Sssssurprise!

Ran out to do a quick garden picking before the next round of storms opened up on us, and was also rushing it because I was getting attacked by mosquitoes from every direction, when something startled me as I was reaching through the old pea vines to look for cucumbers.

Well hello there...

From what I can tell online, I'm guessing this is a Butler's Gartersnake...nothing to worry about, but still quite startling when it slides away just as you nearly touch it!

One reason I was looking so closely through this garden bed is because I have been putting a mousetrap in there to try and take care of some of the voles that have been eating seedlings, carrots, etc.  (They don't seem interested in the cucumbers however!?)  This bed started the season with peas, and I've just let the vines dry in place to give the cucumbers and gourds something additional to climb, plus I'm thinking of trying to save some of the pea seeds for next year's garden.  So all the brown, dead stuff in the pictures?  That's intentional.

One interesting thing to note - I came out of this particular experience with a handful of cukes, some cool pictures, a bunch of mosquito bites, and a reminder to watch where I reach in the garden.  What I did NOT find was the mouse trap!  Last week I found a vole dead in the trap, right where I'd left the trap.  I don't know if I just couldn't find the trap, tripped by either a critter or the heavy rains we've had the last two days, underneath all the big leaves (plus I wasn't overdoing it, what with a snake crawling around in there), oooor did something get snapped by it but still live, and move the trap quite a ways.  There's chicken wire around the bed now, and I haven't found any obvious openings - certainly not where a trap could fit through!  I'll look again in the next day or so, when there's no snake and hopefully fewer mosquitoes.

As for the snake - I really hope (s)he stays around and sets up camp in my garden.  I don't know if they eat mosquitoes, but I do see they eat small amphibians (uh oh - watch out frogs!), earthworms (and I try to keep the beds populated), and mice (YAY!!).  Daisy was really curious about the snake, and even though she couldn't find it visually while I was telling her to stay away, she zeroed in on it's general area with her nose, lifting her face up to point directly at it in the vines.

Oddly enough, this comes within 8 hrs of a neighbor saying her husband saw a water moccasin down at the pond...  I did some looking around, and all the stuff I've seen (such as this) says that water moccasins are not native to Ohio, and don't get this far north (unless released from captivity - and who's going to be transporting water moccasins!?).