[cooperman]

anyone found any yet?  I get quite a few slow worms (yes I know slow worms are not snakes just legless lizards )

[Trillium]

Hopefully not. Compost should be dug out and turned several times during the season, which would make it quite hot and compost faster. Reptiles and rodents wouldn't be able to survive in the resulting heat.

[m1ckz]

the chap 2 plots from me had a snake stuck in his fine netting last week,it was an adder i think,first 1 ive seen down the allotments

[lacewing]

I'm scared now!

[lucywil]

found a wasps nest in mine yesterday, i was busy turning it from 1 bin to another when i suddenly felt  a pain in my hand, saw the wasp so moved away as loads more came out, luckily i only got stung twice, but now have the task of trying to get rid of them, would much prefer snakes!

[8doubles]

Hopefully not. Compost should be dug out and turned several times during the season, which would make it quite hot and compost faster. Reptiles and rodents wouldn't be able to survive in the resulting heat.

I think the snakes are clever enough to find a place in the heap where the temperature is comfortable .
All amphibians and reptiles in the UK are protected species and disturbing a compost heap containing snakes or their eggs would be illegal.

[lacewing]

Oh no! not a nest of baby snakes as well!!

[bigben]

Snakes in your compost heap - the latest action flick starring Wesley Snipes

[Trillium]

We don't have those same regulations here, though I'd still hate to disturb nesting reptiles. We all have our place in the life cycle.

However, I need to make compost, and in order to avoid 'pest' problems, I made all my bins inaccessible to all interested creatures. The sides are all wood with very narrow spaces between, and the base has very small holed weldmesh so nothing can burrow in. The top is a sheet of metal roofing I got at the tip.
If I see snakes or rodents with saws or drills, then we all have a problem 

[Flump]

funny talking about snakes,my daughter found a dead baby adder on our front lawn the other week and I have never seen one round here!

[starry]

slow worms I can just about cope with but adders!! I am always worried when harvesting my strawberries as many years ago when I was but a child our neighbour had an adder trapped in his strawberry patch, it had got in through the netting but  couldn't get out again having eaten so many strawberries and it wasn't very happy!! 

[shuffle]

I saw the back end of a grass snake disappearing into our neighbour's heap in the hot weather we had back in May (which now seems like a lifetime ago...).  Don't know if it was living there or just having a look.

[Rangerkris]

I'm scared now!

You should be your close to an Adder habitat 

[radiohead]

Grass snakes...(harmless)...are the most likely occupants of compost heaps,where they often lay eggs,usually in june or july. Adders are much less likely inhabitants of allotments and plots,and produce live young in august.....eggs in a compost heap will always be grass snakes.

[Redgoat]

My brother in law got into trouble with my sister a couple of years ago when he took his time to remove a pile of grass cuttings. One evening she saw the pile moving and a short time later saw the cause which was a 5ft grass snake.

However, not as bad as when she returned home one afternoon to find an adder sunbathing on the doorstep of her front door.