Snake Repellent

[Mr Brush]

Remember - months with a "r" in them are the snakey months.......lol

[Mr Brush]

And they do LOVE a nice warm cosy mulch pile...

snakey.jpg

[Mr Brush]

We get mainly red-bellied blacks (pretty timid), copperheads (a bit feisty), and only ever one big brown snake when we first bought the property 24 years ago - frightened him off with the stamping feet method, and never seen one since.

[ian]

I have no special expertise, but understand that cats are good at keeping snakes at bay.


also, fresh woodchips around those parts of the property you use are also supposed to work. Mind you they have to be fresh woodchips, with sharp edges, not like the ones in Mr Bush's post

[AlexS]

I have a Sydney mate like that, he doesn’t visit his farm in summer because he is scared of snakes, only goes there in winter lol

There's a lack of logic there. When it's warm, the snake is more likely to have the energy to get away if it feels threatened. In winter, it may not have the energy to escape, so may bite instead (although it will probably be torpid and tucked away out of sight anyway.)

[AlexS]

I have no special expertise, but understand that cats are good at keeping snakes at bay.


also, fresh woodchips around those parts of the property you use are also supposed to work. Mind you they have to be fresh woodchips, with sharp edges, not like the ones in Mr Bush's post

Don't rely on pets to keep snakes at bay. I can tell you from experience that doesn't work, and you are likely to lose the pet, or at least be up for a lot of money - antivenin is very expensive. Woodchips, coarse ropes and other folkloric measures do not work. A polished surface around your house might, but no guarantees.

[Warb]

Our previous house was surrounded by a wide strip of gravel (small river pebbles, not "crusher dust") for parking cars etc.. I once watched a black snake approach it, and then travel around the border, keeping in the grass and not crossing the gravel. My suspicion is that much like a "bowling green" mowed lawn, the snake has no ability to hide and feels too exposed. We always tried to keep such an area around the house, and avoid providing any approach that provided cover...... It also means that you have a better chance of seeing a snake before you get too close or step on it!

My experience has been that removing all cover and hiding places, long grass, flower beds, low shrubs and general rubbish, goes a very long way to avoiding problems with snakes. They don't like to be exposed, so if they have nowhere to hide, they tend not to hang around.

[jack620]

A cat is more likely to kill everything but the snakes. Keep those b@stards inside.

[Warb]

A cat is more likely to kill everything but the snakes. Keep those b@stards inside.

A few years ago I picked something up from a guy in the Blue Mountains. He had a bowl of milk outside his front door. I asked him if it was for a cat, and he went off on a rant about cats killing the wildlife and being the spawn of the devil. He then explained that the milk was actually for the cute little foxes that lived in the woodland at the end of his garden. Apparently they are "wildlife" and therefore OK..... I didn't tell him that cats and foxes both met the same fate on our farm!!

[auscab]

I don't think there has been any mention of what species of snake the OP may have a problem with.
Obviously some are much worse than others. I don't know what I would do if 6 ft Brown or 6ft Tiger snakes appeared anywhere near my house or property.
Snakes : School of Biomedical Sciences

We get these snakes pictured below, but nowhere near the house.
100 to 200 meters away is the closest Ive seen them since moving here with our four dogs. The dogs pick on anything that comes closer. The big smart dog will point it out and bark. The Jack Russel will either just bark but also sometimes attack anything including or smaller than a chicken. The dogs chase away or hassle Deer, Cows, Echidna, possum and blue tongue lizards . Ive never seen them encounter a snake. And I have only seen one injured Blue Tongue that the the Jack Russel got to.
Edit
It doesn't mean I expect the dogs to 100 % keep snakes away from the house . The Echidna's get past the dogs and under the house all the time so snakes would as well if they want to .



I was sorting timber and saw this pair having a "Sky rockets if flight "session. So I took a few pictures and let them be .

IMG_0873a.jpg
I believe they are Copperheads . Lowland copperhead I'd guess.

Copperheads, Austrelaps Worrell, 1963 : School of Biomedical Sciences

The short grass around the house sounds good. I cant get over how a snake can disappear into grass or cracks in timber or the ground the second you take your eye off them.

[Mr Brush]

That indeed looks like the copperheads we get. Top colour can range from brownish through to dark grey, but with a cream-coloured belly. Slightly more feisty than black snakes, but nowhere near as aggressive as browns or tigers.

The snakes are still there in winter, but just tucked up in holes out of sight, kicking back and watching TV presumably? They only appear (in southern highlands climate) in months with a 'r', so starting in September usually.

Re. dogs and snakes, that's why being trained to the "LEAVE IT" command is so important in country areas. Our Rhodesian Ridegback came across a copperhead when we weren't watching her, but luckily she was well trained to the command and backed right off. A big 45kg dog would need a LOT of antivenine, which would cost a fortune.

I'm a keen proponent of the "sudden lead poisoning" school of thought too; feral cats, foxes, and rabbits all get the same treatment here. Made even easier since I got a night vision scope for my rifle - I can prowl around in complete darkness thanks to infrared illuminator, and the night vision scope works out to 100m away even on a moonless night. It's nice to be able to see them before they can see me. On one memorable occasion I left a shot rabbit out fairly near the house, checked it periodically in the evening, and came out about 10pm for a last look to find Mr Fox standing there having just picked up rabbit in his mouth. Dropped him right there, and even got my dead rabbit back.....lol.

[Mr Brush]

Snakes don't like being exposed on open ground - Kookaburras will take surprisingly large snakes, and they have excellent eyesight. One our place they take a lot of the baby black snakes before they get big enough to be a nuisance.

[GraemeCook]

Auscab, do the moderators know about your collection of snake pawn?

Snakes.jpg auscab Collection.

[Mr Brush]

I once heard David Attenborough on one of those wildlife programs saying that male snakes have two penises. That just made me wonder whether they are ambidickstrous??

[Mr Brush]

Turns out to be true

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...one-in-humans/

Lucky buggers !