Please forgive me if this has been discussed recently but I could use some
advice. We have 2 small ponds with gold fish who are about three yrs. old.
In one of the ponds I have seen a snake. It is small, brownish color with
stripes. There are rocks that we have placed around the ponds. These are
molded ponds. We are in Houston. My question is should I do something about
this, like try to catch the snake. The fish seem alright with it. I don't
know if he stays in the pond all the time or lives under the rocks. Has
anyone had experience with snakes in goldfish ponds and what should I do?
Phyl

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.

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.

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.

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!
;-)

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

"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

"Ka30P" wrote in message
...
.. But when I suspected a
young rattlesnake made its way into my family room I caused all sorts of
chaos!
;-)

YIKES, I would do a big number 1 in my pants if this ever happened to me,
snakes give me serious heebeegeebeees
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

"Harvey R. Stone" wrote in message
. ..
Please forgive me if this has been discussed recently but I could use some
advice. We have 2 small ponds with gold fish who are about three yrs.
old.
In one of the ponds I have seen a snake. It is small, brownish color with
stripes. There are rocks that we have placed around the ponds. These are
molded ponds. We are in Houston. My question is should I do something
about
this, like try to catch the snake. The fish seem alright with it. I don't
know if he stays in the pond all the time or lives under the rocks. Has
anyone had experience with snakes in goldfish ponds and what should I do?

Up until a few weeks ago we had plenty of snakes in the yard, but none in
the pond. Then we got a bigger honker in there. Little reptile was snarfing
down one of my green frogs. I tried to touch his tail, and he spit the frog
out, and swam to the middle of the pond. The next day he was gone, and we
haven't seen him since.

--
BV.
www.iheartmypond.com

If you want to catch it, you could also try "sticky board" from Lowes
or Home Depot that is used to catch rats and mice. We have caught
snakes by accident with these,

Glenn

On Mon, 03 May 2004 01:11:09 GMT, "Harvey R. Stone"
wrote:

Please forgive me if this has been discussed recently but I could use some
advice. We have 2 small ponds with gold fish who are about three yrs. old.
In one of the ponds I have seen a snake. It is small, brownish color with
stripes. There are rocks that we have placed around the ponds. These are
molded ponds. We are in Houston. My question is should I do something about
this, like try to catch the snake. The fish seem alright with it. I don't
know if he stays in the pond all the time or lives under the rocks. Has
anyone had experience with snakes in goldfish ponds and what should I do?
Phyl

Happy Camper wrote YIKES, I would do a big number 1 in my pants if this ever
happened to me,
snakes give me serious heebeegeebeees

Well the first thing that went was an entire load of laundry I threw down the
stairs at it.
We never found the dang thing. And we sure
tried. From my neighbor with a golf club to an elaborate arrangement with a
sacrificial gerbil. And since the rock band has moved in down there I suspect
it's long gone...


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

"Glenn Lynn" wrote in message
...
If you want to catch it, you could also try "sticky board" from Lowes
or Home Depot that is used to catch rats and mice. We have caught
snakes by accident with these,

Glenn

And how do you get the snake off of the sticky board?

--
BV.
www.iheartmypond.com

Now yawl done said a bad word. I know some snakes are harmless but I am t e
r r i f i e d of them.
A lot of times when I'm cleaning the pond I will think of snakes in that
water I can't see. In fact I had the day off and was re-arranging some stuff
in the pond and I got a black Koi in there that thinks he rules. He bit me
on my leg and scared the crap out of me. I didn't see him at first. Needless
I got out of his home.
Theres no snake repellant thats harmless to the fish you can like put a
boundary around your yard?
Priss

"Benign Vanilla" wrote in message
...

"Glenn Lynn" wrote in message
...
If you want to catch it, you could also try "sticky board" from Lowes
or Home Depot that is used to catch rats and mice. We have caught
snakes by accident with these,

Glenn

And how do you get the snake off of the sticky board?

--
BV.
www.iheartmypond.com

In , on 05/03/04
at 01:26 AM, EROSPAM (Ka30P) said:

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.

Cottonmouths don't have stripes. No U.S. venomous snakes do.


Alan

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In , on 05/03/04
at 09:15 AM, "Benign Vanilla" said:

Up until a few weeks ago we had plenty of snakes in the yard, but none in
the pond. Then we got a bigger honker in there. Little reptile was
snarfing down one of my green frogs. I tried to touch his tail, and he
spit the frog out, and swam to the middle of the pond. The next day he
was gone, and we haven't seen him since.

I want some black rat snakes for my woods. Too many rabbits and mice -
black rat snakes would keep the population in balance.


Alan

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Actually we had too many rats around here and my neighbor let go 10
(now i have forgotten the darn names) snakes and no one is seeing a
lot of rats anymore.






On Mon, 03 May 2004 18:07:57 -0300, wrote:

In , on 05/03/04
at 09:15 AM, "Benign Vanilla"
said:

Up until a few weeks ago we had plenty of snakes in the yard, but
none in
the pond. Then we got a bigger honker in there. Little reptile was
snarfing down one of my green frogs. I tried to touch his tail, and
he
spit the frog out, and swam to the middle of the pond. The next day
he
was gone, and we haven't seen him since.

I want some black rat snakes for my woods. Too many rabbits and mice
-
black rat snakes would keep the population in balance.


Alan

On Mon, 03 May 2004 18:05:41 -0300, wrote:

In , on 05/03/04
at 01:26 AM, EROSPAM (Ka30P) said:

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.

Cottonmouths don't have stripes. No U.S. venomous snakes do.


Alan

Let's see, there's several different coral snakes:
http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/may/p...westcoral.html
http://www.wf.net/~snake/coral.htm

and timber rattlers:
http://www.mpm.edu/collect/vertzo/he.../factshe1.html

and copperheads:
http://www.kingsnake.com/venom/

You sure about that? :-)

Maybe it depends on your definition of "stripes", but those all look
pretty striped to me, and I'm sure they would to your average
frightened homeowner.


Mike Patterson
Please remove the spamtrap to email me.

"jammer" wrote in message
...

Actually we had too many rats around here and my neighbor let go 10
(now i have forgotten the darn names) snakes and no one is seeing a
lot of rats anymore.

Thanks for all the snake information. We took most of the rocks away from
the edge of the pond today (very carefully) and so far there is no sign of
him. I know if we ever do get a good look at him he is probably earthworm
size but the two glimpses I have had he has seemed to be about a foot long
with stripes that go around his body and from the back his head looks like a
lizard head. Is there anything that we could put under the rocks that would
discourage snakes? We live in an urban area in the South East part of
Houston so it is hard to believe he or she could be too bad but then again
I don't want to find out the hard way.
Phyl

"Harvey R. Stone" wrote in message
. com...

Is there anything that we could put under the rocks that would
discourage snakes?

Mongoose? (or is that MonGeese?)


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