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Snakes in my mulch bags
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Posted by giggles1 NY (My Page) on Fri, Jul 3, 09 at 19:26
I had 5 bags of black cedar mulch left over from last year. They were stacked next to one of my gardens. So far, I opened 3 & have had 5 snakes btwn them. Just garter snakes, but being mulch, I'd like to stick my hand in the bag to spread it... w/o getting bit!
Is there anything I can put there to "chase" them out? I was just planning on stocking up on mulch during a sale this weekend --- but not if I have to contend with more snakes! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| How fun! NOT!!! I'm askeerd of snakes. A few years ago I had a cute little salamander in a bag of potting soil I had left over from the previous year. Not sure how he got there all by his lonesome but it was a shock. Not as much as a snake would have been. What I did was dump the contents of the bag out in a wheelbarrow in case there was another. Didn't want to accidently cut one with my trowel. You could dump the mulch out and spread it with a garden fork. That way the snakes could get away and eat any bad bugs that are in your garden. I've only seen a couple of garter snakes here, guess there's not enough for them to eat. Have lots of toads tho. |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| Garter snakes will not bite you, they may gum you a lot but since they have no teeth they cannot bite. Since the habitat that attracts toads is very similar to that which snakes need to live in the presence of toads with no snakes says you do not have enough food to support both, although garter snakes could eat toads. |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| moth balls will run them out |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| Garter snakes have no teeth?? Tell that to my cousin's son of whom I have three pictures. One with him holding a bucket with a garter snake in it. The second with him holding the snake---per Aunt Ann's request. The third picture shows the garter snake biting little Alex on his right cheek. Had I taken a fourth picture, you would be able to see the three puncture marks on his face, but at that point, I didn't want to give my ward any more evidence for him to show his parents. |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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- Posted by pt03 3 Southern Manitoba (My Page) on
Sun, Jul 5, 09 at 13:22
| "Garter snakes have no teeth??" Just the old ones that retire to Michigan! LOL Royd P.S. I hates snakes, garter or otherwise, so I wouldn't ever get close enough to find out! |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| aaeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! *takes breath* EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| "Since the habitat that attracts toads is very similar to that which snakes need to live in the presence of toads with no snakes says you do not have enough food to support both, although garter snakes could eat toads." Could also mean we have a lot of predators who feed on garter snakes but who don't eat toads. So did you find more snakes, giggles? |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| Garter snakes sure do have teeth. And they are more than willing to bite. They even have a mild venom. They DON'T have fangs. |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| I love my garden snakes! makes me feel very rural & organic & stuff to find a garden snake under something. luckygal has a good idea;
just dump the mulch out & let the snakes slither soundlessly away... Mothballs might run off the snakes, but some people (me) have a terrible reaction to mothballs. I'd rather have snakes than mothballs. |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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| I'm fond of garter snakes too. In fact, I never even got the name right until I was studying zoology in college. My father had been so emphatic about how helpful they are about eating pests that I called them "gardener" snakes until I was 18. LOL I don't want to grab one by surprise and they will bite if provoked but they're gentle, non-aggressive garden assistants (Dad always swore they kept the slugs and grubs down), so if you just dump the mulch out into a garden cart or onto a tarp they'll wiggle off into the nearest shelter without troubling you. |
RE: Snakes in my mulch bags
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- Posted by glib 5.5 (My Page) on
Sun, Jul 5, 09 at 22:04
| Without them, my slug population would be in the tens of thousands at least, and my vole population in the thousands, so be careful what you wish for. I help them any way I can (protect them from predators). Due to drip irrigation and mulch sometimes I do not visit one of my gardens for a week. That is enough for them to move in and start doing what they do. Too bad raccoons and hawks get them all the time. The neighbor who has horses once covered a pile of manure in black plastic. I went to his place to get some manure and I helped pull the plastic. It was a cold May day. Underneath, several hundred garter snakes had found a little warmth to get through the first days out of hibernation. What a sight. |
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