What to do about grass snake taken up residence by pond?

[Matt1977]

first id like to say wow id love snakes in my gardens (i have loads in my house lol). secondly just a note on the legal side of things it is legal to handle and move them you can even keep them as pets if you wish, you are not allowed to kill, harm them or sell trade or give them away unless they 2nd generation captive breed. i sourced this infomation from rfuk.co.uk as well as other places, just so happend to be looking into it today lol.

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Matt1977

you can even keep them as pets if you wish

Although this would be strongly unadvised and be a little inappropriate. There are after all plenty of captive bred species of snake in the pet market that a snake enthusiast could keep oppose to taking a wild snake from the British countryside which is abit unacceptable in my eyes.

[hsl]

Beautiful snake, I'd love to see one. Do Grass snakes even dive under the water? And surely you could tell if it was eating the fish by how many there are?

[Muggsy]

they can stay under the water for quite some time HSL

[hsl]

Ah thanks. Surely the fish are better swimmers and can stay away from the snake though? Striking through water must be slower than on land? Do Grass snakes hide and ambush the fish or something?

[witham]

We have seen a snake go into our pond a couple of times and when it's hot we have also seen one sunbathing on the Lilly Pads, needless to say we now always make sure we're wearing strong gloves when cleaning it out as would hate to get nipped A couple of years ago when we still had some Call Ducks, one had made a nest and laid some eggs in an old Pampas Grass that was there long before we did the pen, one very hot day, an Adder was curled up in the hot sun next to the grass, so wether it was a coincidence or it had found a source of food, or its own nesting place I don't know, we didn't see it again, shortly afterwards one of the ducks mysteriously died and we have often wondered if it had been bitten while on the nest.

[Xander]

As many people have said already, please realise how lucky you are to have grass snakes in your gardens. Goldfish are bred by the millions, so would it be so bad if a snake ate a couple?!! I'm no expert on grass snakes, but if your frogs are disapearing, it's probably more due to the time of year than predation. They don't generally live in water, they use it for breeding anytime from February, and the young frogs are leaving the water come May.
If people are going to have a pond in their garden, they should be prepared for the huge variety wildlife that the water WILL attract.
Lots of people on this thread have said grass snakes are harmless, and i agree with that in as much as they are not capable of doing any real harm, but please remember that snakes are wild animals no matter how placid they may appear and are very capable of biting if handled. I keep many snakes myself, including Garter snakes (Grass snakes american cousins), and when they bite it will give you a shock, and your natural reactions are far more likely to harm the snake than the snake harming you. The moral is, unless you're prepared to be bitten, don't handle a snake!
No i've written that i can see people running for the hills when they see a snake, but the reality is, a sting from a nettle is far more painful than a bite from a 3 foot colubrid - yes, really!