How to get rid of snakes?

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I'm in south central Alabama and we do have poisionous snakes and lots of them! They are everywhere. With my mulch piles and compost piles and the "grown up" area back behind our house that we don't own and our neighbors who attract snakes (you'd have to see it to believe it), they are EVERYWHERE! How can I get rid of them and keep my kids safe?

-- Rebecca (rebeccagallant@earthlink.net), May 09, 2002

Answers

Do you have cats? My uncles cat enjoyed his snakes so much they left. He never actually killed any, but he would "play" with them whenever he found them.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), May 09, 2002.

Hi Rebecca, I've always heard that moth balls work, but I've never used them because they are toxic. I read somewhere that you can take sisel (sp?) rope, large around, and lay it around the diameter of where you want to keep snakes out of. It seems that since the sisel is so prickly, the snakes won't crawl over it. I've never done this, but you might want to try out a small area to see if it works. It does make some sense, though.

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), May 09, 2002.

I've heard that Guinnea fowl will make life miserable for snakes.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), May 10, 2002.

I use to have lots of snakes! I don't anymore. Every since I got six guinea hens I haven't seen any snakes and I even have a pond within 200 feet of my house.

-- Jodie in TX (stanchnmotion@yahoo.com), May 10, 2002.

See if you can remove some of the habitat that they are attracted to. If there are any patches of tall grass or weeds that they can hide in, mow it, snakes don't like mown grass, it leaves them exposed. Put frames around your compost piles, and fences of 1/4 inch rat wire (hardware cloth). Are there a lot of mice on the property? That will attract them. Snakes look for food and a place to hide in. If you have a large tract of property, put brush piles 'way out at the back edges, give them someplace else to go (as long as you're not bordering close to a neighbour's place and making them go there.)

If you have any old sheds or buildings, make sure that the foundations are tight, where the snakes can't get in. Maybe dig into the ground and put a wrap of the rat wire around there to keep them out. They also like to hide under stuff, if you have piles of old boards or firewood for them to hide in, they'll love that. Make your firewood piles one long single row instead of several rows together. Also, stacking them on top of old palletts helps, the open space underneath discourages mice/snakes.

If you're not familiar with your snake species, try to learn which ones are the harmless and beneficial ones. Some species of king snakes and black snakes are non-poisonous, and having a few of those around will sometimes discourage the poisonous ones.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), May 12, 2002.



I have several snakes around my home some people say to use bag lime around the holes you may recently have .... Do you have any other suggestions ???? thank you

-- Lisa A. Greenia (lisaanddoug@bluemoo.net), July 13, 2002.

Move! :)

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), July 14, 2002.

A friend of mine has a hunting camp with a cooperhead problem. Did some research on the net and found some information (listed below). Hope it helps.

Snakes, Snake Control, Snake-A-Way ... Some combination of the above products and methods will prove effective in controlling all snakes, including copperhead, cottonmouth, garden, rattle and water ... www.bugsaway.com/pest/snake_control.htm

-- Jerry G. (jerryg@aol.com), September 03, 2002.


For generations my family has spread sulfur around the house to deter snakes and it seems to work.

-- ryan (rocosby@bellsouth.net), September 16, 2002.

We had a flock of guinea hens and they would go after snakes. Snakes are attracted to guinea chicks. One time I found a 6 foot black snake in the tall grass. 15 guinea hens surrounded it in a circle and were pecking at it. They are very fast and aggressive birds. However guineas are quite tame around people.

-- JP Marat (techsoon@earthlink.net), October 04, 2002.


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