Snakes in garden

[IsobelB]

What can you do to repel snakes from your garden? I've had a few in my garden and am wondering if they're coming in for water.

[Jason]

Hi @IsobelB,

Welcome to Workshop. I hope you find this community useful for gaining information about your gardening and D.I.Y. projects.

Sorry to hear about your snake problem! I have heard it's a particularly bad year for them. Hopefully one of the community has some advice for you about keeping them away. Do you know what kind of snakes you have seen?

Stay safe!

Jason

[Kermit]

@IsobelB

Hope they are at least relatively harmless snakes rather than agressive ones!

Assuming they are not coming into your garden for food like rats and mice, then they are probably coming for shelter. Best thing you can do is to have a nice open front and backyard. Snakes love to hide so you need to remove any places they can lie low. So keep the grass mowed, make sure fallen leaves don't build up anywhere, quickly remove fallen branches, don't have any wood or rubbish piles, keep compost in a bin, and prune shrubs and plants so there's nowhere to hide underneath them. 

I know there's also solar powered snake repellers that emit a sound or vibration that snakes don't like. Not sure about their effectiveness but could be worth a try.

[kaylah_rose]

Hi @IsobelB,

Awful to hear that snakes are about! 

I have family that own farms and they have a few tricks to deter snakes. 

Placing fake snakes around the yard can be helpful. This usually scares the other snakes away or at least keeps them away from the perimeter of the house. 

Also snakes are usually looking for water. So placing water containers in the corners of the yard can attract the snakes to one area, then you (or a snake catcher) can hopefully capture them and remove them from the area. 

However as Kermit said a nice clean yard is the best defence against snakes. 

Remember snakes can also climb, so if you have things like bricks stacked against the fence this could be a good hiding spot for them. 

Hopefully this helps! Good Luck!

Kay

[aussiblue]

Fake rubber snakes can deter some birds (not those that eat them like Kookaburras) but will not deter snakes and indeed may attract those that mistake them for a potential mate. The electronic snake devices do not work see the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SnakeRepellentInvestigators/?fref=nf for lots of pictures of snakes making friends with these worthless devices). Other than having a pet mongoose, there is no way to repel snakes and as others have said all you can do is remove things that attract them like: long grass, thick undergrowth, piles of timber or bricks and other rubbish that they can hide in or under, and things that may attract rats and mice (aviaries, fruit trees, palm trees - rats love the nuts and fruit).

[John1]

Hi Isobel

We get a few. One used to set up camp in the eaves of our patio. It spent about 5 summers just relaxing and enjoying the heat from the tin roof.  He or she was about 3mts. long. A tree python I hate snakes and have a deal going with them they leave me alone and I will do the same. Ours used to stay just outside the door to the patio so we had to walk under it to go outside.

Seriously though we get many tree and scrub pythons up here in Queensland. Pam and my property backs onto a creek with literally hundreds of trees so we are visited often.  They have been seen lazing at the side of the pedestrian path that passes the back of our place up to about 5 mts long. They are huge and yet I have never heard of a child or adult being bitten [they do have teeth but extremely small] by one about our area but am told they can be very nasty when they want.

Have been told though that as we have pythons we wont be bothered by any other type of snake. Not sure about that.