Whats The Best Way To Stop Snakes

[D4DOGZ]

Ok so it's now well and truely Snake season.

Whats is the best way to keep snakes from entering the area where Dogs reside whilst outside?

Edited October 30, 2010 by D4DOGZ

[Christina]

Dig so all the fencing is placed 1 foot below the ground & put netting all along the inside edge.

That way they can only get through the gate so you have make that snake proof as well. I don't know how that's done.

[Scarlet]

Keep the grass cut and don't have piles of "junk" around that the snakes can use to hide in.

Don't have chooks or birds as they and their food attract snakes as does leaving dog food outside.

[Aidan3]

A breeder I know out in the bush keeps Guinea-fowl, but they are noisy.

[OSoSwift]

All gates need to shut into angle iron frames firmly that go around three sides.

Having said that I have dog runs, brick house, chain wire fencing. I have snake mesh around the bottom and also some shade cloth. I have seen snakes trying to get in, but only a couple of tiny ones the thickness of a pencil have managed- until the other day!

I did not know it until the next day, but I shut a 40cm tiger snake in the door of the dog run killing it. It had come from the inside up in the roof and was coming over the top of the gate as I was shutting it. What freaked me out more was i had walked under that are twice just before shutting it.

How it got up there god only knows, but it did. All I am thankful for is neither of my dogs were bitten as they had been in and out of the runs through out the day as we had tractors driving around and one had an injury so on rest.

[J.H.M]

This was my pet Bredli today have a bit of outside time. He is a pretty good climber, not sure how high he would have gotten if I didn't grab him So I guess also make sure there is nothing they can get leverage on to climb over a fence too

[OSoSwift]

Yep I think the one in mine either got between the shade cloth and the snake mesh or went up the bricks.

[lilli_star]

I didn't know snakes could climb bricks

[Clyde]

Saw my first brown snake here the other day *shudder* - only metres from the house!

[Adnil444]

I agree with all the other posters - also after we lost two great danes to tiger snakes (in both incidents they were dead within 20 mins!) we were advised to get cats and have them outside but living around the house as they can kill snakes very quickly and also something about the snakes don't like the smell of cats (not sure if this is true or not). We got a few semi-feral cats and they lived around the house, one in the shearing shed, and just kept on feeding them close to the house. We still did see the odd snake, but certainly not as many as we had previously, and generally the ones we saw were in the paddock outside the house, but not in the house yard.

[asal]

I agree with all the other posters - also after we lost two great danes to tiger snakes (in both incidents they were dead within 20 mins!) we were advised to get cats and have them outside but living around the house as they can kill snakes very quickly and also something about the snakes don't like the smell of cats (not sure if this is true or not). We got a few semi-feral cats and they lived around the house, one in the shearing shed, and just kept on feeding them close to the house. We still did see the odd snake, but certainly not as many as we had previously, and generally the ones we saw were in the paddock outside the house, but not in the house yard.

knew a vet who lived out wellington way, their property had heaps of snakes apparently. soo she solved the problem by having two stud toms and think it as 7 females to keep up the numbers. she alwasy kept 40 min as she had 6 kids and she said no snakes ever got near her house thanks to the cats. n sure enough while we were having lunch out at the edge of the paddock was a ring of cats highly interested in something n sure enough was a snake in trouble.

trouble is i love our wrens, havnt had any but a house cat for years so have 2 flocks of em

Edited October 30, 2010 by asal

[Shaar]

Mum and dad put tin around the bottom of their fences about 2 foot high.

It's not a guarantee as JRM's pic shows, they can climb bloddy anything but it does help.

The only time one of their dogs has been bitten was when the grass was freshly mowed, if the grass had been a bit longer the dogs wouldn't have seen the snake and left it alone, because the grass was short they made a bee-line straight for the wiggly thing on the lawn.

[Nic.B]

We had our third Red Belly in the house yard not long ago, we had a Brown a while ago. I won’t go into the whole story again (it was a nightmare) though I have spent a lot of time researching and speaking with people who are experienced with snakes and all have said the same things essentially.

No junk or wood piles of any sort, keep your lawns very short, no water sources around the house. No low lying shrubs, gardens (that is hard for us so we are trimming all lower branches, we also removed the pond and rocks)

We don’t have any junk piles, have short lawns though had a lot of water out for the frogs and lizards. We also have a lot of gardens.

Frogs are one of snakes food sources (we have heaps of them) so keep lighting low/off/close curtains at night as not to encourage frogs to eat the bugs on windows. Removing water sources also helps- sad, as I love the frogs. Chooks/birds is another issue (we don’t have them)

When you are not home contain your dogs, when you are home sight your yard and supervise them-at least that way you will know if something is wrong and you will be able to help/seek treatment.

I had to kill this snake so save my dogs life, though I have also been told if you kill a snake and you have the right habitat for snakes- another snake will move in to take its place.

The other thing to remember is that most people are bitten by snakes trying to kill them, I was very lucky I was not bitten as the snake was very aggressive.

If you can, call wires to relocate them, or allow them to leave your yard if you are able too. (even though that thought gives me the willies)

Snakes are coming out of hibernation now, so are on the move. They probably have a high venom load, and some aggressive as they are hungry. They can flatten out and squeeze under tiny gaps, they can climb as well.

The last one we had was on a 43c day at the back step. I was lucky the dogs were inside and noticed it when I was taking them out for a run.

From what I understand, snake netting can be a problem as the snake can get caught up in it, dogs still attack it and have a good chance of being bitten as the snake will become very aggressive.

I wish there was a way to stop them, sadly I have learnt that it really comes down to managing your property and your animals to minimise the risks of snake bites.

We had a RB at the Pound’s front door the other week, that was a tarred car park! I can cope with most things though am terrified of snakes that they may bite my children or animals.

There have been a number of wonderful DOLers who have lost their beloved dogs to snake bites, please take care, I hope this helps.

[asal]

trouble is the darned things migrate too.

n make a beeline for the dogs water too, as wires said, snakes have to drink too

[Christina]

Keeping cats as snake control is not a good idea

They often come off worst & take much longer than a dog to die in agony. Unless one sees them as a disposable item

Having toms & some females & letting them breed & interbreed wild is a recipe for deformities, disease & illness.

How would one catch wild cats to treat them if full of cat flu, herpes, feline aids & leukemia etc. Sad & unkind.

[Nic.B]

trouble is the darned things migrate too.

n make a beeline for the dogs water too, as wires said, snakes have to drink too

Yes

I have been forced to remove all water bowls in the house yard and just keep a large bowl inside and on our glass enclosed deck which the dogs have free acsses too.

We have a large dam away from the house. I am hoping if I remove any water source around the house, they may decide to stay or head over there....

I dont know really. There are no easy answers though it all happens in a second or two and if you do not witness it yourself you would really not know until far too late. It all happens in a heartbeat.

[Nic.B]

Keeping cats as snake control is not a good idea

They often come off worst & take much longer than a dog to die in agony. Unless one sees them as a disposable item

Having toms & some females & letting them breed & interbreed wild is a recipe for deformities, disease & illness.

How would one catch wild cats to treat them if full of cat flu, herpes, feline aids & leukemia etc. Sad & unkind.

I agree Death by snake bite is terrible and allowing them to breed is something I am opposed to in any regard.

We have one cat. She is indoors only, I would not have it any other way.

[D4DOGZ]

The reason i ask ( and know the snake repellers dont work ) is...

On friday we heard all our dogs barking like mad, they were in their run which is approx 12m x 6m, as they were barking more constant than they usually do at the birds, cows or Horses.

I went out to the outside of their run to where they were barking and there caught up in the netting was a brown snake, i got the dogs inside and called my husband.

We dealt with the snake ( Not sure how i did this as i was shaking so much ), then we realised it had been only a few meters away from the snake repeller on the other side of their run, we checked the repeller yes it was still working ( we had installed 12 last year after Buster was bitten twice ), early septemeber we checked they were all working for the new snake season.

Luckily i insisted that the bird netting also be installed.

Also a point to note running alongside the dog run were the snake was is the cable that runs to the electric fence that cover about 2 acres of our 50 acre property. The cable is insulated but i have also been told that electric fence wire can deter them ( CRAP )

This snake has travelled from a paddock to the Dog run over about 15 metres of Gravel.

I know some people don't like the Bird Netting as it is cruel but the way i see it is if a snake is going to go into my dogs run the snake will be attached then both the snake and one or more of my dogs are going to be harmed or worse die.

This way my dogs are hopefully protected.

Ironically this has happened right in the middle of the two dates last year that buster was bitten, 27th Oct and 1st Nov last year ( 29th this year ) The 1st Nov last year was in the dog run before netting.

We do have a lot of Frogs in our area so i guess this is why we have snakes, but how do you deter Frogs!

Added a pic hope it worked ok showing the snake and the repeller the other side, there is these (Snake and Elephant ) repellers all around our yard

[griff]

Darn Snakes that is one critter I wish we never had .

[sandgrubber]

There isn't a good solution for this one. You can aversion train your dogs. You can create habitat that's unfriendly to snakes. You can avoid walking except when the temperature is below 20 C and stay away from snake habitats. You can create smallish areas of snake proof fence. But the risk doesn't ever completely go away.

The problem,btw, isn't snakes. It's venom. Now that I'm back in California, I am once again delighted to see snakes cause they eat the bloody gophers. But in our area there are no poisonous snakes.