What snakes can you meet in your garden?

Do not be afraid of snakes. These animals are not your enemies. First, do not freak out if you see one. Give snake a space and nothing will happen to you. It is really that simple. Well, at least in our climates as we hardly have any species that you should be afraid of. Even though you are subconsciously afraid of snakes, there is no reason. So, where you can actually meet one?

Let us try your garden. There is an extremely low chance that you will encounter a viper, the only poisonous snake in our climate, in your garden. Sure, you can meet it in nature – in sunny slopes, meadows or fields, etc. You can hardly see a viper in an altitude below 300 meters, but above that up to about 600 meters you may see it, even though the probability is rather low. You have much better chance to see a viper at higher altitudes. Viper is actually great for the nature as it consumes a large number of rodents and that makes it a very useful animal.

Slow worm (Anguis fragilis) is not a snake

The most common “snake” you can see in your garden is a slow worm. It is actually a legless lizard and is completely harmless. Your garden will benefit from its presence, as it feeds on snails, worms, various larvae and spiders. It has an unobtrusive brownish colour and is usually only about 30 cm long. Just like lizard, slow worm may lose a part of its tail and can partially grow it back.

There are grass snakes (Natrix natrix) that live in our climate such as Aesculapian snake or the barred grass snakes (Natrix helvetica), while they may bite you if you catch it and play with it, they are harmless. No poisonous in teeth.

They feed on rodents and lizards, and sometimes on larger insects or bird eggs. They are usually longer than vipers, which grow to a length of 60 to 80 cm. Some specimens of grass snakes can be up to two meters long.

Photo: Pixabay

Do not kill a snake

All our snakes are protected and you cannot kill them under any circumstances. If you do not want snakes in your garden, keep it tidy. Snake will not like a beautifully mowed lawn and cleaned up garden but they like quiet places and spots where they can hide. A pile of wood is a good hiding place for snakes. They love to bask on hot and sunny rocks for example. Also your composter will look attractive to them because it is warm and they may lay eggs there.

Snakes do not like ground vibrations

Reptiles are deaf, but they are very sensitive to ground vibrations. You will not scare them away by shouting or clapping but if you keep stamping around they will crawl to safety quickly and away from your sight. Snakes are very shy and only attack when you surprise them or step on them. So, you should not see any snakes in your garden if you keep running around a lot, but if you do see one, be cool. They may even help you to get rid of annoying rodents. Snakes can be real good helpers in this regard.

Preview photo: Pixabay

Source: https://prima-receptar.cz/jak-se-setrne-zbavit-hadu-na-zahrade/