Most parents assume the biggest childhood backyard problems involve things like muddy footprints and toys scattered across the lawn.
They usually don’t expect an entire self-sustaining snake situation unfolding right under their noses.
The other day, TikToker Nicole (@soundoftheforest) was chatting with her mom when her mom suddenly mentioned that there just weren’t as many snakes in the yard after Nicole and her brother moved away.
To her mom, it was merely an observation. To Nicole, it was the moment she realized a long-held childhood secret had finally come full circle.
What her mom didn’t know was that Nicole and her brother used to collect garter snakes from a field almost every single day and put them in the yard when they were growing up.
“We loved garter snakes, and we loved watching them, and we would feed the snakes to keep them in our yard,” said Nicole. “But it got to the point that there were just so many snakes in our yard that there wasn’t room for them all.”
According to Nicole, the snakes ended up slithering their way to the abandoned house next door that was owned by the bank. No one had lived in that house for years, so the snakes moved in.
Eventually, someone did move into that house. Soon enough, the new neighbors knocked on their door and asked them about “the snake problem.” They had snakes in their yard and in the walls of the house. They just couldn’t get rid of the snakes.
At the time, Nicole and her brother stood there, silently listening. They did not tell their mother that they had created such a big snake problem. The neighbors ultimately moved away because of the snake infestation.
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“[Our parents] just thought we were having a good time, you know, gathering maybe a few snakes here and there,” said Nicole.
“They didn’t know the extent of what we were doing. But yeah, that’s why there aren’t as many snakes in our yard anymore. When me and my brother moved out, we stopped feeding the snakes and finding them and putting them in our yard.”
In the comments section, many TikTok users were both amused and horrified by Nicole’s childhood commitment to catching snakes.
“For those who don’t know, garter snakes are one of the few social species of snakes. They live in colonies that can become massive. I think she and her brother created a garter snake colony,” commented one user.
“I got so familiar with garter snakes as a child that I could smell when one was near. Loved catching them,” stated another.
“I need an apology from my mom for only collecting tadpoles and woolly caterpillars,” wrote a third.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
