How to keep snakes out of our swimming pond?

ericjeeper · #1 07/01/08, 06:13 PM

If my 15 year old daughter ever spies the 3 footer I saw tonight while weedwacking.. Ain't no amount of pushing and shoving will get her into the water.\
I reckon I will have to pull up a lawn chair and take the 12guage and do some hunting. It is just a small pond that I dug especially for swimming. about 100 feet by 80 feet and less than 5 feet deep at the deepest.

anette · #2 07/01/08, 06:15 PM

if it is just for swimming, try some chlorine. we used to have a pond for swimming, and found the local wildlife avoided it if we had some chlorine in it.

anette

stranger · #3 07/01/08, 06:17 PM

usually them water snakes in the north will take off when someone dives in, they think it's somehting to eat them.

ericjeeper · #4 07/01/08, 06:45 PM

This one tonight went towards the middle.. where we swim..
I will whip out the weedspray and spray everything along the bank.. That way it will make it less appealing to them rascals.. and easier to shoot.

Horse Fork Farm · #5 07/01/08, 10:22 PM

YIKES!! DON'T SPRAY WHERE YOUR KIDS SWIM!!! I know its tempting but its going to end up in the runoff that fills your pond. A lot of those sprays are toxic at best and could be cancer causing!

poppy · #6 07/01/08, 10:25 PM

Geese will kill them, but the mess they make is probably worse than the snakes. I have seen my geese kill them and I find one dead occasionally on the bank.

Columbia,SC. · #7 07/01/08, 10:54 PM

you just need to get a 4-5' Santee river gator, throw him in there and no snakes in a couple day for sure! We swam with them all the time as kids,, Important- when they get up to 8 feet plus you need to shoot them and enjoy those tails fried up! Then get a new 4-5 footer and start over again! P.S. only males, don't risk the chance of a female getting bred (knocked up) from some unknown source,, of course!
Also do you have a tick infeastation? Try monkeys, have you ever seen them pick ticks? They do a awesome job! Get a few of them and turn'em loose! No ticks but you may have to wear a raincoat to get to the truck/house/garden, they like to throw organic matter, in other words they throw 'tihs' and you have to learn to duck and run, don't worry, you will learn this fast after getting the new primates. I still have no real good idea what to do now that they figured out how to make a house key to get in, I am typing this from work and can't go home! But on the bright side, I HAVE NO MORE TICKS!
doo dodger, Columbia,SC

fantasymaker · #8 07/01/08, 11:04 PM

and I thought it was weird where I live!

MWG · #9 07/02/08, 12:44 AM

It's a southern thing...

I had a problem with the neighbors kids driving 4 wheelers across my yard. A couple porcupines and the problem was solved! They got tired of replacing tires.

MWG · #10 07/02/08, 12:45 AM

Back to the snake thing, how about a mongoose? Don't they eat snakes?

chris30523 · #11 07/02/08, 06:56 AM

It helps if you can keep the weeds and grass down around the pond.Don't leave anything around they can hide under.

ericjeeper · #12 07/02/08, 02:05 PM

Have a great weekend.

**Shrek** · #13 07/02/08, 02:17 PM

You can fight fire with fire and use king snakes. I got about 12 roaming my place and no poisonous snakes have been seen in about 3 years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_snake

MushCreek · #14 07/02/08, 06:01 PM

I've heard that free-range pigs will get rid of snakes- they eat 'em. If that's too rural for ya, get a Jack Russell terrier.

BaronsMom · #15 07/02/08, 07:05 PM

If you build it, they will come.....

**highlands** · #16 07/02/08, 07:19 PM

Get alligators.