Please help: What snakes have we got?

NatGreen

I've been visiting your forum for ages, only now I got brave enough to register and ask something. Fear of snakes forced me to write.
Last Saturday we went to our allotment to plant a couple of bushes and started digging in the corner of the plot next to the fence. Suddenly my husband screamed: look - snakes. There were two of them, small and narrow, yellow or cream coloured. They quickly disappeared in the bushes. What kind of snakes where they? They were small, like a huge worms. We did not notice any pattern on them or were too shocked to notice. Now I am afraid to go to the allotment site. I really enjoyed my gardening and now it's all ruined.
Does anybody know what it can be? Adders? Grass snakes?

BonandDom

I think - but quite happy to be proved wrong - these were harmless grass snakes. Adders tend to have quite bold markings. Try googling images for both and see if any look similar.

Don't blame you for being scared, I'd have run a mile:o

Rikki

Grass snake.

NatGreen

Thank you very much. I tried "googling" but they have pictures for "adults", not baby snakes. I found one result for yellow rat snake, but they are native for the States.

BonandDom

Wahey does that mean I was right:beer:

NatGreen

Are baby grass snakes without pattern? The other thing- they were under the ground.

Rikki

Baby grass snakes when they're first hatch are approximately 7-10cm long. Unlike chicken eggs, grass snake eggs are rubber-like, the snakes have on the top of their nose a little egg tooth which they use to rasp their way through. Grass snakes being born in July/August would have been hatched in September.
This time of the year, the females are getting fat as they prepare to lay eggs. Adult grass snakes are between 70-120 cm, with the females are larger than the males, and can occasionally reach 200cm in length.

People often mistake grass snakes for adders - they're generally olive green in colour. The thing that causes confusion is the black marking on the head - they lack the definitive zig zag of an adder. Adders are generally brown or grey.

Early in the morning you can find them on top of the compost, in the ivy or sometimes on top of the wall at Marks Hall where they bask in the sun, warming up. Once they're up to temperature, they're very quick and spend the rest of the day patrolling for food.
:eek:

NatGreen

Oh, Rikki thank you sooo much. But "ours" were much much lighter, practically cream colour. Maybe because they were still in the ground? Also we did not see any egg shells? Sorry... Does it mean that I have biting thing?

Lotus-eater

Sounds like a young slow worm to me, google image it.

ellies_angel

thanks to everyone who felt it necessary to post an actual picture of a snake and not just a link!

NatGreen

Thank you, I think it's the most close image. So I want to think that they were slow worms. The place was covered with plastic sheet, the website says they like it.
Do young adders always have a pattern? Just to be sure that I do not have them next to my allotment...