I have just encountered snake (garter) number 2 on my kitchen countertop! Now I am not about to lie about being someone who is going to be concerned about killing a snake that finds my kitchen a happy habitat. I live in Minnesota, we have just been through a long winter, but I cannot live with these things in my kitchen! We started seeing them about 3 years ago when a development began across the street - we first saw them in the basement in the fall, then spring, last fall was when I found the first one on my countertop. I am at my wits end!! They can live in my yard, but not in my home!!! We do have rock around the foundation and around the deck of our above-ground pool, We dont have much for heavy shrubs around the house and we keep them trimmed. There is an open field on ten acres next to us which Im sure has a nice population of mice. We have yet to find a mouse in our house, but thats likely because the snakes may be getting them. We thought we found how they were getting in, closed it off, didnt see any for a year, but now they are back. Now what? Do we have to dig up around the entire foundation to look for other entry points to get rid of them? Or should we get a cat or mouse traps, we also live where there is much marshy land, which the frogs/toads like. Help I am getting desperate!!!

RE: Snakes. I live in TX, not near NM, but I have lived in areas where I was likely to find a snake in or near the house. The most important thing to do to avoid finding a snake in your house is to keep the grass/groundcover low, low, low. We live in the middle of Austin and we have tons of baby copperheads and rat snakes in our yard if we don't mow often. When the grass is short, we never find them. When it's long, we see tons. So the "no grass" advice is probably very good advice! Also, some pest services will offer a "snake repellent" service where they spray or spread something (I don't know what) around your foundation every 3 months or so to keep snakes from coming inside. I've never used the service, so I don't know how well it works or how eco-friendly it is, but my friend swears by it. She moved to Austin from St. Petersburg (Russia) and was COMPLETELY freaked to find scorpions, tarantulas, snakes, centipedes, milipedes, roaches, deer, racoons, coyotes and even an armadillo in and around the house she rented (inside city limits but near a greenbelt), so she quickly became familiar with all the wildlife services in the phonebook! (She liked most of the critters, but I think she is permanently scarred by the scorpion experiences, even though she was never stung...) Good luck with your move! And no matter what you see in Alb, at least it's not Texas!

I like snakes. If they are poisonous I just stay away from them as much as possible. We have had to move 6 ft black snakes away from the chicken coop. One evening when I went to lock up the chickens, they were all standing out in the run and would not go into the coop...strange! So I go in there and there is a huge black snake in there. I got dh to go get a shovel and pick it up and move it out into the woods. A different time I found one in a nest box devouring eggs. My dd had a king snake for a few years. She eventually got bored of it and sold it to the kid down the street who had been visiting it every day for about 6 mos. He still has it. Does anyone have Nile Monitor lizards around their property? I have been seeing a lot of stuff on the news lately on how they are overpopulating and eating people's cats!

Mtn, yes rats! In CA we have roof/tree rats. They are bigger than a mouse, but smaller than the Norway rats you find in NYC. They are agile little buggers and love all the food provided by the fruit trees found all over So. CA. No winters to slow them down or kill them off. We haven't found one in the house, but did have one go in the garage before we got new doors. We have quarterly pest service with several traps around the yard. The big dog is doing a great job of keeping them away. Nini, a friend's son got his masters at Rollins not too long ago and they were very happy with the program.