Well known to naturalists and gardeners, garter snakes are the most common and widespread snakes in North America. Represented by fours species in Missouri, they favor open woodlands with rocky outcrops and nearby streams or ponds and are often found in residential areas. While they may bite to protect themselves, these beneficial snakes are not poisonous.
Garter snakes breed in spring and females deliver nine to twelve fully-developed young in late summer. As the nights begin to cool, these reptiles bask on logs or rocks during the mid-morning hours, warming up before they go hunting; September is thus a good month to look for them. Their prey includes insects, earthworms, tadpoles, frogs, eggs, nestlings and a variety of small mammals. Like most snakes, garters shed their skin on a regular basis, breaking it open along their snout and, after snaring it on the edge of a log or rock, literally crawl out of it; some birds (great-crested flycathers) and small mammals use the skins for nesting material.
By mid November, garter snakes begin to congregate in underground burrows or south-facing dens, where they often overwinter in groups of a hundred or more.
