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When I kept snakes (I had to give them up for several uninteresting reasons) I was mostly a rat snake guy, so I don't know too much about garters though I have watched this board, and spotted the occcasional eastern garter where I used to live.

At the beginning of August I had to move to Columbus, Ohio, and just today I spotted my first Ohioan snake, a DOR eastern. The thing is, it was blue (or part of it was). I'm pretty certain it was an eastern because I was on foot, so I actually crouched down and looked closely at it (which was a foul business).

So, are the garters here different colors than they are back east? I've heard of Florida blue garters, so I know this coloration isn't altogether alien to Thamnophis. I've also heard that they change colors towards fall, though I've never seen that in person.

dead garters turn blue. dead green snakes turn blue as well.

Thanks. I had no idea. . .

I'm in Columbus. The Ohio garters can be pretty variable. I haven't seen much blue, just slight hints of it on some. That doen't mean they're not out there.

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Jamie W.

(url)http://rosyboas.tripod.com(/url)

Most garters in Ohio are some variety of brown... in fact, around the NE part of Columbus, we see a light fawn brown with dark brown bars or speckles. Also, some of these brown specimens will have orange or rose colored skin between the scales, on the area of the side stripe... not quite a flame, but something heading in that direction.

Up in Toledo, Ohio, near the Davis Besse nuclear plant wetlands, melanistic garters are found.

And we also see the typical green garter with a yellow side stripe in some regions of the state.

KITKAT
member of
www.thamnophis.com
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KITKAT

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