Will"the snake"get our girls???

[digthatchick]

Rest assured I would never do no harm to it....& if I were assured it would pose no risk(bearing in mind we also have 2 young kiddies)would try my upmost to actually enjoy it's presence!

I was shown an Adder when I was a kiddie (Moses was still alive then!) and it was twenty years before I saw another one, as you have probably guessed I LOVE SNAKES

[Two_Sheds]

Prob. a grass snake, they have splodges on a greeny skin

[Two_Sheds]

Adders have a very definite diamond pattern to them.



Whatever it is, you're very lucky. Take care not to stab it with your fork. Best to get the hay and whatnot off the floor perhaps

[Snadger]

As its cold enough to do brass monkeys injury I would have thought snakes would have been in hibernation by now?

I've got to go to work today but just feel like hibernating!

[Hilary B]

A full grown grass-snake can be up to 4 ft long, an adder rarely exceeds 2 ft. Neither will seek to harm you (either may bite if scared enough, the grass-snake would bite like a very small dog, the adder DOES have venom, but not an especially strong one). Slow-worms look snakelike, but much smaller, and if you see it flick its tongue out, the snakes have a Y shaped tongue, the slowworm's tongue is more like a bit of ribbon with a notched end.
They DO all hibernate (we get slowworms hibernating in our compost heap). If one of them has moved into the space under a shed, it is best left alone. If it IS an adder, the last thing you want to do is disturb it. That is just what might make it angry and afraid.
Our rural holiday-home in Spain we have a resident horse-shoe whip snake. Not poisonous, but I hope he/she leaves our geckos alone!

[Flummery]

We've had lots of sloe worms round here this year - my SIL thought the one in their garden was an adder till he googled it - he's a google-ophile! The biggest grass snake seen in this village - several years back - was nearly 5 ft long - it had been living in a farm compost pile. Don't worry - there is no snake in Britian that will eat a chicken. (Unless you casserole it in red wine and herbs and cut it up small!)

In any case - do you really trust the bloke who told you? Our old allotments site was full of bluff coves who knew it all and had seen god-knows-what that never really existed.

[di]

If it was just him that'd seen it....Yep he's got the gift of spinning some yarns!!But it was seen by someone else also.
I shall try to carry on my normal way & just hope it doesn't find our supply of straw for the chooks!
I can handle spiders & other such creepy crawlies...but have to admit the thought of delving into a bag of straw & pulling out a snake kind of doesn't fill me with joy!!

[Hilary B]

If it was just him that'd seen it....Yep he's got the gift of spinning some yarns!!But it was seen by someone else also.
I shall try to carry on my normal way & just hope it doesn't find our supply of straw for the chooks!
I can handle spiders & other such creepy crawlies...but have to admit the thought of delving into a bag of straw & pulling out a snake kind of doesn't fill me with joy!!

It wouldn't fill the snake with joy either. As long as it can get away, it will, so shake the straw bag about a bit first, and make a habit of giving it a good shake, and if snakey was considering moving in, he/she will change his/her mind.

[Ashbylife]

If it's greenish it sounds like a grass snake - have a look at some pictures (the ones above are brill) so that you have an idea what each looks like. You're lucky to get a glimpse of either, and you'd be very, very lucky to see an adder (in my opinion!) - 50 years of looking and I've only seen one once. Any snake is going to be far more anxious to get away from you than to meet you so, like the others say, give it a good bit of notice by making a bit of noise, shaking your bedding etc and you'll be very unlikely to meet it (and that's assuming that it hasn't already moved on). They are wonderful things really - honest!

[Snadger]

I am slightly phobic about snakes but would never knowingly hurt one. In fact I would feel honoured if one visited my shed or greenhouse and would probably finish up 'mothering' it and making a comfortable nest for it.

[snakeshack]

lots of grass snakes where i walk my dog,sometimes see 15 on one walk,seen two adders this year too and I live in harrow (n w london)See snakes everyday though ,have two living in a heated vivarium in my shed .also keep two types of lizards, a tarantula and giant millipedes,hence my nickname.