Moving to TV in September and I'm terrified of snakes! Would NEVER hurt one, but I'm terrified of them. Please tell me I won't see a snake when I move there!!

Been here 3 years. The only snake I've seen was on one of the golf courses. I'm sure there are plenty but they try to stay away from people.

blue striped garter snake

won't let me post the website
Blue-Striped Garter Snake - Thamnophis sirtalis similis

I enlarged the OP s picture and I agree, it isn't a black racer. It does resemble the above mentioned snake. They are harmless, but they can give you the creeps.😱

But, It's a Snake!!!!!

If you don't wish to have bad dreams tonight, you may not want to read the following: I have lived here a little over a year now and have seen three snakes around my house and we don't even have a pond or preserve lot! The first was a large, long snake, last summer, that most likely came from a preserve, crossed over the main road and across a neighbors yard and then out near our streets cul-de-sac. There were a lot of people gathered around that evening watching the sunset and it just slithered up pretty near us all on a neighbor's driveway until one of the ladies turned around and in horror spotted it. Someone in the group tried to run it over with their golf cart (not the smartest move) and it kept coiling up and striking! It was very aggressive. It finally left the driveway and went into a flower bed and we all decided at that point to leave it alone. The next morning it was found dead on the main street from having been run over by a car. A couple of neighbors identified it as a water moccasin!

The second time was a tiny brown snake my wife found outside our front door, sunning on our sidewalk. I got the wasp spray out and sprayed a large stream directly on it and it slithered away quickly. Two days later it was dead on the street, inches from my yard and I identified it as a pigmy rattlesnake! I found out later that they like to hide and disguise themselves in the pine straw which every new home is provided with for landscaping. Not even a month later I had all the straw taken up and replaced with river rock, which is not snake friendly.

The thiird time was just a few nights ago when I was out with my dog in the yard. A three foot snake with brown splotches, slithered across the yard in front of us. There were a lot of frogs out that night and I figure he was looking for some dinner. I went the other way and left him alone. Because of this last snake ordeal, I did come to a feasible assumption. My wife likes to leave on all of our external lights of our house when we are away for the evening. They had been on for a few hours that night before we came home to let the dog out. My theory is that the lights attract many bugs, which attract the frogs wanting to eat the bugs, which in turn can attract a snake wanting to swallow a frog or two! No more lights left on around our home anymore!

At State Police Troop School, a friend of mine called snakes "no shoulders"; was actually very terrified of them. I had a handful of black ribbon that I threw on his desk one day in class; needless to say that was the funniest 5 minutes of Troop School we had; followed by me having to do extra PT later that day.

state trooper -- now that jest ain't raight

There are only 3 poisonous snakes in Florida and the vast majority of people never ever see one of them as we are a danger to their living out their lives. Harmless ones, help us by eating insects, mice etc....things we don't want in our homes. I used to be terrified of all of them until I got to know the differences between them and 99% have been some form of harmless racers/garters and the odd harmless rat snake. We fear what we don't know most often so it was a good study. I also got to think of them as ailementary canals which we all have from our mouth to the bottom end. They just didn't develop arms and legs.

The village I live in has more than its share of snakes, 2 caught in my garage, several crawl thru my yard, snake skins in my rock beds, 1 dead, 1 alive in the street yesterday.........I know their out there , so I am cautious. Don't like ANY Snake, but they are here. P.S. I don't live near water or a preserve....

The pygmy rattlesnake is very common in The Villages. His bite is venomous and serious. It is a toxin that kills tissue around the bite.

Be very careful about reaching into the weeds for that golf ball! I was told by one of the golf course ambassadors that Brown Recluse Spiders are even more prevalent in the weeds than the snake.

Good thing my ball always go straight and stays in the fairway. :1rotfl:

Sneaky Snake
 

When we lived in southwest Florida, we found that mothballs around the perimeter of the house kept the snakes away. Some neighbors too (joking!). There is also a product called Snake Away purchased in Home Depot, Lowes, etc. that you can sprinkle around your foundation, but mothballs are by far less expensive.

where were you in SWFL?

As a mild counterpoint, mothballs should be used with caution since their use is regulated by the EPA.

I agree. I've never seen a black racer with diamond pattern and a yellow stripe like that. We have a black racer around my house and it looks nothing like that.