Kookaburras. What is this? Kookaburras, native to Australia, have a lot of choices when it comes to food. They eat snakes, and luckily for them, Australia is home to loads of different species of snakes!
Snakes are a favourite of kookaburras, according to the Australian Reptile Park. They say the birds use a "wait and swoop" technique to catch prey.
Kookaburras are almost exclusively carnivorous, eating mice, snakes, yabbies, insects, small reptiles and the young of other birds.
Guinea Fowls and Snakes
Guinea fowl are great snake deterrent and do a great job of keeping the snake away, and the at the very least they will warn you that snakes are 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.
The secretary bird is native to Sub-Saharan Africa, stands over 4' tall, and has powerful kicks to take out snakes and other small animals. Produced by Matt Stuart.
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.
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.
In the natural environment, several animals stand out as enemies of snakes. Badgers are major snake predators so are weasels. Several species of wild cats including mountain lions, bobcats, ocelots and jaguarundis will take snakes.
Magpies are omnivores, meaning they eat plants and animals. They usually feed by walking along the ground and picking food out of the soil. They eat all sorts of insects and larvae, but will also eat spiders, mice, and small lizards and snakes.
Birds of prey such as eagles, owls, falcons, and hawks eat kookaburras. Large reptiles like pythons and monitor lizards will feed on them as well. Other predators include quolls, foxes, and even pet cats.
Snakes eat frogs, lizards and even other snakes. Some, such as the Orange-naped Snake below, specialise in feeding on skinks. Newly-hatched snakes of various species may fall prey to Blue-tongue Lizards, but as the snakes grow the reverse is usually true. Blotched Blue-tongue Lizard, Alpine National Park, Victoria.
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.
We have noted at Walkabout Park that most kangaroos bitten by snakes are hand-raised kangaroos. We have seen a disproportionately larger number of hand-raised kangaroos bitten, relative to wild raised kangaroos.
Plants that can help keep snakes away from your house
Marigolds and allium are also effective at keeping snakes away, and lemongrass and basil can help to repel other pests as well. You can plant them around the perimeter of your property, or even inside your house to help keep snakes out.
According to experts, unfortunately, it can happen. Not only can snakes come up through the toilet, but other critters like rats, squirrels, and tree frogs can too. However, this is not a very common occurrence, so you can breathe a sigh of relief.
Dogs can be trained smell individual subspecies of snakes e.g tiger snake, lowland copperhead etc, but they smell species first. That is why we train with a range of different snakes (venomous & non venomous) so dogs learn to (generalise) avoid all snakes upon smelling them.
Foxes and raccoons are common predators of snakes. Guinea hens, turkeys, pigs, and cats will also help keep snakes away.
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.
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.
First and foremost, the cold. Temperatures lower than 60° impairs their ability to protect themselves. Very often it is standing their ground when having to deal w/ humans. Humans investigate, get bit and the snake is killed.
The black mamba, for example, injects up to 12 times the lethal dose for humans in each bite and may bite as many as 12 times in a single attack. This mamba has the fastest-acting venom of any snake, but humans are much larger than its usual prey so it still takes 20 minutes for you to die.
The killer of the most people
The saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) may be the deadliest of all snakes, since scientists believe it to be responsible for more human deaths than all other snake species combined.