Visited by Snek

Jeremiah Sullivan
Jeremiah Sullivan
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Published 2024-06-14
Boys and I were hanging out at a park with a pond when this little beauty came right up to me. I was trying to take photos of the markings on its side and accidentally ended up "herding" the snake towards my lap while doing so.

I'm almost certain this is a regular, ol' Garter Snake, which are harmless to us. They're non-venomous and I've only been bitten by one when handling them roughly. They'll strike when feeling cornered and actively threatened, but they'll much prefer to run away between strikes if they can. And musk. Garters will musk at practically any perceived threat.

I live in Western Washington where we pretty much DON'T have any venomous wild friends. We have a handful of critters like Black Widows slowly migrating northward as climate change warms and dries our environment, but no native venomous critters like snakes, and debatable whether or not we even have any spiders worth fretting over.
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