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May 10, 2007 - Appreciate the creepy-crawliesThe Suffolk Times • May 10, 2007 the tree '0 reciate - crawlies Suffolk Times photos by Paul Stoutenburgh We're seeing fewer and fewer of these harmless garter snakes. Remember — there are no poisonous snakes on Long Island. What with man's use of pes- ticides, rotary lawn mowers, speeding cars and the general loss of habitat, all snakes are having a hard time finding a place of refuge. We received a call the other day from Steve telling us he had found a salamander while cleaning out his fishpond. He was concerned that in the cleaning something could happen to this stranger of dark places, so he gave us a call. It's nice to see people are concerned. My mind ran back to when I was teaching and kids would occasionally bring in garter snakes, salamanders, baby mice, rab- bits, etc. Seeing FOCUS my caller was in the same genera ON area where the NATURE kids had found their salaman- by Paul ders, I was prett3 Stoutenburgh sure it would turn out to be the common spotted salamander — a really good - looking creature with two irregular rows of yellow spots running the full length of its blue -black body. To make sure, we'd go and see if our assump- tion was correct. Sure enough, when we got there and saw the salamander, it definitely was the common spotted that is found from Hudson Bay in Canada down through New England and farther south. Spotted salamanders were no strangers to the great naturalist Roy Latham of Orient, who recorded them in East Hampton, Sag Harbor and near the Peconic River in 1932. He also saw them in 1928,1930 and 1931 in Montauk: What a remarkabl man he was. ne salamander you see on my hand was about five inches long and, like all salamanders, is cold - blooded. It had probably mated and already attached its jelly -like mass of eggs to some object. The reason I say "al- ready" is that salamanders are on the move to their breeding ponds in the raw months of March and April. Once the salamander eggs are laid, the parents have nothing to do with' the young as they pass through the various stages of becoming adults. The young have feathery gills in the early stages. As time passes, these frilly gills disappear and legs emerge. They, like their parents, will move out of the pond and spend the rest of the year hunting out moist areas to live in where food is readily available. Their food consists of earthworms, snails, slugs, spiders, millipedes, crick- ets, beetles and other insects. If it's the right size and it moves, it will be fair game for the salamander. Many peo- ple have never seen a salamander for the simple reason that salamanders travel mostly during the night when the ground is damp from rain or fog, as they must keep their bodies moist. I only wish everyone would be as excited as my grandson is whenever we find any of these creepy - crawly things. His comment would be "Awe- some!" "Can I see it ?" "Can I hold it ?" It's going to be people like him who will fight for a better world. We see it happening now with the "Green rarry ana more ana more we see ret. erences to "Planet Earth." When did you last see a snake and how did you react to it? I've often been asked to identify a snake and when I arrive I find it battered and dead. When I ask what happened, the answer is something like, "I thought it might be poisonous," or, in a much more positive answer, "I just don't like snakes!" Where do these people come from? Don't they know there are no poison- ous snakes on Long Island? This is nol to say a garter snake won't bite and give you a little jolt. To further protec itself a garter snake gives off a foul - smelling fluid that repels any would - be predator. Even the saliva of this snake could be toxic to any molester. Just the other day I found a garter snake down by our small pond along the driveway. Garter snakes are often found around water areas. I haven't seen a garter snake around here in at least 10 years; they were once plenti- ful. I gave it to my daughter to show her classes in hopes of helping the young to understand more about the creatures around us. Then she'll let it go where we found it. Our common garter snake should be a welcome visitor to the gar- dener, for they eat slugs, insects, bugs worms; etc. that plav havoc with 'One of the most common salamanders Is the spotted salamander, which grows to six -plus inches. They have to have vernal ponds and other water areas to lay their eggs — one of the main reasons for protecting these wet areas. plants and shrubs the gardener work: so hard to grow. It's easy to identify the garter snake by the yellow stripes that run the full length of its body. Some garter snakes grow up to three or four feet. In the wild they have to keep a lookout for r C r . Raccoon, snapping turtles, hawks, x and others all looking for a meal. ut none of these predators have reduced the garter snake's numbers more than man, with his rotary lawn mowers, his speeding cars, his misuse of.pesticides, the loss of habitat to de- velopment — the list goes on and on. When winter comes the garter snake seeks out areas that will not freeze; here it will hibernate until warmer weather prevails. To help keep warm; snakes often I only wish gather in a ball tog everyone would helps conserve be as excited the little heat as my gl"dndsor their bodies have. Once Is whenever when I was we find any of splitting wood these creepy - in the winter I uncovered one crawly things. of these balls of snakes. I felt so badly I rebuilt the woodpile plus added some straw and put it all back together. I can't report whether my efforts worked or not. When it got warmer, I checked and there was no sign of them. Hopefully they all made it and were long gone. You can also find these snakes rolled up into a ball at mating time. It's thought the males give off a scent that attracts the females. Then a hec breaks loose as snakes from all over the vicinity congregate to see who the female chooses to mate with. I remember some years ago a lady (called about a collection of snakes in ,one of her bushes. Of course, we had to check it out, and when we got there there were a dozen or more yellow - striped garter snakes slithering in and out of a mass in her bush. I'm sure they knew what they were doing. As for me, I could only report "a mass of snakes in a bush" and let it go at that. Garter snakes do not lay eggs but give birth to live young that can num- ber from 10 to 20 or more. There's no protecting by the parents of the young, who face a dangerous world — one whose motto is, "Eat or be eat -n." Seems cruel but it's worked suc- ,essf illy for them through the ages.