"Ka30P" wrote in message
...

Garter snakes are good aquatic hunters.
And this snake sounds like a garter snake with its
stripes.
They will get in and eat fish. Which can be
a handy thing in a small pond as canoodling fish
will overpopulate a pond if given half a chance.

I suspect garter snakes reduced my over-
population of minnow younguns and toadlets
last fall, but left about 6 of the larger minnows
- perfect!

That said, and since you live in Texas, I would do an
online search of snakes
of Texas and make sure that is exactly what you have.
Don't handle it
regardless.

Good site for that:
http://www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps/frogs/

If you're into books, check bookstores for:
_A Field Guide to Texas Snakes_ by
Alan Tennant, 2e, Gulf Publishing Co, 1998,
291 page paperback with color snake photos.
A little pricey at $21.95 but IMO worth it.

I also recommend Texas Monthly Field
Guide Series _A Field Guide to Reptiles &
Amphibians of Texas_, by Judith M. Garrett
& David G. Barker, Gulf Publishing Co.,
225 page paperback. (I removed price
sticker, so can't help with that.)

If you find having a snake in the pond is a problem you
can remove the rocks
it uses for cover and it will probably leave the area.

You can also catch a snake in a minnow trap baited with a
live fish. Leave part
of the trap above water so the snake won't drown and then
transport to a rural
area.
Your local animal control can advise you to do if the
snake turns out to be a
cottonmouth.

Kathy's right - there are a couple of dangerous
snakes in TX so as she says don't handle
them. I killed a rat snake once that was after
my Barn Swallow nests on the patio and later
regretted it, but when it coiled up and struck
at me it was either run inside the house, hunt
up my snake book to positively ID it and risk
losing sight of a potentially dangerous snake ...
or kill it when I had it in sight. Now that I know
what a rat snake looks like I won't kill one if I
see one. (I still feel guilty about that.)

Snakes get a lot of bad press. But you have to be careful
and know what you are
dealing with.
I would not mind a garter snake visiting my pond.
Neat insight into nature that few people get to see. But
when I suspected a
young rattlesnake made its way into my family room I
caused all sorts of chaos!
;-)

I do like snakes and get all excited when
digging in the rose beds and find a Plains Blind
Snake or Rough Earth Snake. The former looks
like a big fat earthworm; the latter is about the
thickness of a pencil but a foot or so long.
Another reason to fight the fire ants!

good luck!
kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a
pond/A

Ditto (good luck)

Gail
near San Antonio TX