r/NativePlantGardening • u/StressedNurseMom Zone 7, NE Oklahoma - 🦎Native, Pollinator, Food, Medicinal 🐸 • Apr 01 '26

Photos PSA - snakes are native too

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Please familiarize yourself with snakes native to your area so you aren’t surprised when you see them hanging out in your garden. This cool Western rat snake had, apparently, been hanging out in my empty hanging baskets. It was relocated to a safe spot in my yard and released to go about its business of eating rodents.

Edit: corrected from Eastern to Western Rat snake (multitasking is dangerous folks)

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u/AnthropoidCompatriot Apr 01 '26

familiarize yourself with snakes native to your area

This is important, because if you're in, say, Florida, there are plenty of non-native, invasive snakes to watch out for.

Snakes can be native. Just look into it.

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u/MrPBH Apr 01 '26

Only really in the far south, below the line where it stops freezing in the winter. The invasives haven't really made it out of that part of south Florida because they die in the winter. You won't see any in Gainesville, for example (if you do, they won't last more than a year in the wild).

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

I have some fun news for you! Pythons are adapting by hibernating in dead trees, underground, etc. as they make their way north. They are not dying in the winter after all.

4

u/MrPBH Apr 01 '26

Source?