My error, Sue, in my earlier post (thread below), I should have
clarified that the snake I saw under the rim of my water garden (head
was black, about 2" long) was *not* the same as the little earth snakes
in my compost pile. Although it was obvious to *me* when I wrote the
post that I was discussing different snakes, I see that I did not make
that clear.

And it was quite a surprise to me when I was not expecting anything to
come out from under the water garden rim!

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh
______________________-

Siouxzi wrote:

Anne wrote

Aha! Sue, those must be what I've seen in my compost pile! They really
look like overgrown "nightcrawlers" (worms, bait for fish), but they
moved WAY too fast to be a worm. I've only seen a couple, but dealing
with them was clearly not a problem, as they were not at all happy to
see me, and all they wanted was to get away from me ASAP. They weren't
all that "tiny" though, as I guessed they were maybe 6-8" long.

Alas, I can't say that I was all that happy about seeing the snake who
was hiding (or trying to) under the rim of my tiny "water garden" --
OTOH, I now have a sorta-valid excuse for not handweeding there!


Now Anne, just remember, these are very shy and delicate little
harmless critters. 6-8 inches is pretty tiny for a snake--they're no
bigger than a pencil and the head is tiny. The web shows some with
cream bellies, all of "mine" are uniformly salmon pink underneath and
a pretty brown color on top.
http://www.oplin.lib.oh.us/products/...rth_snake.html

If you are scared, just use gloves to pick one up--but they will not
bite anyway. They won't even poop foul-smelling stuff all over you
like a garter snake will when you pick them up. What I have noticed is
that they have a hard point at the end of their tail, and they might
poke you a little with that as they wrap around your hand. No, it
doesn't hurt. Interesting defense mechanism, might work on a
nearsighted robin but pretty ineffective otherwise, unlike teeth or
stinky poop.

Hah hah... now I am really making Lance's skin crawl.
But seriously, earth snakes in NC are beautiful things, brown and pink
and gentle. They birth live babies... no eggs. Cool, but I've yet to
find a baby.

It's said that they're "highly secretive" but when I have kids over to
visit, I turn over a few landscape timbers and can usually find one to
show them. When my husband ran over one with a seeder last week and
injured it, I was truly heartbroken. He jumped 6 feet straight up in
the air when he saw it--another snake-phobe and not interested in
"getting over it." :^)

Cheers,
Sue