Snakes at our house tend to hide under boards. Could you place boards
along the edges of beds or in beds and then get some highly energetic,
brave souls to nab them as you lift up the boards the following morning?
Jan
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Forwarded message:
Subj: Garden Snakes
Date: 96-07-22 22:25:49 EDT
From: EVE120M
To: gardens@lsv.uky.edu
CC: mgarden@listproc.wsu.edu
Hello all my fellow gardeners. Does anyone out there have any suggestions
for deterring garden snakes? My Aunts gardens are overrun with them,
personally I would love to catch the buggers and put them in my own gardens
as they eat so many things, but I can not catch them even with two teenage
sons holding nets. Meanwhile my aunt is terrified of them and does not even
want to venture out to her gardens anymore. To be fair, she does have more
snakes in her yard than anyone I know. Her yard is not near any type of
swamps, but it is pretty wooded in areas. some of these snakes are as long
as 4 feet. They are not ordinary garter snakes,well some of them are but not
all of them. We live on Long Island in zone 6, does anyone know if there are
any kind of dangerous snakes on Long Island? I do not think so and have told
my Aunt that they are more afraid of her than she is of them, but she is just
plain scared of them and wants to get rid of them. Is there a way? I told
her that if anyone knew the answer, you guys and gals would. Please answer
fast as her weeds are getting so big because she is afraid to go out in the
garden.
Thank you David and Jan for your suggestions. I have a feeling my Aunt may
be out buying Geraniums as we speak. Has anyone else heard of planting
Geraniums to deter snakes?
Our garden snakes around here like to hang out in tall, thick growth.
They used to hang out in our front garden (fairly wild, undisturbed, perennial)
but not in the neighbor's garden on the other size of the fence (widly
spaced plants with bare dirt between). We suspect they lived in the
unmaintained area behind the back yard and used the tall grass corrider
along the fence from there to the front to get into our garden. Since the
tall grass corrider was destroyed this winter, there have been no snakes
in our front garden at all (but I do still see them in the unmaintained area
out back).
BTW, cats made no difference to the snakes -- they would just slither
off into the tall growth and wait till the cats got bored and went elsewhere.
So, if your aunt's garden has lots of tall, undisturbed growth, then
you might try redoing it to create one that provides little shelter for the
snakes. If there is some nearby sheltering growth, or a corrider to such, then
get rid of it.
This won't make the snakes go away completely, but your aunt won't be
suprised by them since they'll be easily spotted, and they won't like to hang
around much anyway (since they'll be easily spotted). Perhaps that's a
tolerable compromise.
People with nets. There's got to be a better way. Perhaps a trip to
the local library will help with some ideas of snake traps you can build?
--
later,
Pat White (work: patbob@sequent.com, (503) 578-3463, fax: (503) 578-5797)
Aloha, Oregon: USDA zone 8, Sunset zone 6 (or so they say)
If Geraniums do deter snakes, I think it would take a truck load to keep
your Aunts problem away. I think what has happened is that unfortunately
the garden is located near a den where shakes overwinter and gather. You
need to either take Jan's advice and make another location more appealing
or find the den and destroy it. Another idea would be to get some of
those plastic owls and place them around the garden, moving them every
few days. Pets are great around the garden/house preciously for the pests
we must deal with.
As a youth we would go on snake hunts and collect 'em by the pillow case
full and try to sell them to the other less adventurous kids. Believe me
all snakes love boards, large rocks. Have a field day with a few
adventurous youngsters, grab a couple of old pillow case some long forked
sticks and go on your own snake hunt, then you can capture and release
far away from the home/garden. Some notes about the hunt: Bring gloves
for the nasty ones, a towel and a rope to tie the cases up securely. The
towel will be needed for the garter snakes who love to poop as their
scooped up. Catching snakes with nets is difficult at best, your going to
have to handle them, so use the stick to secure them behind their head
and reach down and tightly grasp them right behind where the stick is
pinning them down, then pick them up and while some else holds the case
open, put the snake in tail first, body next, then release as quickly as
possible. Tie the case up and move on. It would be rare indeed if any
poisonous snakes on Long Island have gathered in such numbers as you've
described, probably bull snakes and fox snakes and garters. But strange
things are going on with good old Mother Nature, so if you don't know
what your dealing with call a professional.
Look for large holes or a rocky location when looking for the den, then
you can run a hose to fill up the den with water, giving the snakes in
there some time to escape, and then fill the entrance in with dirt. I
wouldn't want to advise killing the snakes until all other means have
been attempted; if you must I would start with killing only one and leave
the body where the others will run into it, they may take that as a bad
omen and vacate the area.
Remember snakes are beneficial to us however frightening they may seem. I
would also work on your Aunts attitude towards snakes, ignorance is
causing her run rather than observe and gently move them on their merry
way. Only in rare occasions will you run into a huge beast with a hellish
attitude, but that's the time to either call in professional
reinforcements or destroy it yourself if it's a constant threat.
Ray
Who wishes he could join in the hunt, but is having fun with truckloads
of toads hopping about.
Hi
I have hear of a elderly domestic engineers tale that states "if you have
geranium planted around, snakes will stay away as they don't like the smell ".
I don"t know if this is for Australian snakes only.Also an old farmers trick
is to have cats around
good luck
david
