Tis the season to PAY ATTENTION in your yard
- Katie Bledsoe-Weber
- Apr 29, 2023
- 2 min read
Around this time of year and extending into the late summer days you will be seeing snakes in your yard, so we would like to touch on a few things. This spring has been extremely beneficial to the many ecosystems in your yard. More flowers = more bugs = more rodents = more snakes.
Snakes CAN be extremely dangerous, but there is only one venomous snake in the Bay Area. It is the **Northern Pacific Rattlesnake**
All other snakes pose little risk to you, your family or your pets. Snakes are greatly beneficial, so we would like to share some reasons why and hope that they help all of us ease our anxiety over this snake season.
The benefits of Snakes in your yard are as follows:
Snakes play a huge role in maintaining balance in the ecosystem. In these systems, snakes can be both predator and prey.
Some snakes even prey on other snakes! The kingsnake preys on rattlesnakes! They are immune to rattlesnake venom!
Some states estimate that mice cause $20 million in damage or more annually! Most people try to control these pests with chemicals which end up polluting the environment. Snakes are natural pest control.
Snakes eat rodents who are hosts to ticks. Those ticks are a host for Lyme disease (a dangerous bacterial infection that can be transmitted to pets and humans). When snakes reduce the rodent populations, Lyme disease in the environment is reduced.
Being predators, the benefits of snakes are now being recognized as providing humans with an ecological service.
in the garden snakes are of great benefit. Most eat insects which is likely to benefit your garden. For example, small snakes can do severe damage to a grasshopper population (who eat a wide variety of garden plants) in a confined area in just one summer.
In conclusion, as a society, we do not have to like snakes, but we can at least respect their right to exist, and appreciate their vital role in maintaining Earth’s biodiversity.
For more information this is an incredible resource about reptiles local and all over California. Herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians. Herpetology comes from the Greek work herpetón, which means “creeping animal.” Herps is short for herptiles, which refers all reptiles & amphibians. Herping is the act of looking for herptiles.
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