Dreading warm weather for ONE reason...

[jb52761]

Morning all....Spring is still lingering in the distance, but I wanted to know if any of you have a remedy for snake control. Yes, I said snake control. ...My property is here in the woods, right on the lake. Every year I deal with the creepy-crawlers, and thought I would get your input. We sell the repellant "Liquid Fence" at the garden center where I work, which I have used. I guess it works somewhat because for a time, I did not have any surprise encounters, but after a while it wears off, and "Hello"....the other drawback is that it smells like rotten dill pickles, and you can't open the windows at certain times if the temp and breeze is just right. I have mostly the long black snakes, or rat snakes, and they even climb small trees. Last year I killed three that were laying on my sill plates in between the trusses that were still exposed since I had not closed them off yet. On any given day I could run into one four feet long. Thats about average. I spend alot of time in my yard and perennial beds since landscaping is my occupation, and other job is at the big garden center so I'm always out messing with the plants. What have you guys tried, or do you have any other ideas ? By the way, don't call the Feds on me for animal cruelty cuz I do kill them. I  have no choice. They will get inside my cabin. Been down that road before too......jb

[jb52761]

By the way...if anyone has a plant question for this spring, feel free to ask. The garden center where I work is the largest one in town. I know a bit about growing things....be glad to help if I can.....jb

[ScottA]

Get a pig.

[glenn kangiser]

We just have rattlers that are a bit of a pain - We kill the big ones with a shovel and eat 'em, jb.  Not enough meat on the little guys.

[CREATIVE1]

I'd rather have rat snakes than rats any day.

[jb52761]

Get a pig.....kill and eat them.....hmmmm.....sounds like I'm stuck with them...Glenn....a shovel works, but so does a canoe paddle.....jb

[river place]

We have black snakes on our place in AR however I'm not to concerned with them as they keep the rodents down.  I plan on leaving them alone as they won't harm anything.

We have begun to see rattle snakes in the area which is more of a concern and those I'd may have to do something about.

[Mike 870]

Don't know if you are a gun person or not.  I forget exactly what they are called, but they make shot loads for 45 Auto and 357 Mag.    I think they are meant for snakes.  Carry whenever you walk around outside and consider it recreation.

[MountainDon]

shotshells, I believe is the name, CCI the maker. They are available in a few calibers. I have only one complaint, well two.  I have on 45LC whose cylinder must be a tad short as the plastic nose on the shotshell protrudes a hair too much and interferes with the cylinder rotation. Another has no problem. And the price; $1 a shot or more.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=757831

[Mike 870]

I have never tried them myself.

Oh, and always wear eye and ear protection!

[muldoon]

we get snakes pretty thick, especially in some off the offroad places I like to fish at. 
I like these .22 loads.  They work. 

[muldoon]

I dont like snakes. 

I was fishin from a kayak in a small channel bed just before it opens out into bigger water, and having a great eim pulling crappies a few springs back.  I had a nice stringer -- hanging off the side of the kayak, pull it up to put another one on and had a 4 foot water moccasin wrapped around it.  I flinched back and wound up tipping the kayak over, putting everything -- including myself -- into the water.  good times.  My buddy laughed so hard I made him retrieve it and my pole from the bottom of the creek.   

[OldDog]

Right now I would fight a snake to be out of the middle of this ice storm!!!!!!!!

There is no electricity in this county and nowhere to get generator gas.  I hiked, 5 trips, to siphon 22 gallons from my boat this morning.

We have a horrible mess!  I do not have a tree remaining at my home or my cabin.

We are safe and warm so we have a lot to be thankful for!!!!!

Bruce

[rwanders]

If you can locate a King Snake and convince it to stay at your place, it will eat all your black and rat snakes as well as any rattlers or copperheads or other poisonous snakes that come around and then take on any rodents too!

[hnash53]

Hmmmm.....

I grew up with snakes in East Texas...lots of them...had them for pets and love seeing them whenever they "appear."

I am of the opinion that one ought not to kill snakes.  They are marvelous creatures and provide one of the best controls on rodent populations around.  Rather than kill them, might not one educate oneself about them, and be able to identify the species of snakes in your area? 

Familiarity with any animal and its ways tends to reduce fear, and replaces that fear with respect for the animal. Knowledge about the poisonous ones is vital in an area one lives.  Learning its habits, habitats and behavior can go a long ways toward keeping yourself safe, yet allowing the animal to survive and do its thing in the wild.

Killing a snake because it's a snake...well, I can't go for that.

[NM_Shooter]

I used to wade fish in Lake Fayetteville in Texas.  I remember fishing with a big shiner one day under a bobber when a cottonmouth swam over to check it out.  I was afraid it was going to take my bait and get hooked, so I started to reel it in.  The darn snake followed.  I almost ran on top of the water getting out.  My brother was laughing his head off.  He never was any help.

I don't mind snakes.. they do startle me a bit from time to time.  I get spooked seeing them in the rocks when I am fly fishing, but for the most part I leave them alone.  I won't kill any but the poisonous ones, and I feel guilty about that.

I went into my barn this past summer in the dark and went to open the big doors.  There were some tools, rope, and paper on the floor.  As I was opening the door, I knocked over a shovel and it whacked against my leg.  Then it kept whacking against my leg.  I opened the door, got some light in there, and realized I was standing on a 4' long snake.  As soon as I jumped up into the 12' rafters, it took off like a bat out of hell. 

BTW... we had cats when i was a kid, and they did a decent job on the medium to small snakes.

-f-

[rwanders]

When I was about 10, I was climbing up the ladder into the hayloft of my grandpa's barn----just as my head came level with the loft floor, I came nose to nose (about 6 inches away) with a very large King Snake that lived in the barn. That snake was about 8 feet long and quite large around the middle. I don't know if i startled the snake, but I sure as hell was----fell all the way down the ladder but no injury except to my heart rate and adrenalin supply. Grandpa never bothered that snake since it ate rats and any other snakes that ventured into the area----they are immune to the venom of poisonous snakes and are not poisonous themselves.

After I moved to Alaska it took a few years before I lost the habit of looking before I stepped over fallen logs in the woods----in Southern Illinois it was always wise to do so and also to be very careful where you put your hands when climbing up rocky cliffs----copperheads and rattlesnakes were fond of lying on ledges and warming their cold blood in the sun.  No snakes in Alaska!

[Jackson Landers]

I've got to concur on the CCI .22 shotshells. I've even used them to shoot snakes indoors and the penetration is so minimal that it didn't even scratch the floor. You've got to aim right at the head with the muzzle at very close range, which is usually easy enough to do with a rifle.

Don't kill non-poisonous snakes that are not inside of your house. Just leave them alone, they are doing a job that needs to be done.

I suggest that that you address the larger problem, which is almost certainly rodents. Those snakes aren't coming round your place for the fun of it. They are following the scent of rodents. Rats or mice. Start an aggressive campaign of trapping mice and the snakes will disappear. Do NOT use poison, because the mice will die in awkward places and stink to high heaven. Also other animals will eat the dead or dying rats and mice and then you end up poisoning snakes, hawks, owls, foxes and anything else that is making a living off of the local rodents.

Then consider what is attracting the rodents in terms of cover and food and eliminate those attractants so you don't have to keep putting out traps year after year.

[southernsis]

Old Dog, I feel your pain without power. We are still without and the estimate is around 1st of March.
We have cotton mouths and copper heads here. We let the non poisionous snakes be, but the other get killed.

[Ernest T. Bass]

Ick... I'll go with Indiana Jones; I hate snakes! Well, big ones anyway... The little garden snakes around us are fine.

[FrankInWI]

I'm one of those who don't live around snakes and I just jump out of my skin when I see one.  For some odd reason my sons became EXPERT snake catchers (smaller snakes around the house and parkway).  I tried hard not to let them see my internal freak out...and think they don't know to this day.   There are others around like me.... something that must go way back in our genes.  I never freak out over other reptiles, or any mammels.  go figure......

[glenn kangiser]

We get rid of the rattlers around the house as a lady nearby had mercy on one and the next week it killed her.  Elsewhere we may let them stay.