Most snakes are harmless, but you still might not want them slithering on your property or getting into your home. Even the nonvenomous types bite when they feel threatened, which can result in family and pet injuries. Thankfully, the right snake control tactics will deter the reptiles. Below are a few tips for helping you maintain snake-free premises.
How to Keep Snakes Away From Your Property
1. Mow Your Lawn
Tall grass attracts voles, mice, grasshoppers, spiders, and birds, which are prey that snakes eat. It also provides hiding places from predators. Short grass exposes snakes and reduces their food sources, making your property unattractive to these reptiles. snake control It also helps you avoid overwatering the lawn since standing water and saturated grass increase earthworm and insect activity, which attract snakes. Additionally, the reptiles like damp grass for cooling purposes. Mow the grass monthly to prevent the slithering animals from staying on your property.
2. Feed Pets Indoors
Keeping dog or cat food indoors is an essential snake control step, as kibble attracts the reptiles and their prey. To help deter snakes and other pests, don’t leave this food out overnight in your kitchen, mudroom, or laundry room. Put the food away instead, such as in sealed plastic or glass containers. Animals that snakes eat, like mice, gnaw through paper and cardboard bags.
3. Eliminate Debris Piles
Piles of grass clippings, leaves, and twigs provide shelter and protection for snakes, as do overgrown shrubs. Ridding your property of debris piles and keeping shrubs trimmed back makes your property less appealing to snakes and their prey, including rodents and insects. If you have a compost pile, keep it sealed to prevent snakes and other pests from getting inside.
4. Attract Their Predators
Hawks and owls eat small reptiles such as snakes, so attracting these birds of prey is a form of snake control, especially if the problem has gotten severe. Both owls and hawks like large, stable tree branches for perching and nesting.
You can also add sizable bird baths to the property. Avoid using insecticides and rodenticides that poison these birds when they consume affected prey.
Read on to learn what you can do to get rid of nuisance snakes from your Southern Florida residential or commercial property: