Snakes Are Good For Your Garden

SNAKES have a very bad reputation among many folks because people seem to inherently fear them.  That is really a shame because snakes are terribly important in the home garden. Black Snake is a common garden visitor
    
Perhaps the number one complaint of gardeners is that there are too many moles and voles.  The moles wreak havoc by making tunnels just under the surface of lawns, resulting in upraised areas of turf that are hard to mow over.  Voles, being herbivorous, sometimes eat gardeners’ plants.  But if folks would accept snakes in the yard, they would not have serious problems with moles and voles.
    
Snakes are the prime predators of these small animals because they can slither right down into their underground dens to catch them.  A snake is the only animal with the proper anatomy to easily go into burrows.  Thus snakes are much more effective than any of the products on the market that are sold for killing or repelling moles and voles, and some of these products are horribly inhumane.
    
You should recognize that there are always going to be some moles and voles in your yard which is how it should be.  A yard without moles is a yard that will be overpopulated by beetle grubs that can harm your grass or other plants when an overpopulation of these insects feed upon the roots.  A yard that has no voles—that help limit the overpopulation of plants—is a yard that will require weeding.
    
Snakes also help to limit populations of other kinds of animals that may not be problematic for people and that homeowners may prefer not to have eaten, such as bird eggs or nestlings.  However, such predation is absolutely necessary in our world (see the January, 2007, issue of Windstar's Wildlife Garden Weekly).  We wildlife lovers have big hearts and we do not generally like to witness predation, but we have no choice but to accept nature on its own terms.
    
You should watch where you are going to avoid stepping on snakes or any other kinds of animals that may be underfoot.  And never reach into areas that you can not see into.  A yard full of wildlife is a yard to enjoy but also one in which you need to be alert.  You need not be afraid, just careful and aware.

Marlene A. Condon
Author, Nature Friendly Garden
Crozet, VA

Comments

[Cedric Colond]

Beautiful website and wonderful articles. I feel that people are too quick to condemn certain animals like snakes. They all need to survive and I think if people could have a bit empathy it would go a long way.

[Pamela Showalter]

We have a small urban school with a money grant to develop toad/frog/lizard wildlife habitat in downtown Atlanta. The most protected place to establish shallow pools for tadpoles to breed is the underbrush in Grant Park (This is very close to our school; we can bring in water and keep these protected sites wet.) The problem I foresee is that the Parks Department will not like little hidden wetlands that also breed mosquitoes. Does anyone know how to set up a good breeding site for toads/frogs that is not at the same time hospitable to mosquitoes (which can carry West Nile or malaria)?

Any ideas or observations will be welcomed.

[chris]

Here is a good source for information on school yard wetlands Good luck with your conservation project!

chris
http://www.cbtrust.org/site/c.enJIKQNoFiG/b.2181893/k.B4C8/Schoolyard_Habitat.htm