Garter snakes
 

I am a city girl transplanted to the country last fall, so critters are not my favourite things. Like them from afar but not near me. We have a family of garter snakes living by the house. First I saw a couple sunning themselves on the stone porch- they slithered up and under the siding of the house!! My DH put moth balls there and they moved to the garden by the side door. Will those 18" long beings come into the house? I am very leery of finding one curled up somewhere. I know they are harmless and actually will eat other unwanted bugs and things, but... Now I need to get out and do some gardening and am scared of stepping on one, or worse yet, touching one. Any suggestions to help this Toronto raised girl?

I've had snakes get in the house before, so I suppose it is possible. Try to look at it logically. They can't hurt you. They are not venomous. If you do step on it, it's going to be much hard on it than you. Take a deep breath and do what needs to be done.

As you can tell, I'm a country girl. My boys used to catch baby garden snakes and watch them swim in the bathtub if I didn't pay attention to them. The snakes are no big deal to me. Of course, should I ever need to make my way through a huge, scary place like Toronto, I'll be holding your hand and hiding behind you! It's all in what you are used to in life.

I haven't seen garter snakes around here but I would welcome them like I welcome my black snakes. I try to think of them as outside pets ... they eat bugs, like you said, and they eat and keep other "bad" snakes away. Once you get over the fear of coming on one unexpectedly and being startled, you'll be fine. Push the handle of a rake or hoe around under the bushes where you want to work and they will sneak away and you'll never see them.

About the concern re: finding one in the house....get a kittie. We live in the country and various creatures get in some how...they are dispatched and offered as a gift to my DH.....on the floor next to his side of the bed.

We have them here too (Colorado) and they slither away when people or cats are near. I picked one up once. never again. my husband can do that! ick.

We have large outside cats and they do a great job of keeping critters out of the yard and we are surrounded by woods and a deep creek. My DH says they are the only pets we have that earn their keep.

I live in the country and have never been fond of any form of "creepy crawlies"! I will add that you may consider yourself lucky that you have no rattlesnakes like I shot on my place last week!! I check around here with my binoculars regularly!

We have snakes and lizards here in southern California. But a lot of our snakes are poisonous. I don't stop to find out which kind - just run for the hills.

I spent 32 years living in the country but the last 15 I was a city dweller. That is until January of this year. We moved out of state and purchased a house that is bordered by woods and a small river. I haven't seen any garter snakes yet but I did chase a 2.5 ft Black Rat Snake (non venomous and move verrrry slowwwwwly) out of our fenced in back yard 2 weeks ago. The snakes don't bother me; it is the spiders that are the size of my cat's head that freak me out. Found this Skinny Legged Wolf spider on the glass sliders yesterday. The concrete that he is sitting on us about 3" wide so that gives you a good idea of how big this thing was.