Snakes are often attracted to yards and houses, when food and shelter are unknowingly provided by the human inhabitants. Brown snakes and taipans eat rodents and are attracted to garden or farm sheds to hunt rats and mice.
Too much landscape water may attract prey species such as worms, slugs and frogs, which in turn may attract snakes seeking a meal. Keep trees and shrubs trimmed and away from your home and garage, and keep branches off the ground.
Remove shelters, such as sheets of tin on the ground and piles of rocks or firewood. Keep a clear area around your house. Make sure grass is cut low, remove fallen branches, and prune overgrown bushes. Most snakes prefer not to move across long stretches of open ground.
Lemongrass
Lemongrass originates from the sunshine, humidity and warmth of Sri Lanka and southern India, and has a reviving citrus fragrance that is guaranteed to keep snakes well away. In these zones you can leave lemongrass in the ground all year round – just adding a little mulch for protection in zone 9.
There are many scents snakes don't like, including smoke, cinnamon, cloves, onions, garlic, and lime. You can use oils or sprays containing these fragrances or grow plants featuring these scents to deter snakes from coming close to your property. This works as snakes also rely on smell to move around.
What Smell Do Snakes Hate? Strong and disrupting smells like sulfur, vinegar, cinnamon, smoke and spice, and foul, bitter, and ammonia-like scents are usually the most common and effective smells against snakes since they have a strong negative reaction to them.
Sulfur: Powdered sulfur is a great option to repel snakes. Place powdered sulfur around your home and property and once snakes slither across it, it irritates their skin so they won't return. Sulfur does give off a strong odor so consider wearing a mask that covers your nose and mouth when applying it.
EnviroBug offers the strongest, most effective, most reliable battery-powered snake repellers you can buy to protect you from deadly Australian ground snakes. 8 out of 10 snake bites occur when people try to pick them up, scare them, corner them or accidentally step on them.
Ammonia Repellent: Snakes have sensitive noses and don't like the smell of ammonia, so spraying it around the perimeter of your property can help keep them away. Epsom Salt: Sprinkling Epsom salt around your home or garden will create a strong odor snakes won't want to come close to.
While they can be out any time, rattlesnakes are most active in the morning and from dusk into the night. They hunt mice and rodents in darkness because they can sense body heat with special organs on their face.
Snakes are very common particularly in summer and will regularly be seen around houses and yards. They are usually passing through and will be gone within a few hours. Keeping your lawn short and yard free of debris will reduce the likelihood of snakes in your yard.
Some eat warm-blooded prey (e.g., rodents, rabbits, birds), while others eat insects, amphibians (frogs or toads), eggs, other reptiles, fish, earthworms, or slugs. Snakes swallow their food whole. The most popular pet snakes usually eat prey such as mice, rats, gerbils, and hamsters.
Will snakes stay away from dogs? Snakes don't like to get in the way of dogs, the reason being that dogs are louder, bigger, and more annoying than a good snack. If your dog is present in an area, the chances are high that snakes will stay away.
All outdoor (even in your yard) encounters with nonvenomous snakes should be resolved by letting the animal go its own way, most likely to never be seen again. Venomous snakes are another matter. If you encounter a venomous snake in your yard, take it seriously.
Do Dogs Keep Snakes Away? Yes, big dogs especially can be a deterrent to snakes. They bark loudly and are much larger than snakes, so they will typically choose to stay away.
Add mesh hardware cloth around your home to prevent snakes from getting close to your home. Add hog fuel or other rough landscaping materials to your garden. Snakes don't like to move through this type of material as it can hurt them. Plant marigolds around your home, they tend to deter snakes.
However, snakes can stay away from white vinegar because it confuses their sense, (smell), and organs. But, if there is a source of food that snakes like, they might not mind enduring the smell of vinegar, just to eat and enjoy the food there.
Most snakes can fit through a 1/2-inch-wide crack. Fill cracks during the summer when snakes are not around, using tuck-pointing, expandable caulking, or other standard repair techniques.
Snakes hate the smell of all carbolic acids, which means that the smell of bleach alone may repel them from your home. However, snakes are also susceptible to bleach poisoning, incurred by inhaling or digesting the chemical, so yes, bleach could theoretically be used to kill a snake.
Use these repellents for about a week. Sprinkle baby powder in front of the entrance to the hiding place. This will give you a way to see if the snake is coming and going. If you don't see any tracks after a few days, the snake is most likely gone.
Thanks to their noise, Guineas are an excellent way to protect the yard from uninvited snakes. In a flock, Guinea Fowl will sound out loudly to alert you of the presence of a snake.
Use Natural Predators
Snakes have a few natural predators that can help keep them away. Common snake predators include cats, raccoons, pigs, turkeys, guinea hens, and foxes. Keeping any of these animals around your home will help deter snakes from coming near.
Adult snakes also face a variety of predators, particularly birds such as hawks and eagles, secretary birds, ground hornbills and many more. Several mammals eat snakes, with honey badgers and mongooses being known as very efficient snake killers.
In conclusion, the researchers attribute this fear of snakes and spiders to evolutionary origin—humans have an inherited stress reaction to these animals, which teaches us to view them as scary or dangerous.