Snakes in the Grass (and other places)

[bill1953]

Has anyone seen a snake in the wild or gardens etc? I have never seen one in Ireland but that's because St Patrick got there before me. I think I saw an adder on Tryfan in Wales but it could have been four mices in a line. I was shown a grass snake in three pieces once that had been hit with an axe by a pest controller. Snakes aren't designed to withstand that sort of force so it was dead and the pest controller had obviously only completed the basic half day course in pest control (if it moves, wallop the beastie wiv an axe)
I spent countless holidays searching the sandhills at Blackrock in Wales for grass snakes which are supposed to be endemic there and then my daughter's friend on his first visit runs up the sandhill and falls over a four foot specimen.

Has anyone seen any and what did you see?

[The Riff-Raff Element]

We get loads in the garden! Grass snakes, common adders, asp vipers, southern smooth snakes & western whip snakes. The last can be big - I've seen one over 2 meters long - and they can be aggressive and downright obstinate. I have to move western whips away from the communal areas of the gites several times every summer and have been bitten twice. They're not poisonous but they strike hard and have needle sharp fangs. I don't harm snakes, but a lot of people around here are terrified of them and will kill them if they come across them.

Here's some piccies of one that tried to kill me a few years ago - this was only a couple of feet long and couldn't get past the gloves:

[bill1953]

Great pics Jon!

[MKG]

I've seen adders and grass snakes. I've seen adders that look like grass snakes, and grass snakes that look like adders. Nowadays, I'm happy to say "oh look - a snake" as you often can't tell the difference until you're really close, at which point the snake can become quite peed off with you.

Mike

[oldjerry]

We had loads of adders in West Cornwall,behind one of the nuseries I slaved for,was some cleared but unused land,any sunny day you'd see ay least one curled up on a stone asleep.

Concur with Jon viz the European attitude towards snakes.In Italy they are terrified of even the most hamless..'Serpenti....Porca Madonna....' !!....think it could be a Catholic/Garden of Eden thing....personally I always found the scorpions in the bedroom more alarming.

[matowakan]

I get a lot of grass snakes - at least I think they are grass snakes and not adders but am not really sure!!! Baby ones to bigger ones and lots of slow worms that look like snakes!!1 And I hate anything snakelike with a passion.

[chicken feed]

i have seen snakes in the garden. i have been too close to one big grumpy snake whilst gardening one sunny october day, i was clearing the garden for winter under the hawthorn bush when i got a sudden sharp pain in the arm i then heard a rusttling sound i thought i had been pricked by a hawthorn but when i went in for lunch i noticed my hand and arm were swollen very swollen so on closer inspection i noticed 2 puncture holes in my arm a trip to A&E confirmed i had a snake bite by their calculations 5 - 6 ft long. i now prod the areas of the garden i know the snakes like to visit prior to setting to work.

i dont mind sharing the garden with the wildlife so long as they dont mind sharing with me.

[bill1953]

i have seen snakes in the garden. i have been too close to one big grumpy snake whilst gardening one sunny october day, i was clearing the garden for winter under the hawthorn bush when i got a sudden sharp pain in the arm i then heard a rusttling sound i thought i had been pricked by a hawthorn but when i went in for lunch i noticed my hand and arm were swollen very swollen so on closer inspection i noticed 2 puncture holes in my arm a trip to A&E confirmed i had a snake bite by their calculations 5 - 6 ft long. i now prod the areas of the garden i know the snakes like to visit prior to setting to work.

i dont mind sharing the garden with the wildlife so long as they dont mind sharing with me.

Wow! What part of the world do you live in?

[chicken feed]

cambridgeshire

[Lost-in-the-Day]

I'd love to have snakes in the garden. Sadly the closest thing I've seen in the wild was a dead slow worm my dad found when I was little.

I have 4 corn snakes in my bedroom though, does that still count in the "other places" category? It's pretty much a wilderness in there so that's like the wild right?

[bill1953]

Part of the Oxford Dictionary definition of 'Wilderness'

noun
[usually in singular]
an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. a neglected or abandoned area:

Yep, untidy bedroom can count and I reckon mine is a site of Special Scientific Interest