Snakes are a beautiful species that are a vital part of our ecosystems. However, that doesn’t mean that you will want them in your house or yard. That is why many people look for home remedies to keep snakes away. In this article, we look at the most effective options you have.
Thinking About Snake Behavior
Always think about how a snake behaves and how you can use that to create home remedies. Snakes are portrayed as aggressive predators who are always willing to attack. This image is false. Snakes are, by nature, very secretive and unlikely to find a person to bite them.
When a snake comes close to a human, they are more likely to hide. If discovered, their first reaction is to run and hide in another place. Only when cornered, when there is not another hiding spot available, would the snake try to turn and fight. And it would only be in a defensive manner, as snakes cannot eat humans.
Snake Senses
Snakes are also very particular in how they sense the world around them. Snakes utilize two of their senses more than any others. The first is smell, the other is sound, both of which have developed in a unique way.
For example, snakes don’t smell in the same way as other species. They use their tongues, which flick outwards to pick up odors in the atmosphere. They then use special organs in the roof of their mouth to determine facts about the smell.
Numerous snake species will use smell to find prey items and know more about the world around them.
Snake Hearing
Another way that snakes learn about the world around them is through sound. Snakes do not have external hearings, but they have internal ear features that sense vibrations around them. This makes their listening skills very rudimentary; they can’t often tell the difference between two objects.
As a result, snakes use sound as a warning, assuming that anything that makes a lot of vibrations is a predator and should be avoided.
Home Remedies to Keep Snakes Away From Your House
Using the above information there are several ways that you can design home remedies to keep snakes away from your house and yard. Here are some of those options.
1. Fox Urine
Foxes are natural predators of many snake species. Snakes will avoid areas with lots of fox urine because this indicates that a fox lives nearby. Fox urine is used in outdoor sports across the US, so you can often find sprays or bottles of it in outdoor sports stores.
Placing fox urine around the garden is one option, but you might also want to try and use guinea fowl or turkeys that are known to be snake predators.
2. Naphthalene
This common ingredient found in mothballs produces an odor that many snake species avoid in an area. It is unknown whether the odor is irritable or whether it reduces the potential of the snake to sense its prey so they move away.
You can potentially deter snakes by placing mothballs around your home, and in spaces around your yard where they might occur. The only problem with this option is that mothballs can be toxic or fatal to children and pets. Therefore, you might not want to use this option.
3. Clear your Garden
Another option is to clear your garden to ensure no hiding places for a snake to hunt. You also want to remove any potential attractant to their prey: rodents. By removing the number of hiding places, you can reduce the chances of a snake ever being on your property.
Snakes are very concerned with conserving energy and being in the right place for food. Therefore, you can be sure that removing any prey items from your yard or removing the places where they can hide will also repel snakes.
4. Plants That Repel Snakes
Another thing you need to do is plant species of flora that are going to repel snakes. Numerous species of plants create an odor that interferes with the snake’s natural smelling senses. Therefore, they don’t often spend time near these plants.
Some plants like mother-in-law tongue and onions are two of the best options. However, there are other plants like marigolds, allium, and lemongrass.
5. Use Smoke
If you like to have a BBQ or love sitting around a fire pit, these can be great for getting rid of snakes as well. Snakes don’t like living near smoke, so a regular BBQ or fire pit can help to scare away snakes. You can make the fire pit more successful by using moss which creates a unique smell.
However, if you have a fire in your yard, it should be managed properly.
6. Envirobug
Envirobug is a great device that uses vibrations into the ground that simulates the movements that a large predator will make. A couple of these devices will keep snakes away from your yard with ease.
Envirobug can be battery powered, or you can power it with solar panels. This makes it environmentally friendly.
7. Call Snake Catchers
Snake catchers can be an excellent option if you’re still struggling with snakes on your property. They can offer you lots of options on how to safeguard your yard from snakes in the future. Many snake catchers will also release the snake in a better location for them.
Some snake catchers will charge a service fee, but there are often volunteers as well, who provide this service because they are snake fanatics.
Final Word: The Best Home Remedies to Keep Snakes Away
Above are some of the best home remedies to keep snakes away from your yard. Some of these will be more effective than others for certain species. Therefore, you might need to try two or three home remedies to keep all snakes away from your yard. And you might need to get someone out to remove the snakes.