Talkback: Snakes in the grass - Page 2

I love reptiles, I actually own a 3 year old corn snake. They don't demand your time! I was going to get an iguana but the lizard supplies were far too expensive.

We have a wildlife pond with lots of frogs and newts - or did have a lot until a number of rather large (one is about 3 ft long) dark olive green grass snakes moved in to our garden. Although they have decimated the frog population, they are really beautiful and facinating to watch. Does anyone know if there has been an increase in their numbers recently?

I have a slow worm living in my compost bin, but I need to empty the compost out of it onto the garden...I have so much stuff at the end of the season to go in it ....so what can I do? Will it move off on it's own? There was also a large ants nest in the compost bin...do slow worms eat ants?

Reply to Lynne Your slow-worm will move out of your way when you start to move the compost, but hopefully return to the warm dry when you have finished. As with most carnivores, slow-worms will eat whatever they can get, including insects. Large adults, though, would have to be pretty hard pressed to eat many ants.

With this glorious hot weather at the moment, the grass snake in my garden pond has become a regular sight! Almost everyday it can be seen laying across the net over my pond basking in the sunshine. So far I haven't noticed any of my fish having gone missing, so I'm hoping they are all too large to become a meal for it. I feel priviliged to have one taking residence in my garden. It looks about 1m in length now, and seems to have made a home under the rocks of the waterfall in the pond. Who knows how long it's been living there! All I need to do now is get some good photos of it before it moves on.