what gets rid of garder snakes

[UncleTom]

Hi all, I have a family nest of garder snakes behind our steps.They are between the steps and foundation. Maybe 5 of so. Wife killed one with the shovel. I had then last year as well. I was going to seal them out this spring but they moved in or hatched before i could get to it. What can i put behind the cement steps that will keep them out of there? Would moth balls work? Thanks

[KindredSpirit]

Do you have any cats? They might take care of the small snakes. I personally like garter snakes as when they aren't in abundance we would have mice in the house. The snakes really help keep down the rodent population. By this I am assuming they aren't in the house, I wasn't real clear on where they were, but could you relocate them to the garden area or the wood pile? Here is a link I found with a few more suggestions. http://www.ehow.com/how_156007_rid-snakes.html

[UncleTom]

No, they are not in the house. I dont know if they hatched between my steps and foundation or if they come from the neighbors because there is a flower bed there and there is a natural place for them to live. In the summer i see them go back and forth through our yard.

[woodspirit]

Mothballs won't work unless they are.....moths. Add to that benzene is really really bad for you. They usually spend the winter in a place like that and then leave in the warmer months. If you have that many snakes then you must have enough food to sustain them and keep the numbers up. Eliminate piles of wood, stone walls and other hiding places like piles of anything. Reduce their food source, like crickets, grasshoppers, slugs, and toads. Encourage hawks and crows. Keep your grass mowed and eliminate weeds growing under fences.

[Freeholder]

Why do you want to get rid of them? Garter snakes are harmless, and do a great deal of good eating pests. If someone is deathly afraid of snakes, you could just catch them and relocate them somewhere they'll be more welcome.

Kathleen

[wilderness1989]

Originally Posted by BlueJuniperFarm

Why do you want to get rid of them? Garter snakes are harmless, and do a great deal of good eating pests. If someone is deathly afraid of snakes, you could just catch them and relocate them somewhere they'll be more welcome.

Kathleen

AMEN these snakes are harmless LET THEM BE!!!!!!!!!!

[UncleTom]

I kinda of agree with leave them alone but it is hard on my wifes blood pressure.lol

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by BlueJuniperFarm

Why do you want to get rid of them? Garter snakes are harmless, and do a great deal of good eating pests.

Ditto. I don't mind having garter snakes around. It's those big Bull snakes that find their way into the house that I don't like.

[Wolf mom]

Pick 'em up & move them far away.

Never, never kill good snakes. Actually garter & bull snakes are pretty cool.

Then seal with foam-in-a can.

[MELOC]

my dad always kept some ducks or geese to eat the young snakes around here. we have no more ducks or geese and now we have many snakes.

[TnMtngirl]

I just leave them alone.Did I ever tell you about the baby black snakes on my kitchen sink

[dlangland]

I don't understand why you would want to or even consider getting rid of garter snakes. I have always considered them to be beneficial and let them do their thing. They eat other things we don't want to deal with either, so...And if a whole family is living there as you said, I would take that as a good thing. They like living there...You know they have a reason, and chances are they are finding enough of whatever to eat, and you would rather not have whatever that is infilterating your house. When I was a kid on our farm back in South Dakota, though, my mom always had a big thing about running around and hacking them up with her hoe especially when I mowed which I never understood. Stupid. They don't bite or harm life. Deb

[Txsteader]

I've also learned to let them be. They still make the hair on my neck stand up because I've had several close encounters with cottonmouths, but I learned they're harmless and keep the lizard population under control, so they're allowed to live.

[Junkman]

My DH is terrified of anything that crawls on its belly. In fact, I once had to take the telephone apart to prove a little one that crawled across the porch was not inside it when it was on the floor. She found one in a crack in the cellar steps and used a whole jug of Clorox in the crack. Never saw a snake again. Nor a worm, ant or bug in there. In the fields they are o.k. Last year she killed a big garter snake in the front yard and I had 16 holes to fill from the hoe!

[woodspirit]

I sell about a hundred facecords of firewood every year and I won't let anyone help me load it unless they understand how to pick it up without injuring or killing any snakes in it. Pick up one piece at a time and lift straight up. We get cornsnakes, garters, red bellied, milksnakes, and blacksnakes. The only rattlesnakes are at the end of the lake about seven miles from here. I used to hunt rattlers in Morris PA.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by woodspirit

I sell about a hundred facecords of firewood every year and I won't let anyone help me load it unless they understand how to pick it up without injuring or killing any snakes in it. Pick up one piece at a time and lift straight up. We get cornsnakes, garters, red bellied, milksnakes, and blacksnakes. The only rattlesnakes are at the end of the lake about seven miles from here. I used to hunt rattlers in Morris PA.

I'd act real dumb and let you load the wood...........lol

[woodspirit]

Where I live, the town name is an Iroquois name (seneca), which loosely translates to finger on the ground, or place of missing fingers, because there are so many wild strawberries here and rattlesnakes were everywhere. The story goes that when bitten on the fingers by a snake, while picking strawberries, someone just cut off his finger or fingers in order to avoid a painful death. I've also heard that more than a few people from this Indian village had a finger missing, and that is why this place was named what it was. In fact the term Iroquois, was a huron or algonkian name for snakes, and wasn't said in a very flattering way.

[swamp man]

Is there any chance that your wife could overcome her fear of snakes?One of my very best neighbors is a king snake who lives under a piece of plywood in the back yard.
As far as the moth balls,they are napthalene,just like the baloney for sale advertised as"snake repellant".Lotsa' my landscape maintenance customers put those things out everywhere,and apparently,they dont work-not even a little bit.
Nick

[woodspirit]

Napthalene and/or paradichlorobenzene (benzene)

[Mike in Pa]

An angry homeowner and a good hoe ... no not your wife! What's wrong with you!