Well, in 4 months I have had 5 snakes, 2 poisonous 2 not sure about, 1 nonvenomous. None of the same species. I have yet to find anyone who is willing to come catch and remove snakes. I am not willing to get close with a hoe, so I guess I will try the shotgun method. Problem is, my dogs keep finding the snakes before I do. They have been lucky and neither the copperhead nor the water moccasin bit them. I have had them “snake” trained - twice now. There has got be a better way! I am afraid to go out and mow the lawn. as I only have a push mower.

gasoline!!!
pour it on the snake and if in a area close to a water spout lite em upp!
or it will die slowly but surely just killed a copperhead today

Then how does everyone get rid of snakes. I am terrified of snakes and we have garter snakes everywhere. I dont think i would be able to handle it if they got in my house. We have cut back all long grass and piles of wood and brush have been burned. We also cut our grass really short. I just need to know how to get them to go away before they get into my house and cause me to have a heart attack.

I THINK THE GUY WITH THE HOE HAS THE RIGHT IDEA

Ok, first I like all of the above remedies. For beheading snakes with a hoe or other sharp instrument, is it necessary to wear a dark hood and videotape it? For the advice from the Native American guy, I visited an Apache reservation when I was in high school and they decapitated a chicken for dinner (no hood or vhs recorder required). The old man used feathers from the chicken and made an odd circle pattern on the ground and after decapitating the chicken he placed the bird in the center of the circle and it just laid there and died; no flopping or running around. Moral: listen to the old Indian guys. Myself, I’m partial to snakes. I’ve had several for pets (funny stories with Mom) and amazing experiences with poisionous ones from around the world. Knowing their habbits and preferences (home and food) is half the battle. There are only a handfull of poisionous snakes in this country but, for the others… My outside rabbit pen is made from 1/2″ square fencing from Tractor Supply, burried 10 inches with the floor elevated 6 inches and haven’t lost a rabbit since. I just eliminated their way in. King snakes also kill rattlesnakes since they’re immune to their venom. What few I’ve had here in Alabama, I’ve been able to herd off away from where my kids play. Others are very beneficial for keeping unwanted pests away. If I catch them, I pin the head with the crook in the backside of a hoe or rake and carry it in a pillow case tied with cotton rope. What they can’t see, they can’t bite.

Living rural most of my life, we have never had so many snakes as the last couple of years (big bull snakes) and we dont know what has happened to make this change. But, like my grandmother before me a good sharp hoe and a rat terrier type farm raised dog are the best tools against them. Altho, our old Dalmatian was sure fire death to snakes and little he was not. Yes, I know the snakes are beneficial, problem is you might need them in the barn with the mice but they love the chicken house, fresh eggs, fresh hatched chicks, etc., they cease to be of any benefit. We have even had them slither under the setting hen, swallow the eggs or new chicks without the hen even being aware of it. We have even had a hen and new chicks in a fairly tight coop (safe we thought), but a snake managed to squeeze in and get the chicks. Then the snake couldnt squeeze back out, so next morning we found regurgitated dead chicks. This year already we have had 6 5-6 foot bull snakes in the chicken house, everything is well mowed and maintained so there are not a lot of places for them to hide, that is not the problem. We now have a Jack Russell terrier that will kill a snake just like he saw the old Dalmatian even tho sometimes they are nearly bigger than him and throw him off balance when he whips them. Anyway, after writing this novel….this is my recommendation, a good dog and a sharpened hoe. A Native American man told us to kill the snake and burn it in your area, that is what their tribe did. If anyone tries that let me know if it worked….until then, whist, gettem Dog!

put a picture of my ex wife out.that will scare everything away

LYME POUR IT EVERYWHERE and SNAKE BE GONE you can buy it it at feed stores

use a big rock the size of your head or larger and smash the snake with it.

I find that a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with #7 or #8 bird shot works just fine to kill snakes, expecialy if there are more than one snake to be killed.

Mel, rattlesnakes like water…streams attract them to a degree.

To get rid of snakes that are residing in a say a crawl space under an older building, take some 1 gallon contianers and put some gas in those. Set them where the wind will carry the gas smell and the snakes tend to leave that area. The trick is to get the containers in the right spots so the gas smell infects thee area. One of the reasons this is said to work is gasoline has caustic acid in it. Perhaps that irritates the snake’s smell system enough that they simply must go elswhere to breath.

Pigs and Geese are great for eating snakes. Pigs Btw, consider snakes a delicousy.

Barn cats too, tend to clean out snakes ( they clean the snakes out when the snakes are little ).

Bull Snakes are non poisonous and kill rattlesnakes.
The 2 are natural enemies and the bull snakes always win the battle.

And one can always make a snake trap. It takes an area where snakes are, then use a 55 gallon drum. Set the drum such that the snakes can crawl over a surface ( rock ledges work pretty good, and one can always use some wood to bridge a gap ) which is flush to the drum’s top open end. Throw a couple dead or alive snakes ( alive or dead rabbit or etc )in the drum and the smell attracts live rattlers.

They crawl to the edge and over down into the drum and cannot crawl up because it’s a strait up slick surface.

Thus they die in the drum too…these traps are continously self perpetuating in the mission.

I have heard (and seen on the news) that pigs root for snakes and eat them, and can be a nice pet. If you are in the country, you can get a pig. Some cities will also allow a small pot-belly pig for a pet.

What if I built a stream around my back yard? Would that much water keep rattle snakes away?

use a hoe, chop his head and end of the problem.

one way to catch a snake is to get behind it and step on its head not to tight or it will die just enouth to put you hand on its neck and really fast put it in a bag or a trash bag