"hitesh" wrote in message
ups.com...
I found a snake in our garden last night. I'm not really crazy about
it because I don't want him eating any of our frogs or toads. But my
thought is to let him be if he's not poisonous. How can I find out?

How to find out if he's poisonous?

Well, if you get really sick when he bites you....

Joking aside -

It looks like a common garter snake, and no snakes native to North America
with those markings are poisonous. All snakes, however, can bite you if you
poke at them enough to P them off.

As with most things in nature, if you remove it, another will take its
place. If there is habitat and food, the creatures will come.

Just hope that it eats its natural prey and isn't a lazy snake.

--------

A few weeks ago, I lifted the basement storm door (old fashioned flat kind)
on the river place in southeastern MN, and saw a decent sized black snake
resting near the hinge end of the door (2-3 ft). As I was watching it, I
caught another snake out of the corner of my eye, on the swing edge where
the door overlaid the edge, a couple feet from where I put my hand to lift
the door.
Timber rattler - a little one, maybe 2-3 ft, so I looked him over on
three sides to be sure - triangular head, all the markings. They both left
after a minute and went into the grass somewhere.
Kind of surprised me that two different snakes would roost within a few
feet of each other, but they are an odd couple anyway.

Those two snakes are now my welfare snakes - with the lawn having pocket
gophers and moles annually, those lazy *******s sit in my doorway and never
lift a scale to go eat the offenders.






http://hitesh.smugmug.com/gallery/1685936/1/82782895
http://hitesh.smugmug.com/gallery/1685936/1/82782925
http://hitesh.smugmug.com/gallery/1685936/1/82782940
http://hitesh.smugmug.com/gallery/1685936/1/82782959

Thanks,
Hitesh
'