It wasn't worms that a Kent gardener found when he opened up his compost bin - but an entirely different kind of slithery surprise.

This corn snake would normally live in the fields of north America, but he seemed perfectly at home among some rotten vegetables in Hampshire Drive in Shepway, Maidstone.

The bright orange snake is carnivorous and has fangs but is not venomous. He is about two feet long, but will be double that size when he is full grown.

He has now been taken to Vets4Pets in the town after being caught by trainee nurse Shirley Hills - at the second attempt after the first was foiled by a large spider!

She said: "It makes a bit of a change from the cats and dogs we normally get."