Homeowner surprised to find feisty visitor while weeding garden: 'That's a keeper right there'

There's no need for a trip to the zoo when at-home gardening can bring the wildlife right to your yard.

One Florida gardener made a new reptile friend while weeding. A video posted to Reddit shows a red snake coiled on a tarp and repeatedly sticking out its tongue.

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(Click here to watch the video if the embed does not appear.)

Commenters were quick to identify the critter as a Florida red cornsnake. More than just a pretty pal, this constrictor feeds on rodents and can help keep unwanted guests away from gardens.

The potential to attract beneficial wildlife is just one of the many upsides of keeping a garden or maintaining a natural lawn. Switching from grass to eco-friendly alternatives — like a xeriscaped yard or a clover lawn, depending on your gardening zone — can cut down the time and money you might otherwise spend on maintaining and watering grass.

The warming world is making it harder for many species to survive, but gardens and native-plant lawns can help boost biodiversity by creating habitats for wildlife. Visitors can range from large reptiles like snakes to tiny pollinators like bees.

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These guests help people in different ways. Snakes consume rodents that can damage vegetable gardens, and pollinators protect our food supply and help increase crop yields.

You can make your yard as friendly a place as possible for wildlife by ensuring that it has plenty of water, native plants, food sources, and places for animals to seek shelter, as one TikToker explains.

This Redditor's surprise visitor shows just how far gardens can go to invite wildlife and benefit local ecosystems, and commenters are congratulatory.

"Pretty and a good one to have around," one commenter wrote.