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My clearing is about 2.5 acres, carved out of the middle of the woods. Right after I moved in, I went around to all my neighbors, introduced myself and gave them my phone number and asked that, "when you see a black snake, Please do not harm it, call me, I'll come get it" I picked up about 8 or 9 nice black snakes, they eat moles, mice, rats, and the occassional bird that is pecking at my veggies. Any other variety of king snake will give the same result. I also don't get kids raiding my watermelon or cantalope. HEHEHEHEHE, the apple trees are in the same fenced in area that I keep my German Shepherds in. They are not mean, but they bark, and that seems to be enough.
Oh, are those the Black Racers?! I LOVE those. I saw a big one just the other day. They are great for pest control! And, yes, they have lovely temperaments. I love it when they climb trees, coil up and perch; truly impressive creatures
PLEASE do NOT buy snakes from petstores and release them, petstores do not typically sell native species (though the corn snake is native to some areas of the usa) and none native species will either die slow painfull deather OR can become invasive and destroy native species, secondly the snakes sodl in petstores are often fed inapropriate diets in which case the snake wont be ready to survivie in its new environment, OR they feed prekilled food, many pet store snakes will refuse live food, meaning in the wild they will often starve to death.
its cruel, and in most states its illegal.
if your realy in need of snakes on your property and arnt patient enough to attract them (build it they will come) talk to your neighbors and put an add on craigslist asking if anyone sees stray none venemous snakes in their home or yard to NOT kill it and instead give you a call and you can go catch/pick it up. keep a couple of pillowcases and a home made snake hook in your car (pole with blunt hook (the hook off plastic coat hangers works well) and a pair of good gardening gloves (even none venemous snakes can give ya a painfull bite) catch the ones other folks dont want and release them in your own yard...
but having a wildlife garden/snake area will make the capture/release snake much more likely to stick around long enough to realize theres a good food source present.
i rescued a black rat snake on the road a couple weeks ago and brought it home, turned it loose in the backyard. it should be big enough to take on a gopher. a garter snake would be way too small.
I was just going to post that too! Listen to Foxywench, she is very wise.
Moving snakes more than a mile from where you found them isn't good either. They have home ranges and will spend the rest of their lives trying to get back "home". I practice what I preach Just last summer a timber rattlesnake gave birth to 12 babies about 30 ft from my back door. I moved all about 3/4 mile into the woods from my house.
I think the best thing is to provide the snake habitat and hopefully, the mole eating snakes will appear.
Moving snakes more than a mile from where you found them isn't good either. They have home ranges and will spend the rest of their lives trying to get back "home". I practice what I preach Just last summer a timber rattlesnake gave birth to 12 babies about 30 ft from my back door. I moved all about 3/4 mile into the woods from my house.
I think the best thing is to provide the snake habitat and hopefully, the mole eating snakes will appear.
I wondered about that, thank you. Thanks to everyone who contributed, very interesting reading! Especially to you Foxywench for the detailed instructions, I appreciate that you took the time made the effort, and sounds like many others do too!
Dang, it looks like I'm doing it wrongly. we have 11.26 acres, 2.5 cleared w/garden, the rest is heavily wooded w/creek. Each evening I put out a bit of dry cat food at the top of my garden at the tree line, it helps feed feral cats and a family of foxes. The cats take care of rats and mice, the foxes take care of squirrels and rabbits. Symbiosis at work.
but feral cats dont just kill the rats and mice, they will also kill beneficial snakes, and birds...they are indescrminate killers and can do an incredible amount of damage to an environment.
foxes however are definatly good to have around for the larger species (they will sometimes take moles too)
another note on the catfood...be carefull, racoons and skunks LOVE catfood and you dont want to be teaching them to come for dinner every night...
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Just last summer a timber rattlesnake gave birth to 12 babies about 30 ft from my back door. I moved all about 3/4 mile into the woods from my house.
Especially to you Foxywench for the detailed instructions, I appreciate that you took the time made the effort, and sounds like many others do too! 
