Short Stuff: Garter Snakes

Garter snakes aren’t scary, they’re pretty great! Learn all the reasons why in this episode!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and there's
Chuck and Jerry's over there sitting him for Dave, who's
editing this. Hey Dave, um Dave, And this means say
hey Dave. Everybody. No, Dave's not allowed to talk either.
We can't play favorites. No. No, I'm telling the listeners
to say hi to Dave. No. I don't even know. Well,
let's just forget all that and just start with the

(00:25):
short stuff about the harmless garter snake, who is not
only harmless, is actually helpful, especially if you garden. That's right.
I love garter snakes. I love it when I happened
upon them. I love to pick them up and hold
them for a second before I release them back into
the wild very gently. Do you nuzzle them? Sure? I

(00:49):
had one bite me once, really where just like on
the finger. You know, it's cute. It's an adorable little
attempt at a bite. This one was really little, and
I was just like, look at you. You think you're
all tough, right, And I acted like I was scared.
I was like, oh, and I put it down just
so it felt good about itself. That. Wow, that was
really kind of you. They will a little harmless garter

(01:14):
snake will try and bite you because that is a
snake is gonna snake. But um, for many many years
they thought like they had no toxicity whatsoever, but they
actually do have toxic, neurotoxic venom. It's just it's adorable
because it's so little of it and it's so mild
that it doesn't even harm a human. Now, if you're
like a little tiny mouse field mouse, you probably don't

(01:36):
find it very adorable because it'll mess you up. But yeah,
as far as humans are concerned, unless you have a
very rare and specific allergy to garter snake venom. Even then,
from what I saw, I think the worst you're gonna
face is a skin irritation at the bite site. But
for the most you did you're like, oh my gosh,
this allergy my hand is Yeah, that snake was like,

(02:01):
but this little chest out he's very happy. Um. So yeah,
for the most part, they're just not going to hurt
you when there when if you're a human. But even
even more than that, garter snakes are notoriously shy. They
don't want to have anything to do with you. They
don't want to try to get near you. They don't
want to try and hurt your pet or your kid
or anything. They just want to kind of coexist peacefully

(02:23):
and remotely from you in your yard, in your garden,
and again to kind of help you out. Yeah, and
it saysn't here and we'll talk about where they got
their name. But it says that there are sometimes erroneously
called garden snakes. I don't think that's erroneous. I think
that can just be a sort of a common name
for him, since you find him in the garden. I
don't think anyone thinks that's the official scientific name they.

(02:47):
I will tell you who thinks it's wrong, Doug Wells
or Wexler wildlife biologists. Who says who gives the most
improbable explanation for the name garter snake I've ever heard? Actually?
Which one is improbable to you? The fact that the
stripes resemble the garters that men used to wear as

(03:07):
sock garters used to I've got guarters on right now.
It's like Krusty the clown. He's trying to be relatable.
He's like, yeah, when your butler doesn't get all the
schmutz off of your socks, garters said No, not quite that. Yeah, that, um,

(03:28):
I guess it does seem a little improbable. I think
the other one makes a little more sense is that
the German word for garden is garden, and it might
have been just a different or you know, corruption I
guess of that German version. Yeah, which would make sense
because again, these are like a gardner's best friend. In
the United States, sometimes they're called gardeners snakes anyway, So
I would find that more likely than the sock garter

(03:51):
story that Weckler's peddling. Agreed, And you know, it's not
like he wrote a book called garter Snakes. Oh wait
a minute, he did? He did? I feel bad if
this gets back to him. I'm sure it's a great book, Doug. Yeah,
well done. Yeah, you can get it. It's published by
Power Kids back in two thousand one, and it's probably
basically evergreen. Plus, it's not like he's just a slouch

(04:13):
to He's he's um with the Academy of Natural Sciences
at Drexel University in Philly, so he's not just some guy.
You know. It's just promoting a terrible, terrible explanation for
where this artist snake gets its name. Should we take
a break, I think, so all right, let's do it.

(04:44):
All right, Here's what surprised me about the garter snake
is that it is the state reptile of Massachusetts. That
is very surprising. Did not know that. And they're all

(05:06):
over North America, from Canada to Florida. Um. Probably one
of the most abundant and common snakes in North America. Yeah,
and it's particularly abundant in the Eastern US, but it
goes all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
It's just everywhere. Um, America's snake. And they're very frequently
in places that you have no idea. Again, they kind

(05:27):
of try to stay away as much as possible. They're
fairly small. They usually are about anywhere from eighteen inches
to fifty four inches, which is under five feet UM.
They're very light. Uh, they weighed like less than half
a pound typically. They're just tiny little snakes. And then
they've got these three stripes that if you see it,

(05:48):
you're like, gosh, that looks just like a sock garter. Yeah.
They have the one I think one striped down the
back and then a couple on each side of the belly.
But there are a thirty five species. So there you know,
they're different kinds. There can be spots on some, and
the colors can range from kind of olive to brown
to black to gray. Uh. The fact of the show

(06:11):
for me, I don't know how I got to fifty
years old and never knew that Alaska didn't have snakes? Right?
Did you know that I did not? For some reason,
it's realing like the most minute bell in my head
that we've covered it before somewhere. I just that was
shocked by that because I just figured, like any huge

(06:32):
natural woodland paradise, there would be snakes everywhere. But there
are no snakes in Alaska. Yeah. I think it's just
generally too cold up there. But in two thousand five,
somebody found a garter snake that had been killed on
the road, and um, the Journal of Herpetology published a
study by researchers who who studied this thing tried to

(06:53):
figure out where it came from. So they studied its
d n A and they said that it's either a
from a relict or remnant population, or it was a
recent natural colonization or a fresh introduction. And if you
take all these explanations together, you see that they say
we have no idea how this snake. Here's what we're saying. Yeah,

(07:15):
it's funny. I was like, is there literally one other
possibility of how that snake got there unless you talk
about like you know, it fell from outer space right
dropped by the hand of God himself or herself exactly
or their selves. Yes, that's right. So these snakes are
very active. Uh, they're active during the day, they're active

(07:36):
during the night. If you are a gardener at your house,
that's where you're probably gonna find him. If you're doing
some weeding or something, all of a sudden, one will
just go yeah, and they'll you'll see him slithering away
as fast as possible. Exact, but they do. They are
good for your garden. You know. They'll eat pests, the
late little rodents, ell eat insects, slugs, sure, get rid

(07:57):
of the slugs. Snails, yeah, grasshoppers, like all these things
are things that like eat your garden, and the garden
snake sorry guard snake um eats these things for you.
So they it's like a natural pest clear that again
doesn't want to hurt your dog. It doesn't want to
hurt your dog or your kid or whatever. And in fact,

(08:18):
it can be a really fun way to introduce your
kid to snakes, uh, and let them hold a guard
snake because they're, um, they're you know, they're kind of
fun to hold. In it, you can get rid of
some of that fear of snakes that we tried so
hard to dispel in our Snakes episode. Right, It's a
good starter to teach your kid how to create their
own like freaky thing. It's like their thing that they're

(08:41):
known for throughout high school. It's a starter snake. I
love it. Sure, you can't have them as pets, but
they say if you find one in your garden, don't
just just let it go. Don't take that thing inside.
It's a wild animal. It may even be against the
law depending on where you live. But also, they actually
do breed garter snakes as pets, and I would guess

(09:03):
it's probably better for the garter snake to be born
in captivity and kept in captivity, then raised in the
wild and brought into a thirty gallon aquarium, you know, right. Um.
The other thing about garter snakes that you'll notice too is, again,
they're venomous, but they're harmless to humans. And one of

(09:25):
the reasons people thought they were non venomous for so long.
Is because their head is about the same size as
like the rest of their body, and that's usually a
big differentiator. Um. Just as a rule of thumb, a
thumb that you want to keep away from whatever snake
you're sizing up to that moment, that if the head
is about the same size as the body, is probably
not venomous. Yeah. Here in the United States for sure. Um.

(09:48):
And there are no you know, I've seen a lot
of erroneous uh hardened fast rules that aren't really always
hardened fast. But definitely, if you see a snake that
has a big sort of you know, diamond shaped head,
give it some space. It would just be my advice.
It might be fine, but give it space anyway, especially

(10:08):
if it's making a rattling sound with its tail. Yeah,
that's a dead giveaway. Um. There's one other thing about
garter snakes too that you should know that if you
are going to get curious and pick it up, which
is mean again, they're very shy. They don't want to
have anything to do with you, and they certainly don't
want to be picked up. Um. It may not only
bite you on the finger, like the one bit, chuck,
but it also could emit a foul smell. They're very

(10:30):
well known. Snakes generally do this, but garter snakes are
well known for basically spring poop, pea and musk combo out.
And that makes you want to drop it because you're
just like, yeah, and you should play that up too,
because they like hitting up props for that too, like,
oh my god, the smell. I can't take it. That's
very nice, Chuck, I love it. Are you got anything else?

(10:53):
I have nothing else, sir, well, And that's it for
short stuff, everybody. Hope you enjoyed. Be kind to garter snakes.
I think that the big takeaway from this one, which
means short stuff is out. Stuff you should know is
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(11:14):
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