\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If your landscape is designed to harbor a healthy habitat for a variety of creatures, you will have less of a problem with pest species. \u00a0\u00a0Frogs continue to lay eggs as long as there is water in our seasonal pond\u2014it always dries up before all the tadpoles grow up.\u00a0 Sometimes we rescue a few and put them in my fountain.\u00a0 Visitors often tell me I should clean out the algae, but I don\u2019t want to disrupt the small ecosystem contained therein!\u00a0 Often there are salamander larvae along with the frog tadpoles.\u00a0 Although tadpoles are mostly herbivorous, adult frogs and salamanders are mostly carnivorous, eating insects, worms, slugs and even bigger prey depending on the size of the frog or salamander.\u00a0 I enjoy hearing a frog\u2019s ribbit in my greenhouse and am happy to let it hunt for prey in there!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I rarely have trouble with slugs.\u00a0 I am convinced it is because of the predator species that live in and around my garden.\u00a0 It is amazing that creatures you rarely even see can be helping to control the ones that could potentially cause a lot of damage.\u00a0 Although frogs, salamanders, lizards, birds and other predators may help to control slugs, I believe that garter snakes have the biggest impact.\u00a0 We actually found a garter snake one time that was in the process of eating a slug!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Few reptiles live here in the cool Pacific Northwest.\u00a0 Being poikilothermic or \u201ccold-blooded,\u201d they hibernate during cold spells and only come out when it is warmer to bask in the sun. \u00a0In Western Washington, there are two turtle species; two lizards, a Rubber Boa, and three species of garter snakes: the Common Garter Snake, the Western Terrestrial Garter Snake and the Northwestern Garter Snake.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Garter snakes hibernate in aggregations; hundreds, sometimes thousands, collect in the same hibernaculum to spend winter together. \u00a0A hibernaculum is the place where animals hibernate.\u00a0 You can build one in your yard to provide a nice warm spot for garter snakes to hide and live through the winter.\u00a0 The basic idea is to create a labyrinth of tunnels with materials that absorb heat and stay warm for a long period of time. Start by finding a sunny, well-drained spot protected from cold winds.\u00a0 It should not be too dry; however, snakes require adequate humidity levels so that they do not dehydrate.\u00a0 Dig a pit deeper than the frost-line (in the Puget Lowlands, about 12-18.\u201d)\u00a0 Fill the hole with rocks, concrete blocks, bricks, slabs, black PVC drain pipes or other appropriate materials, creating many chambers at different levels, making sure there are open passages and several entrances.\u00a0 Cap with an insulating layer of smaller rock rubble, or other heat absorbing material, making sure to keep entrances open.\u00a0 Keep the area clear of vegetation that could grow up and shade your hibernaculum, but provide cover for emerging snakes in the form of logs, rocks, brush or uncut grass. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Breeding season occurs in the spring as they emerge from hibernation.\u00a0 During the summer, you can often find garter snakes hiding under black plastic, plywood or other materials that absorb solar radiation and in crevices next to warm bricks or rocks.\u00a0 Garter snakes are also likely to take advantage of tunnels created by moles, voles and gophers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Besides weeds, rodents–mice and voles, (and the neighbor\u2019s peacocks) are my worst pest problem.\u00a0 They eat seeds and emerging seedlings.\u00a0 My cat always seemed more interested birds and squirrels.\u00a0 Now what predator could I encourage to control the rodents? … Hmmm\u2026– Maybe foxes, or weasels or even a raptor?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(This article was first published in the Peninsula Gateway\u00a0<\/em>on August, 18 2010))<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If your landscape is designed to harbor a healthy habitat for a variety of creatures, you will have less of a problem with pest species. \u00a0\u00a0Frogs continue to lay eggs as long as there is water in our seasonal pond\u2014it always dries up before all the tadpoles grow up.\u00a0 Sometimes we rescue a few<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}