Hey, I'm super new here. (not even sure if this is the right place to post this.)

I got interested in Garter Snakes after I bought a little house in a small town just north of Ames Iowa. There is a family of Plains Garters that live in various spots around my house and yard depending on the season. I love watching them, checking on them and even leave food and water for them. Unfortunately, I also cut the grass. :-(

It seems like every summer I run over one or two despite walking the yard to attempt to flush them out. (Ive been successful at chasing a couple out of the mower path.)


These snakes have lived here next to my house and in my yard for as long as I've lived here. (Three years.) I love em and encourage their presence. I think they are so fascinating.


I've been hoping the family would have babies and suspected at least one of the females was gravid. Unfortunately, Momma is the snake I hit today. I feel horrible!!! Her babies were spilled out on the grass with no signs of live at all. (nearly full term .. I thought they were
earthworms at first.)

I feel horrible! I'm afraid I've decimated the family and I won't see them again.

They have been wintering under the concrete stoop by my side door and spend spring under a couple of bags of mulch I placed by the foundation wall a couple years ago. I think they spend most of the summer underground in the decaying root ball of a tree that has been dead for years. That burrow is next to a Hosta garden I've revived under a big Hackberry tree. They like to hang out by the neighbor's fence at the north end of the yard in the sun. The neighbor kids are scarred of them and their Dad will kill them.

I guess I really don't have any questions or even a point to this post other than to say how horrible I feel. I was really looking forward to a herd of baby garters running wild this fall.