I am NOT setting foot in my garden again!

**nancycg56** · 07-29-2008, 01:56 PM

The dogs and I were walking around the garden and they started going crazy ~ like pulling my arm out of it's socket crazy ~ trying to get in the garden. So I look around and am trying to figure out what the heck they are seeing that I'm not.

There in my garden is a 3 FOOT LONG SNAKE SKIN!

I feel sick. Gardening was fun while it lasted.

(ps ~ I'm sure it was a copperhead skin...I can only imagine where the snake is now

)

**JustMegan79** · 07-29-2008, 01:58 PM

Hopefully long gone from your garden. I dont know how to deter snakes but lets hope this one just wanted to rub on your plants to get its skin shed and now is on its happy way elsewhere!!

**suki** · 07-29-2008, 02:01 PM

There are many snakes that have patterns similar to a copperhead and because the skin is usually washed out (no color) it's hard to tell. Snakes usually don't stay in the same place very long and it's likely long gone by now. They are just as afraid of you as you are of them. Don't let this keep you from your garden.

**AmyBoz** · 07-29-2008, 02:02 PM

I would have to move. Seriously. I have only one phobia and it is snakes. They are SO creepy. Seriously...how do they move???

In our old house, (luckily, it was already on the market), we found some snakes in the house. I seriously didn't sleep for nights at a time. I told dh, even if we hadn't been moving; we'd have had to move.

**blitzen** · 07-29-2008, 02:02 PM

Ewwwww! That would scare me off of gardening, too. Heck, I saw a big ol caterpillar on the leaf of something and it grossed me out. I'm so not outdoorsy!

**magnolia** · 07-29-2008, 02:02 PM

Aaack!!!

That's scary. I might never set foot outside again!

**Missy** · 07-29-2008, 02:03 PM

:yuck: ack, i would have passed out or flipped out or somethig. gag, snakes freak me out. even the ilittle ones!!

**nancycg56** · 07-29-2008, 02:16 PM

It could be another kind of snake but in my experience it's the copperheads that get so long and that's what is usually slithering around our yard. I saw a couple of smaller ones a few weeks ago.

We had a 4 foot long one take up residence in our front garden a couple of years ago...we finally had to get a snake guy to come and get him and relocate him ~ we couldn't go out the front door without this snake right there. The snake guy was thrilled ~ it was the biggest one he had ever seen

Copperheads are protected here in Virginia so we can't smoosh them. They are perfectly welcome to live the woods in back of our house ~ just stay out of my yard!

I hate snakes!

**Russ** · 07-29-2008, 02:19 PM

I'd move.

**Persimmon Lace** · 07-29-2008, 02:21 PM

Sorry, I wouldn't care if they were protected, so is my family and I would SSS to get rid of any of them.

**Darlene** · 07-29-2008, 02:23 PM

Aww, poor little snake, probably tring to catch some nasty little mice that are nibbling on your plants. How about walking heavy & carrying a big stick?

**nancycg56** · 07-29-2008, 02:32 PM

I'm sure y'all would laugh at me when I DO go in the garden but I make someone stand in the window to make sure that if I do get bit, I can get back over the fence

When I walk the dogs, I stand on the deck for a few minutes and make sure nothing is slithering around before we go down.

I have Jack Russell and a Jack Russell mix and they think snakes, squirrels, rabbits, etc., are great fun to grab and toss around ~ it's not fun when I have to pull it out of their mouths, LOL.

**IntlMom** · 07-29-2008, 03:13 PM

Yikes!!! Oh yea, my garden could just go to the birds...so to speak! I got a serious case of chigger bites from working in mine last week and as far as I;m concerned, it's all over for me, and that was just from some wimpy ole chigger bites...a snake??? Oh, yea, I am SOOOOO outta here!!
ps- the only way we get anything out of our garden anymore is for me to send my son out.....I hate heat!!!

edit: the other thing, you said you take the snakes out of your dogs mouth??!?!? oh yea, they would so much just be an outside chewy toy for my animals, cuase there is NOOOO way I'd be touching them with a ten foot pole!! You are way braver than me!!

**Sonnenwende** · 07-29-2008, 03:38 PM

I don't see what is so bad about it. Snakes eat voles, rats, rabbits, moles, things that destroy your garden. The snake is probably long gone by now.

I am not freaked out by snakes though and like them a lot. :p

**Mom23boys** · 07-29-2008, 04:50 PM

YIKES! I would give it up - but only for a little while. I would just be more alert when I walked outdoors through the garden.

I have read somewhere that moth balls deter snakes because of their odor. They find it offensive. You might try throwing some moth balls around your yard to rid them. It's worth a shot.