How To Keep Snakes Out Of Your Yard
Keep Your Lawn Mowed
The first and biggest deterrent to snakes is properly maintaining the grass in your yard. Snakes prefer tall grass where they stay hidden from predators like hawks, falcons, and owls. Snakes will stay in areas where food is easy to find. Their main diet contains grasshoppers, spiders, moths, mice, and other insects and rodents.
Another way to deter snakes from frequenting your yard is to eliminate the food source. Bugs and rodents live in tall thickets of grass so they can hide from birds and eat leaves and roots.
Mow your yard every week or every other week to ensure that grass is only a few inches tall. If you wait until your lawn is too unruly to mow your yard, there may already be snakes living in your yard. You should practice caution if bugs are flying out of your grass as you are mowing it. If bugs are already living in your grass, they could be attracting snakes.
Just Right Lawns ensures that the yards we tend to are properly mowed and maintained. We will come weekly or bi-weekly to ensure your grass does not turn into a habitat for bugs, rodents, and snakes.
Remove Yard Waste
Yard waste piles offer a suitable home for snakes to live. In the summer months, snakes like to coil up and sleep in cool, shaded areas. You will want to remove the following waste from your backyard.
- Firewood Stacks
- Compost Piles
- Fallen Leaves
- Dead Brush
Our lawn service will distribute grass clippings to ensure that these piles do not turn into a home.
Manage Outdoor Items
Snakes are creative about where they live, so manage any clutter around your house. A snake can burrow underneath, coil in, and slither into small places. You will want to check and ensure the following areas are clean and open:
- Flower Pots
- Tarps
- Furniture
- Garden Sheds
- Plastic or Inflatable Pools
- Boats
- Children’s Play House
Properly Maintain Landscaping
Flowerbeds, bushes, and shrubs offer a perfect shaded area for snakes to live. They will prefer low-traffic areas that tend to be overgrown and out of sight.
Our Just Right Lawn Landscaping Service will go through this checklist when working on a yard.
- Remove dead leaves and twigs
- Cut back low hanging branches
- Prune shrub overgrowth
- Remove unwanted sprouts, plants, and weeds
- De head dead flowers
Remove Other Pests
Small rodents living in, under, or around your home can lead to larger snake problems. If you see a small rodent living in your yard, you should install a trap system, or give an animal removal company a call.
Companies like Critter Ridder, an Austin-based humane animal removal business, will come to your home and remedy your rodent and snake problem. Pest control companies will work with you to safely remove any unwanted animals and manage snake deterrent systems.
Manage Surface Water
During the summer months, snakes will look for cool places to lower their body temperature. Because snakes are cold-blooded, they will search for different environments to either cool down or heat up their blood temperature.
If your home has a natural stream, a man-made pond, or a drainage ditch, consider either draining the water or installing more precautionary snake measures.
You can install a small mesh screen or plastic fence around your property along with your fence as a snake barrier. Snake fences are common to ranches and farms where snakes are a nuisance to livestock and workers, but they can also offer another line of protection for your backyard.
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