Creating a Reptile-Friendly Garden: Welcoming Snakes and Lizards
Suffolk is fortunate to be home to various reptile species, including the grass snake, adder, common lizard, and slow-worm. These fascinating creatures appreciate warmth and places to hide from predators, which is why they can occasionally be found seeking shelter in gardens.
While it is uncommon for snakes to establish permanent residency in small gardens, you may spot them passing through as they navigate wildlife corridors. This is especially true if your surroundings include heathland, rough grassland, derelict urban areas, allotments, ponds, rivers, wetlands, or even muck heaps on farms and stables. These areas serve as preferred habitats for snakes and other reptiles.
To transform your garden into a haven that provides additional food and refuge for reptiles, consider the following:
Diverse Vegetation: Allocate areas in your garden where plants are allowed to grow naturally, providing essential habitat for reptiles’ prey, such as amphibians and slugs. These areas will also offer cover and shelter for reptiles themselves. However, it is important to maintain some well-managed, shorter grassy patches where snakes and lizards can bask and regulate their body temperature.
Water Features: Incorporate a pond or a small water feature into your garden design. These provide drinking water for reptiles and attract a variety of insects, which serve as their food source. Ensure the water feature has gently sloping edges to allow reptiles easy access.
Log Piles and Rockeries: Create designated areas with log piles, rockeries, or stone walls to provide hiding spots and shelter for reptiles. These features mimic their natural habitats and offer ideal locations for basking and thermoregulating.
Native Plant Selection: Opt for native plant species in your garden, as they support a diverse range of wildlife, including reptiles. Native plants are well-suited to the local environment, providing food, shelter, and nesting opportunities for various creatures.
Avoid Chemicals: Minimize or eliminate the use of pesticides and herbicides in your garden. These chemicals can be harmful to reptiles and their prey. Embrace natural pest control methods and adopt a more environmentally friendly approach.
Wildlife-friendly Gardening Practices: Incorporate sustainable gardening practices such as composting, mulching, and using organic fertilizers. These practices improve soil health, attract beneficial insects, and support a thriving ecosystem.
Remember, patience is key when attracting reptiles to your garden. Creating a welcoming habitat takes time, and the presence of reptiles may not be immediate. Be respectful of their space, observe from a distance, and enjoy the wonders of nature as these fascinating creatures find solace in your reptile-friendly garden.
Introduction: Many people are fascinated by reptiles and wish to have them visit their gardens. Reptiles, such as snakes and lizards, appreciate warm environments and places to hide from predators. While it’s unlikely that snakes will become permanent residents in most gardens, they may pass through in their natural movements through wildlife corridors. However, with a little planning and effort, you can create a welcoming habitat that attracts reptiles and provides them with the necessary conditions for their well-being.
Understanding Reptile Coats and Behaviors: Different factors influence the shedding and moulting patterns of reptiles. Some dogs shed seasonally, while others shed throughout the year. Reptile coats have adapted to suit seasonal changes historically, but modern conditions with central heating and artificial lighting disrupt these natural cycles. As a result, reptiles may exhibit more unpredictable shedding patterns.
Designing a Reptile-Friendly Garden: a) Providing Habitat and Cover: Leaving parts of your garden to grow can create suitable habitat and cover for reptiles. This allows them to find shelter and prey, such as amphibians and slugs. Maintaining certain areas with shorter grass or rockeries can provide spots for reptiles to bask.
b) Creating Hiding Places: Incorporate wooden boards, roofing felt, or corrugated iron sheets in your garden. These materials offer reptiles hiding spots and places to bask or seek refuge.
c) Ensuring Free Entry Points: Allow reptiles easy access to your garden by maintaining open entrances at ground level around the perimeter. This enables them to move in and out without encountering obstacles.
d) Thoughtful Lawn Maintenance: Before mowing your lawn, walk through the area to disperse reptiles into sheltered spots. Consider mowing on colder days to minimize the risk of harming reptiles.
- Monitoring and Observation: Observe your garden regularly to see if reptiles are utilizing the provided habitat and hiding places. Keep an eye out for their presence or signs such as shed skins or trails.
Creating a pond can significantly increase the attractiveness of your garden to various reptiles, especially grass snakes, by providing an essential resource for their survival. The presence of a pond facilitates the habitation of amphibians, which are a crucial food source for these snakes, hence, making your garden a potential hunting ground. This symbiotic relationship can extend the period of reptilian visitation or even incite permanent residence.
To further boost this appeal, leaving an area of your garden with rough grass that leads directly to the pond could prove beneficial. This pathway of unkempt grass can act as a safe passage for snakes, allowing them to comfortably approach and retreat from the pond, contributing to a more reptile-friendly environment.
However, if circumstances require the covering of your pond with a net, it’s important to consider the material and size of the netting. It is advisable to use a more rigid material, ensuring the net retains its shape and structure. The mesh size of the netting should also be considered carefully. A size of at least 4cm (1.5in) is recommended. Smaller mesh sizes or flexible netting may pose a risk to the snakes as they can easily get entangled in them, which can be fatal. This same precaution applies to other areas of the garden where such netting might be used, such as over vegetable patches. By keeping these considerations in mind, you can make your garden a safe and attractive habitat for reptiles.
Compost
A compost heap, or a collection of grass cuttings, can serve as a magnificent feature for promoting wildlife in any garden. Beyond its environmental benefits as a recycling mechanism for organic waste, it also offers specific advantages for grass snakes. These compost heaps provide an ideal environment for these reptiles to incubate their eggs, being warm, moist, and secure.
One way to ensure your compost heap is beneficial for grass snakes is by maximizing its size. A larger heap can accommodate more snakes and provide a more substantial area for egg incubation.
The location of the heap within your garden also matters. Ideally, it should be situated in a spot that receives ample sunlight, contributing to the warm conditions favorable for egg incubation. However, it’s also beneficial to place it near a hedge or an area with abundant ground cover. This proximity provides a quick and safe refuge for the snakes, making the environment more appealing to them.
The material used in the compost heap is equally important. Regular replenishment with various organic materials such as kitchen waste, grass cuttings, manure, dead leaves, or sawdust, ensures the compost heap maintains its appealing qualities. This variety of materials provides a nutrient-rich environment, not only beneficial to the snakes but also to the composting process.
To allow the grass snakes easy access to the heap, it is essential not to completely seal it off. A completely sealed heap can deter the reptiles from using it. Therefore, it should have openings or loosely packed areas that allow easy access.
In terms of maintenance, caution should be exercised between mid-June and late September. This period is a crucial breeding time for grass snakes, and their eggs may be nestled within the compost heap. To avoid disturbing or damaging these eggs, avoid turning the heap during these months.
Interestingly, if you find eggs in your compost heap, you can rest assured that they belong to grass snakes, as adders, another common UK snake, do not lay eggs. This distinction makes compost heaps an even more significant feature for grass snake conservation in your garden.
Cats
Domestic cats, despite their seemingly harmless nature, pose a considerable threat to the reptilian population within your garden. Their predatory instincts can significantly reduce the numbers of both lizards and snakes. While a common suggestion is to attach bells to cat collars to alert potential prey of their presence, this tactic is less effective with reptiles. Snakes, in particular, are unable to perceive airborne sounds, and lizards, although they have some hearing ability, it is not acute enough to reliably detect the bell’s warning chime.
Concerning reptile activity, there is a general timeline that most reptiles follow. Typically, they begin emerging from hibernation around March and remain active until October. However, this timeframe can vary based on the weather conditions. Unseasonably warm or cool weather might prompt some reptiles to alter their usual activity patterns, possibly leading to earlier emergence or later hibernation.
It’s also worth noting the movement patterns of different reptiles, which can be quite distinct. Snakes, for instance, are capable of covering large distances. Grass snakes, in particular, have been tracked traveling over 4 kilometers. This suggests that a snake observed in your garden could be a visitor from a distant habitat. In contrast, lizards tend to be less mobile. They often confine themselves to very specific areas, rarely venturing far from their chosen spot. Hence, if you see a lizard in your garden, it is likely to have made its home there and is not simply passing through.
Misconceptions
There are a number of misconceptions surrounding snakes, particularly in relation to their interactions with our gardens and their impact on local ecosystems.
One such misconception is the notion that snakes, due to their predatory nature, could endanger prey populations in gardens. In truth, snakes play a vital role in the food web, helping to maintain balance by preying on various organisms. However, the number of prey animals they consume is relatively low, so their hunting activities are unlikely to significantly affect prey populations. If you’ve noticed a decline in the number of frogs in your garden, this could be attributed to natural population fluctuations, predation by fish, disease, or changes in habitat rather than the activity of snakes.
Grass snakes are frequent garden visitors, primarily seeking amphibians as their preferred food source. However, they have been known on occasion to consume goldfish. It’s important to remember, though, that snakes consume relatively few prey. If you’ve noticed a sudden, substantial loss of fish in your pond, the culprits are more likely to be herons or cats.
The adder, which is the only venomous snake in Suffolk and the entirety of Britain, is often perceived negatively due to its venomous status. However, bites from adders are extremely rare and most occur when people attempt to handle the snake.
Most adder bites result in mild reactions, but they should be treated seriously due to the potential for more severe symptoms. Immediate medical attention should be sought if you suspect you’ve been bitten. Occasionally, individuals report receiving bites in their gardens, even though they haven’t seen a snake. In many of these instances, it’s likely that the “bites” were actually caused by spiders or even thorns.
Pets, too, can be bitten by adders, but these incidents are rare and seldom occur in gardens. Fatalities from adder bites in pets are extremely rare. Vets and doctors in regions where adders are more prevalent are well-versed in managing bite cases and administering effective treatment, so you can be confident in their ability to handle such situations.