mutt lover Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 A farmer who lives near me in Kyabram where there is irrigation channels on his property keeps geese and a turkey he said he's never had a snake on his property since he's had the geese and the turkey! and the geese he says are cheap guard dogs also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanabanana Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Sorry, where do you get snakes? I live right in Sydney, they dont come in there do they? (ignorant I know but I come from NZ - no snakes at all) Also, can you not have the dogs snake proofed? In NZ dogs can be kiwi proofed to stop hunting dogs going after kiwis...maybe you can do this with the dogs then you can leave em free during the day and they can just move away from the snake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisovar Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Sorry, where do you get snakes?I live right in Sydney, they dont come in there do they? (ignorant I know but I come from NZ - no snakes at all) Also, can you not have the dogs snake proofed? In NZ dogs can be kiwi proofed to stop hunting dogs going after kiwis...maybe you can do this with the dogs then you can leave em free during the day and they can just move away from the snake. Snakes are found all over the country, unless you live in a high rise. Seriously the chances of coming across one in the middle of suburbia are not high but also not impossible. The majority of our early season snake bites came from town not from the rural areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanabanana Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Sorry, where do you get snakes?I live right in Sydney, they dont come in there do they? (ignorant I know but I come from NZ - no snakes at all) Also, can you not have the dogs snake proofed? In NZ dogs can be kiwi proofed to stop hunting dogs going after kiwis...maybe you can do this with the dogs then you can leave em free during the day and they can just move away from the snake. Snakes are found all over the country, unless you live in a high rise. Seriously the chances of coming across one in the middle of suburbia are not high but also not impossible. The majority of our early season snake bites came from town not from the rural areas. Oh ok, thanks for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedazzledx2 Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Might be a old husbands tale but I seem to remember that snakes hate Naphthalene (moth balls) You could try researching it and if so liberally sprinkle moth balls on the OUTSIDE approach to you pen area. Bear in mind that naphthalene is toxic to dogs and cats so you would have to be careful about it and re-apply if it rains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eliza Jane Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 I have had feral cats raising litters under a shed but it didn't make any difference in the snake numbers. We have a farm cat that moved in from the next door farm but I don't think she has done anything to the snake numbers either. I have chickens and this year because of the rain we have a lot of frogs so I think this is going to be a bad year for snakes. My boy isn't let outside unless he has someone to go with him and in snake season walks are on lead only. It isn't worth the risk as we get both red bellied black snakes and large brown snakes with a few pythons thrown in. The only break we get from the snakes is when a goanna moves in which over the last few years seems to be for 2-5 weeks in the middle of summer. While the goanna is here there are no snakes at all, goannas eat snakes so I guess they either eat any that are here or chase them away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic.B Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 D4DOGZ I am not sure how you reduce frogs I have moved all the water though and close the curtains at night now so that there are less bugs on the windows. I didnt know snakes liked frogs. I guess from what I have learnt and what others are saying is that we need to reduce any risk factors which encourage snakes, though you can never be sure, even when you have done everything possible. Nothing beats a high level of supervision though during the worst periods of year and most risky times of the day. I have been extremely lucky to have been there on all four occasions. The most recent case was far to close for comfort though. My parents had a huge brown on their tiny lawn area, close to the house and they live in the suburbs on the coast. The lawn is immaculate and garden spotless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Tiger snakes favourite food is frogs! We have had a wet winter and lots of frogs, so a bad summer coming up. I have already had 7 near the house and normally we wouldn't see that many near the house over all of summer. I am very worried about my animals and kids this year. I am hyper vigilant, but I cannot stop every potential senario. My dogs are insured for this reason, my kids are drilled on snakes and what to do/not do and closely supervised. It is a very stressful time of year for me. Over summertime NZ always looks so appealing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkySoaringMagpie Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Agree with everything that has been said about prevention except adding cats - apart from anything our dogs would kill free ranging cats on our property anyway. Also, like the use of unwanted dogs as "snake dogs" I think it's clearly not in the best interests of the cats. Only other thing I would add re supervision is pay attention to your local bird life. If you hear them hysterically going off at something, it could well be a snake. The birds are a good early warning signal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 Yes SSM The last 3 snakes that have been here I knew they were due to the Magpies and Mickey Minor birds swooping and sounding the alarm. I always go look if the birds are upset. Thankfully our trees are finally big enough that we have loads of birds. I also think that having cats purely as snake hunters is not a good idea. Personally I do not see cats as disposable pets and would have to treat any that got bitten by a snake so it could end up expensive, not to mention I don't want any of mine bitten. My British would probably fall over trying to catch a snake anyway. WE mow, don't have any flower beds, low shrubs, no woodpile and no junk lying around. We still get them but less than my SIL who has lots of garden beds etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Brown Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 (edited) Touch wood no snakes yet Edited November 1, 2010 by Sue Brown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseclipt Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 Only other thing I would add re supervision is pay attention to your local bird life. If you hear them hysterically going off at something, it could well be a snake. The birds are a good early warning signal. Absolutely - the native miner birds are fantastic sentinels, and will actually chase them off. Here they usually combine with the pee wees, butchers and maggies, and the din is tremendous. As a rule of thumb we always check when they are really noisy - if it is up high in a tree, it will be a hawk, but if they are swooping near the ground, it has always been a snake. We grow lots of grevilleas to encourage them here to feed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GomezAkita Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 The best thing for getting rid of snakes is no 7 shot Failing that get rid of any cover they can use to approach the house, get rid of rodents as these are a staple diet for snakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4DOGZ Posted November 1, 2010 Author Share Posted November 1, 2010 Only other thing I would add re supervision is pay attention to your local bird life. If you hear them hysterically going off at something, it could well be a snake. The birds are a good early warning signal. Absolutely - the native miner birds are fantastic sentinels, and will actually chase them off. Here they usually combine with the pee wees, butchers and maggies, and the din is tremendous. As a rule of thumb we always check when they are really noisy - if it is up high in a tree, it will be a hawk, but if they are swooping near the ground, it has always been a snake. We grow lots of grevilleas to encourage them here to feed. I googled native miner and iam not sure i have them, but will plant some grevilleas to encourage them. Thank-you I do have Eagles, Hawks, Magpies, willy wagtails, ducks, Plovers ( nasty bird ), Kookaburras, i think they are Pee wee's & Butchers and loads more birds. amazingly as we don't have many tree's we are on fairly cleared land and had to keep house clear for fire proofing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4DOGZ Posted November 1, 2010 Author Share Posted November 1, 2010 The best thing for getting rid of snakes is no 7 shot Failing that get rid of any cover they can use to approach the house, get rid of rodents as these are a staple diet for snakes. Excuse my ignorance what is no 7 shot? This snake went across about 15m of bare ground on gravel so it must have been on a mission somewhere. Unfortunatly we do have some mice the buggers are hard to get rid of and our dogs will catch them, so iam worried about poisoning them incase they eat the mice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GomezAkita Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 The best thing for getting rid of snakes is no 7 shot Failing that get rid of any cover they can use to approach the house, get rid of rodents as these are a staple diet for snakes. Excuse my ignorance what is no 7 shot? This snake went across about 15m of bare ground on gravel so it must have been on a mission somewhere. Unfortunatly we do have some mice the buggers are hard to get rid of and our dogs will catch them, so iam worried about poisoning them incase they eat the mice. No 7 shot comes out the end of a shotgun at great velocity with lots of small lead balls it tends to cut the snakes in half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Bright Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 hope these links will help: http://pet-snakes.com/how-keep-snakes-away-home http://www.aaanimalcontrol.com/snake-keep-away.htm http://www.ehow.com/video_4950637_keep-sna...from-house.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 (edited) walking out in my front yard to ther mail box at 2pm yesterday arvo looked to my left and saw a head sticking out of a very very small crack in the path which totally had be dumbfounded how it got in there yep a Brown :nahnah: snake man came and took him away . Edited November 4, 2010 by griff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxagirl Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Yuck Griff! How big was it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 (edited) I have come across a recipe for snake repellant that has oil of cloves and other stuff. Smells like buggery but might work???? Google it and you will find a few different recipes but reasonably similar Edited November 4, 2010 by OSoSwift Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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