RAUK - Archived Forum - Ferocious serpents in gardens?

I got called out to a house today.   The poor woman that lives there has a fairly strong phobia when it comes to snakes.  I have seen worse examples but she is visibly very disturbed by snakes or snake like creatures.
 
She only has a small garden, but as it is somewhat neglected, it provides excellent habitat for slow-worms.      At the bottom of the garden, (the roughest area) there was a large piece of carpet acting as refugia.  Beneath it I counted 16 slow-worms of both sexes at varying stages of development.  There were undoubtedly more than 16 beneath the refugia, but that was the number that I managed to count before they dissapeared. One male was the largest in girth that I have seen in recent years. He was as thick as my thumb.  He was covered with a fair sprinkling of blue dots and as is the norm with males of this girth that I have previously encountered, he had a truncated tail. 
 
There were two females, of a similar girth, and I would say with confidence that one of them was slightly larger again.  A third large female was not under the refugia, but mosaic basking in the tussocky grass. Is there evidence that suggests the age that animals have to be to reach this size?

The woman who lives at the property had told a tale on the telephone that her garden was full of snakes, and that an animal with "a zig-zag pattern on it`s back" had bitten her son on one occasion in the past.

The garden is typical urban slow-worm habitat, but very unlikely to support adders, neither is it large enough to do so in my opinion, and the immediate adjoining habitat comprises of gardens that are far less hospitable to  reptiles than the garden concerned.
 
I appreciate that a story was related of a snake with a zig-zag pattern biting her son, but speaking with the lady revealed that her son (who was not present) enjoys winding her up with the slow-worms and bringing them in to the house, which of course terrifys the poor woman.  Once I had calmed her down, (she became almost hysterical when she saw the slow-worms under the refugia)
it came to light that she herself has not seen an animal with a zig-zag pattern, not with her own eyes.  The bite story about an animal with a zig-zag pattern came from her son, who was not treated for any bite.  In my opinion, the son is either exagerating or simply inventing stories to terrify his poor mother.   If I was a betting man, I would place a large sum on there not being any adders in or even close to her garden, and an even larger sum on her son having made the entire thing up just to scare his poor mother and provide amusement for himself.
 
As the lady was so visibly agitated and disturbed by the animals, I removed the carpet, and put it in her bin at the front of the house for her.  I have suggested that she does not leave objects that could be used as refugia by the animals lying around, and that she keeps the grass in the main part of the garden very short, and tips her grass cuttings at the bottom of the garden where she can allow the grass to grow freely.  After constant reassurance from me that nobody was at any risk from the harmless lizards, (and that I thought it extremely unlikely that there would be either adders or grass snakes present) and upon demonstrating to her (at a distance) the total lack of inclination from a freshly caught large slow-worm to bite me, she admitted that it was "silly" (phobias are irrational as we know!) but she was still visibly very distraught by the whole experience.  I also suggested that she erect a small fence across the garden (which cannot be any more than 5 meters wide, if indeed that amount) which would in effect divide the garden into two areas, rough grass and mown grass (it would also provide a degree of psychological separation from the slow-worm rich area for the lady concerned).   She did like the sound of the idea, but whether she will be able to afford to erect a fence, or have the inclination to keep up with regular mowing of the main lawn area I am unsure. 
 
What is of most interest to me is the percentage of seemingly unsuitable habitat which surrounds this tiny slow-worm paradise.  The rear garden is a typical  long and narrow council house terrace affair.  The house is part of a quadrangle of terraced houses, the rear gardens of which take up the entire space that the houses surround.  I could not assess any of the surrounding gardens other than the immediate neighbouring gardens either side of the house, one of which was almost entirely concrete, and the other appeared very tidy, organised, and sterile when compared with the slow-worm plot. The area in the lady`s garden which would appear to support the majority of the slow-worms is around 5 meters wide tapering back about 6 meters to a point, so forming an area which is to all intents and purposes a triangle, at which the animals congregate.
 
Apparently on one occasion the lady`s son collected 27 individual animals from this tiny area.  How much first rate habitat does a single animal require?  

If the area in her garden does happen to be the only patch of "Grade A" habitat in the area enclosed by the houses, (I am not for one moment suggesting that it is of course) which has nothing in the way of corridors which could provide opportunities for animals to move away from the site without having to traverse considerable amounts of tarmac, would a 5meter by 5 meter area possibly be large  enough to support so many animals if they could not, in addition     access other areas?

Peter sounds like a typical 'house call'. It isn't that unusual to find slow-worms concentrated like this. They likely forage in the surrounding gardens but base in the suitable habitat. I've seen abandonded properties with overgrown gardens teeming with herpetofauna. We have a medium lizard population in our garden, grass snakes and smooth newts by the dozen, in an area not much more than 30ft by 40ft. Suzi has a thriving slow worm population in her compost bins.

Slow worms can and do bite. I've often heard of them being described as displaying zig zag patterns also. I expect her son got bitten playing with a slow worm and made the most of it!

Hi Peter

Various papers suggest between 1000 and 2000 slowworms per Ha in optimal habitat (eg under-used allotments etc).  Small gardens can support good numbers.  Often these populations have been introduced by enlightened gardeners / plot holders etc and then they spread to gardens of less reptile-oriented people.  Basically a small area can have a high carrying capacity for slowworms.

keith...i think you're beyond any sort of therapy.

tim

this reminded me of a time when I was called out to deal with a 'snake' in a back garden in North London.  Woman claimed she had been bitten by an adder, local swelling etc and had it confirmed at hospital.  She had managed to kill the offending creature and put it in a jar for me to see - guess what ? a slowworm...  I guess either she had got an inflammation close to the 'bite' or perhaps even had a psychosomatic response (she was snake phobic)

People have such fear of what they deem to be snakes, it can be hard for us to understand at times. I like nothing better than teaching a group of people about the wonders of reptiles and seeing the looks on their faces when they first handle a friendly reptile and realise that they're not going to eat people after all.

 We were once called out to a house where a young gentleman was screaming out the letterbox, in terror of the snake in his garden, it was a slow worm basking in the sun on his path, poor guy was petrified. We just moved it up the street to similar habitat.