I love snakes around the homestead. I don’t like snakes in my face.

I sort of have a love-hate relationship with these slithering reptiles. I don’t care that they are here. Snakes are a good thing to have around. I don’t want them scaring me and I am certainly not handling any.

Snakes are good creatures

First, let’s look at a few reasons snakes why snakes are nice to have around:

• Pest control: Snakes eat all kinds of pests, including small rodents, insects, small animals, eggs, amphibians, and larvae of invertebrates. Many of those pests are things we don’t want destroying property or getting into our homes.
• Snakes help maintain balance: If snakes were to disappear, then all those pests above would increase in numbers without control.
• Snakes help reduce the risk of disease: Many insects, such as mosquitoes or ticks, are vectors that transmit diseases to people when they are bitten. Think malaria, Lyme disease, Ehrlichiosis, and so many other diseases. Even rattlesnakes work hard in this regard – a rattlesnake eats thousands of ticks in a year, as well as a multitude of rodents.
• Biodiversity: Snakes not only control a lot of pests, but they are prey as well as predators. Many birds, other snakes, and mammals will hunt and eat snakes.
• Recycled nutrients are replenished in the soil: Snake excrement helps restore nutrients to the soil.

Finding snakes on your property is, therefore, a good thing. It means the ecosystem is in order and is healthy. A lot of biodiversity and minimal habitat loss.

Snakes are cold-blooded

Cold-blooded means that snakes themselves do not produce their own heat for temperature regulation. They get warm from the environment. This is why they are often out sunning themselves. After a long winter of hibernation in a hibernaculum (a place underground below the frost line where they can survive through a freezing winter), snakes will start to rev up their metabolism and come back out as temperatures increase. In some locations, many snakes will go underground together and come out all at once, numbering in the hundreds.

But I don’t like snakes!

Snakes aren’t particularly fond of people either. Most species are shy and often disappear before you ever see them. Even a rattlesnake only rattles to say, “Hey, I’m here and you are too close!”. I totally understand. I hate reaching into some plants only to suddenly see plants moving on their own as a snake slips away. Or being surprised when one lies so still, I don’t see it until I’m upon it.

Keep reading for tips on becoming friends.

Meet Slinky

Slinky is our resident garter snake. He (or she) has been around for several years. He tucks himself into our stone walls, but most often, especially on pleasant days, we can find him sunning himself in flower beds.

I’ve made a game of it in the spring to look for him. Usually, in mid-late May, the weather is warm enough here in upstate NY for him to emerge. Sometimes he’s in the rocks, sometimes out sunning. And then every day I try to find him. We’re careful to keep him out of the grass when we mow and not let the dogs try to catch him. So far, he has eluded any hawks or owls who like to put “snake” on the menu.

Every so often I find a shed skin, another indication he is healthy and doing well.

Be Friends with Your Snakes

For all the reasons I mentioned earlier, consider keeping snakes around your property. Don’t wantonly kill them just because they are there. If you want to make your property more unattractive to them, here’s some ideas to gently tell a snake to move on:

• Remove food sources for rodents
• Don’t leave pet food outside overnight
• Clean up any bird seed knocked to the ground
• Seal any cracks and crevices that may allow rodents or snakes into your house; use small mesh hardware cloth to prevent them from entering a chicken run or chicken coop.
• Keep grass mowed
• Clean up any piles of debris – rocks, lumber, branches, building leftovers, garbage, or old equipment
• Limit lawn watering – besides using a lot of water, damp yards encourage more worms, slugs and frogs, which in turn attracts snakes

Learn about your Most Common Snakes

In New York, the two most common species are the common garter snake and the common water snake. However, we have a total of 16 or 17 species found in NY, including copperheads and timber rattlers in select areas. If nothing else, I’ve learned to tolerate the snakes around us and not be afraid of them. After all, they aren’t chasing after me! A six-foot black rat snake is a very good thing!

Remember, they are just doing what snakes are meant to do, and if they are becoming a nuisance, it’s because you have not done a good job of living with them. They were there first, like any other wildlife.

If you know which species of snakes are around your home, where they live, and what benefit they offer, you may find a place in your heart to say, “Welcome, just leave me alone!”.