We have a lot of garter snakes around(We don't want to accidentally hurt one.)

[Superpop]

My boyfriend and I moved to a house in Saint Paul last winter and when spring first came we started seeing garter snakes which we thought was really awesome at first. Now we have seen so many over the spring, summer, and fall that we worry about accidentally killing them.

I almost ran over one with the lawn mower in the summer but spotted it just in time and just the other day there was one right in the path of my boyfriend's car and we were just about to leave in his car but I spotted it and made it crawl off into the yard.

We also had one crawl into our garage one day when we were doing some stuff in there.

And a few days ago I spotted 3 tiny(like the size of a large night crawler worm) hatchlings in a single day on the driveway and I know if they were in the yard and I accidentally stepped on one it would die.(and they would be too small to spot in the grass)


At first we liked having them around but now we worry we will accidentally kill one.

Any advice would be appreciated.


P.S. I have lived in the twin cities all my life but I think I maybe have encountered 2 or 3 garter snakes in all my life until we moved here.

We have probably seen 20-30 since living here for a little under a year!

[mainbutter]

I have no advice, but just had to say I'm extremely jealous!!

I've in fact only seen two garter snakes in the 4 college years (so excluding summers) and 2 full subsequent years living in MN. Both were this year. I think this year had a garter snake explosion... possibly related to the well-documented increase in mouse populations?

One of the two garter snakes actually got into my minnow trap in the garage, little did I know it could trap snakes also! The dog found the snake first and was really spooked by it, and now he's scared of the minnow trap.. lol

They'll go into their winter cycle soon enough.

[Superpop]

I have no advice, but just had to say I'm extremely jealous!!

I've in fact only seen two garter snakes in the 4 college years (so excluding summers) and 2 full subsequent years living in MN. Both were this year. I think this year had a garter snake explosion... possibly related to the well-documented increase in mouse populations?

One of the two garter snakes actually got into my minnow trap in the garage, little did I know it could trap snakes also! The dog found the snake first and was really spooked by it, and now he's scared of the minnow trap.. lol

They'll go into their winter cycle soon enough.

Well considering that you are jealous I wish we could swap. I did like having them around at first but now I am freaked out and worry about hurting them.

I am happy winter is almost upon us though so I soon won't have to worry about this until spring.

I'm guessing there isn't much advice to be had in this situation other than to be careful but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway.

[iCandiBallPythons]

I would think with that many there has to be a very good food source in that area I would prob start there. Another thing, I would remove any leaf clutter or other rubbish around your property that they can use

[Superpop]

I would think with that many there has to be a very good food source in that area I would prob start there. Another thing, I would remove any leaf clutter or other rubbish around your property that they can use

We had slugs galore with all the rain this summer(damn slugs were ruining our veggie garden until we got slug/snail killer)

I do know garters eat slugs and we did have have a huge slug problem this year because even on our driveway we could see their nasty slime mucus trails all over the place.

Hopefully this won't be as big of an issue next year.

I have no problem killing insects or slugs but I love reptiles, birds, bats, etc. I would just rather not worry about accidentally hurting a snake.

[Superpop]

Sorry to bump my old thread but I saw a program called 'Infested' on Animal Planet tonight and one of the stories was about a family that purchased a home and were seeing dozens of garters a day and then one day the husband went under the crawl space under the house and discovered hundreds of them! It was a Hibernaculum.(new word to me)

Anyway this is all very fascinating to me. I know I don't have a 'Hibernaculum' on my property because I never saw dozens in a day but I am now convinced there is one near by here!

[Superpop]

Ugh!!!


Sorry to bump this old thread yet again but even though it is now "spring" here in the twin cities there is still patches of snow in both our front and back yard...in the past 3 days I have seen 2 Garters out sunning.

I have a feeling this year will be worse than last year due to the massive amount of rain/snow MN got this year.(more slugs and bugs for them to eat)

Is there ANYTHING I can do to make the garters not want to be on my property???

The thing is I love them but I don't want them around here for fear of hurting them accidentally.

[mechnut450]

there is a chemical that you can put down in the yard( around building and such that claims to keep snakes away. it smells like sulfur and cause the snakes minor discomfort ( when they smell the air near the stuff) lowes has it so I bet other stores do to it last like 2-5 months .
I would get some and put a trail of it around the propert edge or were you don't want them. it should either drive them out or reduce the chances of seeing them.

[Superpop]

there is a chemical that you can put down in the yard( around building and such that claims to keep snakes away. it smells like sulfur and cause the snakes minor discomfort ( when they smell the air near the stuff) lowes has it so I bet other stores do to it last like 2-5 months .
I would get some and put a trail of it around the propert edge or were you don't want them. it should either drive them out or reduce the chances of seeing them.

Thanks....

Do you have any idea about the name of the product in question?

[Swingline0.0.1]

My neighbors keep killing the garters where I live. I told them I would come take them off their property instead of killing them, and they said they LIKE killing them! They even let their dog kill them on my side of the fence!