Snakes

[BenB]

We've gone through the gamut of various types of snakes in our back yard . Cottonmouth, Plain belly watersnakes, dekays, rat, Copperheads, a few I couldn't identify. The water snakes, of course, are the ones you really don't want around your ponds with your beloved (and expensive) Koi. They got frozen out a few years ago (we are guessing anyway) after a very cold, cold snap came through the entire region and covered literally everything with ice for over 10 days. Now? A friend was over mowing the lawn a little while ago, picked a tarp up in the back yard, saw 2 snakes and ran for his life! lol. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about it until it was too late and who knows where those snakes are hiding now, but he said one of them was huge. The only snakes we've seen recently are Dekays. Those are beneficial to have around since they eat things that we don't want. We have lots of earth worms, some of their favorite diet. At least, I don't think Dekays are water style snakes? I looked into the pond, the big Koi are all accounted for, too hard to determine if any of the smaller goldfish are gone.

 

[j.w]

Thank Heavens we only have Garter snakes here!

 

[BKHpondcritters]

We have a huge variety of snakes in & around our yard/property (which includes our pond) The vast majority of snakes are not detrimental, but majorly beneficial to most natural ecosystems. A water snake (or two, three? etc...) I can understand trying to remove/relocate. Same goes for venomous snakes, such as our resident copperheads, who we relocate on a regular basis.

What I'm reading from your post is that you don't/can't correctly identify which snakes you have and therefore you are upset by *any* snake that you see? If that's the case, then **please** take some time to educate yourself on the varieties of snakes in your region so you can make accurate IDs & correctly what - if any - potential threats to your pond fish there might be.

Just my 2 cents....

 

[BenB]

We have a huge variety of snakes in & around our yard/property (which includes our pond) The vast majority of snakes are not detrimental, but majorly beneficial to most natural ecosystems. A water snake (or two, three? etc...) I can understand trying to remove/relocate. Same goes for venomous snakes, such as our resident copperheads, who we relocate on a regular basis.

What I'm reading from your post is that you don't/can't correctly identify which snakes you have and therefore you are upset by *any* snake that you see? If that's the case, then **please** take some time to educate yourself on the varieties of snakes in your region so you can make accurate IDs & correctly what - if any - potential threats to your pond fish there might be.

Just my 2 cents....

That's not what my post said. I identified several varieties of snake by name and said a few I couldn't identify. I have since found a snake identification group on facebook with snake experts who can identify any snake picture you post on there. There are a large variety of snakes in our region, I know a lot of them, I don't claim to know all of them and neither am I interested in learning, I am not a fan of snakes whether they are venomous or not. However, I don't care to destroy, remove or otherwise beneficial snakes that are non-venomous. I do not care to have venomous snakes around and I also don't care to relocate them. At the same time, I will not tolerate plain bellied water snakes (which are non-venomous) for they love to go into ponds and eat your decorative fish. Same with raccoons, which we have in abundance but avoid our yard for the dog and I doubt large birds will want to mess with our yard either, either of the dogs would do something, even if just go over to sniff.

 

[addy1]

I had a water snake invasion, you definitely don't want them in any number besides zero.

 

[Lisak1]

I read your post (shuddered through most of it, TBH!) - is the question if the type of snake you believe your friend may have seen is a water snake?

 

[BenB]

I read your post (shuddered through most of it, TBH!) - is the question if the type of snake you believe your friend may have seen is a water snake?

I was asking if Dekays are water snakes or if they will go into a pond to get at my Koi fish. Currently, Dekays are the only snakes we've seen recently, tho we've seen a lot of them and inadvertently killed them while mowing the lawn (baby snakes). I hate snakes but I don't mind leaving the good ones around as long as they aren't going to go after my Koi and goldfish.

 

[BenB]

I had a water snake invasion, you definitely don't want them in any number besides zero.

Yea we did too a few years back. They were molting literally on the sides of the pond leaving their skin on it, there was no confusion about whether they were water snakes. My fish had all but disappeared. Those plain bellied water snakes are gone and have been gone, but now we have unidentified snakes (unidentified because I didn't get a chance to see them) wandering around our back yard. I've been going out back frequently looking around and inside things for them, haven't found them yet.

 

[BenB]

Thank Heavens we only have Garter snakes here!

Yea we always have to be careful going in the back yard. The copperheads especially scare me, I freely admit I am afraid of getting bitten by a venomous snake, but it doesn't stop from searching them out. We killed Copperheads for years and they finally disappeared only to have Cottonmouths take their place. I'd really love to see a King Snake lurking about.

 

[Norma D.]

Dekays don't get very big... and no one would ever call them huge ...

 

[j.w]

Dekays don't get very big... and no one would ever call them huge ...

I looked these up and I could deal w/those(non-venomous) here but it appears they don't survive around here. Says they eat lots of slugs which we have a ton of! Maybe I could make little coats for them