Snake skins in the garden

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The entire skin shed by snake unknown - around 25cm long

Ewww, I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to talk about snakes so soon after seeing the Common Wolf Snake (Lycodon capucinus) about 2 weeks ago, but no such luck.

I was checking the long bean plants at the far trellis when I noticed what I thought was a strip of white ribbon draped over a flowering plant growing at the base of the trellis. How odd that it tapered at one end, I thought – and then I realized that it was a discarded snake skin!

On the one hand, I was very freaked out and looked around quickly to make sure there were no snakes in the immediate vicinity. On the other hand, I was fascinated by the patterns on the snake skin…

Pattern of the snake's scales on its top

Pattern of scales on the snake's belly

The skin had a papery quality to it and reminded me of rice paper. It felt like if I wet it, it would get sticky. Not that I held it any more than I had to!

The snake skin on the wall. I know that they seek rough surfaces that give enough friction for them to slink out of their old skin...

So, unless the snake skin shrank after being shed by the snake, this one should not have come from the snake that I saw – which is not a comforting thought, as that means there’s more than one snake in our garden.

To make things worse, the next day, I spotted another skin just a metre away, up on the wall. This one was smaller than the first. Again, I don’t know if the skins shrink and what effect water has on them, but this one was smaller than the first skin, and had been rained on.

I am not happy about this situation… Eww, eww, ewww! :(

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Snake skins in the garden — 6 Comments

  1. eek eek eek!!! There’s a clan of them? OK, I think spreading a ring of sulphur is in order? I dunno – that’s what I heard you can do to stop them from getting into the HOUSE!! And sulphur apparently is good for fruiting plants… make fruits sweet – erm, in small doses of course. What are you going to do about the snakes?

    • I am going to sprinkle LOTS of sulphur around as well as tame the wilder areas of the garden. It’s not a nice feeling not feeling safe when I go visit my babies. But then I also believe in letting nature take its course and won’t feel happy if I were to take drastic action against creatures that are just trying to survive. If they’re not dangerous to us and the dogs then I’ll find a way to get along. Hopefully some bird predators come and get them…

  2. I LOVE shed snake skin. I found one at Sungei Buloh which I’m still keeping. Lol. I think I’ll have so much fun in your garden or stuff.

    • Hey, you can come and sniff out the snakes for me. And better still if you can charm them into leaving :P