questions about looking for garter snakes

[jwolfe152]

well i went to mow grass at my mom and dads where i found Ekoh my wc eastern. Well i did not see any signs but its been cloudy and humid out. what is the best times to go looking through tall grass such as a yard? and also i saw MANY holes how do i know if it was a garter hole or something else like rodents?

[RedSidedSPR]

They're rodent holes.

[guidofatherof5]

Garters evict :D the resident and then use the hole.

My guess would be the snakes saw you. Spotting them isn't easy.

[RedSidedSPR]

Yeah. But they're rodent holes. Potentially occupied by garters.

[Selkielass]

In tall grass they are very very hard to see.
I have found areas in parks where I can search a clump of day lilies by parting the leaves and feeling around d at the base of the leaves to fi d garters. Can't see them from any distance because they twine themselves among the bases of the leaves as soon as they sense motion, but they are there.

Easterns and butlers do the same thing in tall grass, weeds and brush- they blend in among the tangles and tunnels down at ground level, and emerge or climb just enough to fi.d a good sunning spot when the sun is at the right angle.

I have my best luck spotting garters on clear sunny mornings just as the day starts to warm up- if the morning is cool as I set out, but sunshine is getting warm on the skin as I return then im in the right window for my area.
(This window shifts as sunrise time changes, the angle the sun hits the trail edge shifts, and as trees fill in and shade previously sunny spots.

The snakes I see out sunning are usually in blue phase or sick in some way that slows them down. Healthy active snakes usually retreat to cover before I get close to them- I see tails retreating into brush piles or hear them moving away while im still a dozen or more feet away. Unless they are sick or careless enough to be far away from cover I don't get close to them.

Get your eyes in the zone for spotting movement and pattern that doesn't *quite* fit into the background litter and chaos. Its a lot like looking for a go-cache. When you start spotting insect movement, animal poop, and nearly invisible pieces of human trash like plastic lids, curls of wire insulation and nearly rusted away to nothing pieces of metal then you are cluing in on the right sorts of movement and artificial regularities in pattern and curve that help you spot snakes and other well hidden animals.

Mid summer is the hardest time to spot snakes in my area. The grass and weeds are lush and long, offering excellent cover, and the heat means they aren't out sunning for very long before they are warm, alert and fast.

You can try kicking clumps and tufts of grass in the hope of spooking hiding snakes into exposing themselves, but I haven't had much luck with this unless several people are moving together in a line, limiting lines of retreat.

Good luck!

[RedSidedSPR]

Something I do is lay down plywood around the edges of the area. If there are snakes in the area, you'll find them under the plywood.

[jwolfe152]

Something I do is lay down plywood around the edges of the area. If there are snakes in the area, you'll find them under the plywood.


I think this will be the way I attract snakes i would like a few more to hopefully breed in a few years maybe help get people interested in them or just let some loose increase the population

[Foxrun402]

An experiment that was brought up was to use "Used / Soiled" bedding from your snakes tank as an "attractant" to see if it would lure other garters to the area based on pheromones and scent. You could use night-crawlers in a container with lots of small holes they cant escape from as well. The downside is they cannot take the heat very well and they will die and decompose fast...

Scenting is probably worth a shot though... It works when you try and get them out to eat that's for sure. wiggle a worm piece in-front of a hide and they come right out :D

So maybe make them a small hiding spot that is nice and shaded and low to the ground... and place some of Ekoh's soiled bedding pieces in there... That may attract more... and since Ekoh was found there.. then Ekoh's scent may be familiar to others in the area

[jwolfe152]

So maybe make them a small hiding spot that is nice and shaded and low to the ground... and place some of Ekoh's soiled bedding pieces in there... That may attract more... and since Ekoh was found there.. then Ekoh's scent may be familiar to others in the area


well i will save some of the bedding for when im at my mom and dads looking. i think what i will try is get a piece of plywood close to an edge of yard with tall grass (so if they do come i have a chance in hell of seeing them before they hit the tall grass again) and i will place some soiled bedding and some night crawlers underneath the plywood (i will probably do it around sunset when its cool so that hopefully when it gets warmer during the next day they may come back quicker)

i am planning on doing this about 15 miles from my mom and dads where im living and have never seen a snake here. even if it fails here i will try at my parents where i know there are garters

[jwolfe152]

In tall grass they are very very hard to see.
I have found areas in parks where I can search a clump of day lilies by parting the leaves and feeling around d at the base of the leaves to fi d garters. Can't see them from any distance because they twine themselves among the bases of the leaves as soon as they sense motion, but they are there.


one question are they attracted to something in the day lilies in particular ir is it just that there are so many its a good place to spot them?

[Selkielass]

These day lilies border a parking area near some excellent garter habitat. Beyond them is a small mowed meadow, then scrubby weeds, woods, river and swampy seasonal wet areas.

The flower beds are the best cover in an open sunny area close to the dense wet woods these snakes like for food and reproduction- they're also safe refuge from the lawnmower.

Garters in clumps of grass dive into the thatch and the tunnels in it when danger approaches- its extremely hard to spot them as they flee between hummocks. The daylilies are isolated, surrounded bythe wood chips, very short grass, and gravel. Snakes are reluctant to leave their clump, but when they do they are fairly easy to spot until they reach the woods.

[jwolfe152]

wow it may be a little hard for me to find them in the day lilies here there is a huge area with nothing but them then maybe a foot of tall grass then a dirt/trail for atvs/dirt bikes, then, more grass then wet woods, because the canopy is so thick there i barely any sun coming through, but i still might try on my hands and knees opening my finger on the ground and going through everything. its raining here right now but it is supposed to get nice and sunny at some point

[jwolfe152]

well i went to mow grass today at my mom and dads. last time i went i tried the grass catcher on the mower but its to small so i took it off and set it by the tall weeds and grass at the property line,not even thinking of it working just like a sheet of wood or anything, well, i went to start mowing that area and thought i'm going to check it. i walked over to the grass catcher with very low expectations and flipped it over and wouldn't you know there sat a snake.
at first i was just looking because it was good sized for any snake i have seen in the "wild"(my parents live on the edge of a very small city (Mannington Wv Pop. 2,066 in 2011) with a little tall grass and a little bit of a forest/wooded area), but as soon as i move to get a better look the snake shot about 4 inches towards me and disappeared into a hole.

all i remember is that it was dark and the body and head looked like a garter but i really don't know what it was. i guess i was so surprised that i didn't bother to remember features. but i got a question, what is the best way in that situation to get closer to the snake? just move very slow is my guess but i really thought i was moving slow.

[ConcinusMan]

I think this will be the way I attract snakes i would like a few more to hopefully breed in a few years maybe help get people interested in them or just let some loose increase the population

Releasing more snakes into an area does not increase population. If snakes are there and reproducing, then the habitat is probably already supporting as many as it can. Adding more snakes only makes life harder for all the snakes there, causing the weakest/oldest to die off. What increases population is increase in food supply and winter survival rate. That is influenced largely by weather so population numbers naturally will vary widely from year to year. Artificially increasing the population by releasing snakes has no effect other than what I already mentioned. The excess will just die off.