"Completely harmless": BC man stumbles upon surprise snakes

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A BC man stumbled upon a startling surprise, a large den of snakes.

In a private Facebook group post, the man who discovered the snakes stated he was riding around Boundary Bay Dyke when he found the surprise.

We contacted a snake expert to see if encountering a den of snakes like this is potentially dangerous and whether or not these slithering reptiles could help solve Vancouver’s rat problem.

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The Boundary Bay Dyke is near Delta, BC, along the Tsawwassen coast.

We connected with Adrian Walton from the Dewdney Animal Hospital about what we were looking at in the startling picture.

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Walton told us that the snakes were completely harmless and were in the process of sunning themselves or warming up. He also suggested they were just garter snakes.

“They are a unique species as they will often have a hibernaculum where hundreds and sometimes thousands of snakes over winter and when it warms up, come out in large numbers.”

We also asked him about the potential for these snakes to rescue the city from its rat problem.

“For the most part, their diet is worms, insects, fish (they are excellent swimmers), small amphibians,” Walton said.

He added that the only rodents these snakes would be consuming are small mice, “but nothing like rats.”

While these garter snakes aren’t dangerous, Walton did say that over the last several years in the lower mainland, snakes have been dealing with a “nasty fungal infection” that could cause death.

What would you do if you happened to stumble upon this slithery surprise?