trying to get them to call me so I can come and get the snake...but, many meet a quick end with the end of a shovel! 

 

In the back yard I had a little water feature.  It never worked out very well.  The pump kept giving out, and I have since figured out that the electricity up there was shorting out.  But, the final straw was when I was cleaning out the feature (which was essentially a hole covered in rocks and a little bubbler fountain thing) inside I found a dead box turtle.  That was HORRIBLE!  I felt just awful about that...so, the water feature went away.  But what to do with the hole?

 

I had seen a while back on a great Animal Planet show called “Backyard Habitat” how to make a snake habitat, and since the dirt from the feature had been dispersed around the gardens in the yard, I thought a snake habitat would be a good thing. 

 

What is interesting about a snake habitat is it is pretty easy to create, and it provides a haven for ALL snakes.  Many of them will winter in this haven together.  Garter, black snakes and even copperheads can all sleep in this one place!  We think that is pretty cool.  Now, I did not take any pictures of it before, but I will show you what it looks like after and explain what I have done. 

After removing the liner from the water feature I filled the dirt bottom hole with logs and mid sized rocks and a few leaves.  Then, over the top I arranged the rocks that were formerly part of the water feature in a flat path like way.  I only left very small openings for snakes to get in and out of...and I made sure they were too small for box turtles to get into!  And that is all there is to it.  I figure this way the snakes can come out to sun themselves on the large rocks, but have the haven underneath to quickly duck into when the owls and hawks come around!

There are many benefits to having snakes in your environment.  Number one, they cause no destruction, unlike rodents who chew and dig up bulbs.  Snakes eat many things considered to be pests by humans, including rodents, insects and worms.  Snakes are not nocturnal so you will see them out and about during the day.  Snakes do not want to be in contact with you, and will generally take off as soon as possible!  So, live and let live!