How to deal with snakes under a deck

[sisterpine]

The place I am trying to buy has two small decks that will become larger decks in the near future. As the decks are about 2.5 feet off the ground they will be a perfect haven for every single animal in the state including snakes. My DD thinks we should put moth balls under the deck to deter snakes....I am thinking we should leave under the deck open for the chickens and pea fowl to get to the snakes? Advice please. sis

[Ozarks Tom]

I'd spread gravel under them, over landscape cloth.

[ldc]

sisterpine, the mothball trick did NOT work for me here in Louisiana. Best wishes!

[mountainlaurel]

I'd like to know too. Two days ago, I chased a 5-6 ft black racer under one of our decks. I grabbed the tail as he went through the lattice but it slipped my grip. I got his just shed skin. He's been there over 2 years now.

[Molly Mckee]

Do not use moth balls. They could kill your pets. I would leave it open for the chickens.

[DryHeat]

Why would anyone want to get rid of a black racer? That would just leave that many more rodents for something like a copperhead to eat, and it's not impossible for a large racer to outright eat juvenile copperheads.

For a deck in AZ, I'd go with poultry presence plus encouraging king snakes, in particular, plus large gopher snakes and coachwhip/ whip snakes to cut down on rodent presence. Kill or relocate any rattlers and leave everything else be. Forget about the mothballs unless for some very short term application, the naptha evaporates away quite quickly. Cleaning up and completely removing any trash piles radiating away from the residence should help, too, but it's just a fact of life in the desert, and everywhere else, too, really, that everything is riddled with interconnecting rodent burrows where various snakes also live constantly. An ongoing campaign of trapping and plinking rodents... pack rats, ground squirrels, kangaroo mice... will also reduce the residence's "snake carrying capacity" but that's likely to be an endless process. If you run across any appetizing recipes for frittered or stewed pack rats, let me know.

[sisterpine]

Open deck with pea fowl and chickens it shall be! Thanks you all for always having more brain cells than the average human! sis

[Solar Geek]

There is another option. When we had our wooden deck built about 2 1/2 feet off the ground as you're suggesting, we had them put up chicken fencing/wire, and then use the very tight screening material behind that which they attached to the chicken fencing. So the very fine mesh screen that's similar to what you use on window screening was to the interior of the under deck and the chicken fencing was to the outside. This kept away all critters, skunks, and snakes. Cost I think a total of $100–$150 --but it was a really large deck.
Just another thought for you.

[Appalachia]

Get a mongoose.

Or just let them live there and eat your rodents. How often do you need to crawl under the deck?

[Shrek]

The old fashioned naphtha mothballs work well for me to keep snakes and rodents away yet my cats still go under the house for refuge. Of course they have to be replaced every few months.

I moth balled this place in 1997 and in 2001 using a wrist rocket flip to shoot and bounce the balls under the house through the foundation vent holes and last week when the rains drove snakes into my house my maintenance man scattered about four boxes under the house and in the attic and tossed sachet bags of balls around the wet walls.

My 70 year old house stinks like a spinsters hope chest currently but the snakes on the place are staying about 40 feet from the house and after staring a copperhead in the face as it slithered from cabinet to countertop, I prefer the moth ball smell for a few months and it cost me less than $20 for the mothballs for use as snake repellent that my maintenance man and I scattered crawlspace to attic.

He also suggested that I scatter a box or two of moth balls a few inches outside the kennel fence to provide a barrier to the dog run area .

I was lucky and got myself enough mothballs at $1.50 a box before the local shortage after the two weeks of daily rains ran them uphill. Now even the co-op is running short of 5 gallon buckets of snake repellent granules which also contain naphtha.

[backwoods]

Guineas to the rescue!

[wogglebug]

Snakes are lazy creatures. They prefer to travel in relatively straight lines, on well-known routes, and they'll go to a fair amount of effort to avoiding changing their paths.
If you are faced with a situation where you do need to get rid of snakes, loosely wad up scrap chicken wire, so that snakes can thread themselves into it but can't back out again. Spread these snares around on the snake's access routes (say along walls), then wait. When you trap a snake you can decide what to do with it. Check the snares regularly, or they can become a tad fragrant.

It will surprise you, even startle you, how many snakes you find. The numbers don't really reduce much either. It's a holding action, with new creatures coming in to replenish the vacuum where the previous residents have been removed, and more young maturing with reduced competition. However, if you do it right and be selective, you can change the composition of the ophidian population.

Clean up the rodents and frogs and their habitat, and reduce their feed. In particular, don't leave grain, straw or hay lying around to breed mice. If you find a rat maze dug anywhere, put some sulphur in a small can, place it in an uphill entrance away from flammables, and light it. The heavier-than-air sulphur dioxide smoke (POISON - choke, hack, cough) will sink through the connected tunnels, and fumigate any rodents and snakes. If you're short on shotgun practice, wait around with #9 or smaller shot.

[karenp]

We were told to spread sulfur around. It has worked for us around the chicken coop if we start to have a problem with snakes getting the eggs. I'm not sure I'd want it around the deck, it doesn't smell the best.