Garter Snakes... friend or foe?

[sneakerpro]

I stepped outside my store today for a smoke break, and one of my dogs had spotted something in the grass. My girlfriend assumed it was a frog, and as we went to go save it from the dogs it turned out to be a garter snake! My first reaction was "do we have our camera? I gotta post a pic on BP.net!", but we didn't have it.

It was small, maybe 18"-20", so after watching it for a minute I decided to move it to a field behind the store. I picked it up, and it didn't even squirm! However, after walking 10-20 feet it began thrashing around, and of course, pee'd all over my feet.

Just when you think you've made a new friend they go and pee all over.

Spotting this snake makes me excited, it's the first one I've seen this year. It is supposed to be really nice all week (in southern MI) so hopefully I can get out with my camera!

[Colin Vestrand]

sweet, what part of michigan are you in? the garters in kalamazoo are so docile sometimes they slither onto your open hand.

[sneakerpro]

I'm in Homer.. I'll assume you don't know where Homer is, so you can Google it! I'm about an hour east of Kzoo though... I know this for fact because I used to drive it all the time when I went to WMU!

[Colin Vestrand]

haha, i've heard of homer... although, you're right, i was not sure where it was!

[sneakerpro]

Did you happen to hear of Homer because of our high school baseball team? Or some other way?

[Colin Vestrand]

haha, i think i probably saw it on a sign on the highway or something. isn't it off of 94 somewhere?

[Jenn]

Garters are very cool. They make great pets too. After a few days they settle right in and stop peeing on you. I caught a large female one time and put her in an old 20 long tank. A few weeks later there were baby garter snakes everywhere!

[sneakerpro]

haha, i think i probably saw it on a sign on the highway or something. isn't it off of 94 somewhere?

It's about 12 miles south of I-94, but I don't think that there is a sign for it on the highway. I think the pop. is about 1800 so I don't really expect anyone to have heard of it. I mean c'mon, we have ONE traffic light, and NO McDonald's!

[Colin Vestrand]

oh, well then maybe i'm just thinking of the simpson's character.

[sneakerpro]

Garters are very cool. They make great pets too. After a few days they settle right in and stop peeing on you. I caught a large female one time and put her in an old 20 long tank. A few weeks later there were baby garter snakes everywhere!

I thought about keeping it at least for awhile, but my girlfriend doesn't like them.. and it's starting to get a little cramped in our house. We have 3 dogs, 2 snakes, and a hedgehog!