Found an adder 🐍 in the garden today

[QOD]

And now I have to burn the house down ...

Seriously though, I can’t find photos online or an adders nest to make sure I recognise one should I see it.

The snake was basking in hot plastic 😭

Reported now 👍🏻

@canihaveacoffeplease I’m sorry, so sorry 😐 how devastating
As I said I have a tiny adored chihuahua

Qod, I was going to say I'm worried for your dog but canihaveaciffeeplease has stated the risk most clearly, poor thing. I don't know how I'd manage of i found one in my garden. I heard we have 2 hrs to get a dog to a vet following an adder bite, but surely size matters and yours is so wee.

I know 😭
The area is cleared now, we’ve not been here long and still clearing old crud, this was on a bank and a huge sheet of plastic that had been laid to presumably keep weeds down. It’d ended up screwed up and an unsightly mess. Had finally gone to pull it up and cut it up and there was snakey 🐍
It wasn’t harmed I swear but it was removed on a rake and lifted over into the woods - it slithered off.
The plastic is now cut up and gone. We do have over half an acre though sob.
Being a chihuahua, (in fact we have 2 as mum is in the annexe with hers) she’s a bit of a princess and likes to potter nearby or sunbath. She’s never out alone as I had been worried about foxes 🦊 but ugh. Scary
She’s already had a bloody bee sting to her mouth as she licked on on the floor. Straight to vets but no reaction at all.
The OOH vets is 20 mins away and in hours is just 10

@ivegotthree nah it was definitely there behind the shed. Dad took pictures of it. And I think he showed me it from a short distance once

I never knew that brizzlemint - always thought it was Dorset. So now I can't look to move to either Dorset or Worcestershire!

Everyone saying where you've seen them - where are you? Just so I can plan my future in a relatively snake free zone!

They live in forests and woods that is why you should always wear boots or wellingtons.

Heathlands and moorlands are favourite habitats, as well as woods. I never understand why people wear flip flops on walks on our common - it's not really the adders, which are rare, it's the ticks!

For anyone in Essex there are many adders in Epping Forest hiding among the leaves and compost.

My friend got bitten a couple of years ago, when she stopped on top of a mountain in Snowdonia, whilst out running, and sat on a dry stone cairn, put her hand down and it bit her wrist. She was okay, but we live up in the mountains and have dry stone walling, plus a toddler and a dog, so it does worry me. However we have not seen one in the garden in the 4 years we've been here, so hoping we are adder free!!

Ticks on the other hand definitely live in our garden... I totally freaked the first time I found one on my leg!!

@ajandjjmum

I never knew that brizzlemint - always thought it was Dorset. So now I can't look to move to either Dorset or Worcestershire!

We were told it by a forestry commission ranger at a forest in Worcestershire when we were visiting family there.

Everyone saying where you've seen them - where are you? grin Just so I can plan my future in a relatively snake free zone!

Add Bristol to the list. I think they like the artwork We saw one at a wildlife reserve on the Severn estuary.

This month is a great time to see them with all this warm weather - look (or don't!) in the early morning on rocks.

If you are out walking and see squares of corrugated metal don't move them or pick them up, there may well be a snake or lizard resting underneath.

We watched a nature programme once - me from behind a cushion! - where they were searching under corrugated metal. I think it might have been in Studland - but they found nothing. I was a mixture of happy and sad!

I saw an adder basking on a wall in Forestry Commission land near Port Talbot about 20 years ago.

I am in Pembrokeshire and we have lots of adders here, not seen one in my garden but they are in the woods and sand dunes.
They do move away from people, they are mostly a risk to dogs and cats but will move away from them too. They will only bite if they are trodden on or similar.
For everyone- If your dog is bitten keep it as still as possible and get to a vet immediately.

Is your chi fully grown??

I have two and my smallest is 3kg and she’s tiny!

6lb must be diddy

Uggh ticks as mentioned by pp, i worry more about ticks than adders in terms of my dds.

I'm terrified of my dogs getting bitten by one! We found a snake skin in a field near us last year, and it's made me really wary.

They are beautiful but also deadly.

My dog was bitten by an adder, she saw a vet a few hours later, but as we didn’t know she had been bitten, it was only identified as an adder bite the next day. She did very nearly die, but thankfully is still with us, although we have to be cautious about anything that is a seizure risk now.
So keep dogs away from areas where adders bask, particularly as the day cools or on colder Summer days, as adders can’t escape as quickly then.

@Soubriquet I just did a weight translation thingy and yeah I’m a twat. She’s 7lb 😂
She my favourite girl 🐕

Bless her!

These are my two. The brown one is twice the size of my little white one but both are a scrummy

I am so so envious of you!! I can see by your posts you do not share the same sentiments (an understatement!) but he is absolutely spectacular.
Apart from the slight concern over a bite, I'd love for my children to quietly observe one in their garden.
Sadly for me, I've no garden nor am I rural.
Wht beautiful markings.

When she was a baby

Myrtlewilson you can certainly see adders in the NE, if you count N Yorks. We had lots on the heathlands of the old Galtres forest near York, and on warm spring days would come across tangles of them on banks, basking to wake up after their hibernation. They are pretty shy of people because we make so much noise, and will slither off into water if they can find it. Be careful about dogs though- if too inquisitive they risk a bite in the face, which can be dangerous.

This was my little shit as a baby

Teeny tiny

She may be little but she’s got attitude...and a whole lot of love

We live by Forestry Commission land, an area of AONB, in the Midlands and there have been a lot of sightings of adders already this year, two dogs were reported as being bitten as early as February when we had a spell of warmer weather (both survived after treatment thankfully).

I’m petrified of snakes, can’t even look at a picture of them (I shielded the screen so I couldn’t see the pictures but still read the text when opening this thread).

I refuse to go to the AONB from Spring until late Autumn in case I see one. I walk my dog on the common and woodland behind our house (not part of the AONB) as there’s no evidence of snakes there (I’ve checked the website and the only reptile listed is the common lizard) but someone said in a discussion about adder sightings on Facebook recently that they’d seen one by the pool on the common. I obviously can’t stop walking my dog so I’m walking him in a state of mild panic everyday.

Madison - where in the Midlands are you. I can feel a move to Ireland coming on!