Tips for keeping snakes away from your home

No doubt you’ve heard the slogan “a good snake is a dead snake”.

But let’s face it, killing a snake is highly illegal, not to mention very dangerous!

In summer, most of us fear finding a snake in our homes or back yards.

It turns out there are plenty of things you can do to keep the snakes away.

From sprinkling sulphur around your garden to cleaning up any weeds and junk in your yard, here are seven ways you can keep snakes away.

1. Use ammonia

Apparently, snakes can’t stand the smell or fumes of ammonia. Try soaking a rag or cloth in ammonia and put it in an unsealed plastic bag. Just put the plastic bag in the area where you might have seen a snake before, or worry about finding a snake. It turns out that the snakes will steer clear of the area around the bag because of the ammonia.

2. Put vinegar around the edge of your pool

If you’ve seen a snake near your pool, or you’re worried about finding a snake during your swim, then there is something you can do to keep snakes away. The old wives tale is that snakes can absorb liquid throw their skin, which makes them highly sensitive to chemicals such as vinegar. Try pouring vinegar around the edge of your pool. Apparently, snakes are unlikely to slither through the vinegar, so they’ll stay away!

3. Get rid of any mice or rats hanging around

Snakes are often attracted by the presence of mice and rats, which are one of their biggest food sources. That’s why it’s important to keep mice and rats away from your home and garden. Try the usual methods of getting rid of rodents – from setting traps to safely baiting them (keeping the bait out of reach of dogs, cats and children). When you’re confident the rodents are gone, clean up the areas they’ve frequented and get rid of any nests, mouse poo or smells. If you can get rid of their food source, you’ll keep the snakes away!

4.  Sprinkle some sulphur around your home

Some people swear by using sulphur powder to keep snakes away from their home. Apparently, snakes don’t like the sulphur and neither do the rats and mice they feed on! Try sprinkling some sulphur powder around your house, particularly the areas your most likely to find snakes. One of the downsides to this method is sulphur powder can be toxic if it’s consumed by kids or pets, so it’s best used where pets or the grandkids can’t get to it!  

5. Clean up your yard

Snakes love to hide under things in your yard or garden. From bricks and rocks to weeds and leaves, there are so many places that are perfect hidey holes for snakes. Now is the best time to get in and clean up all the places that snakes will be hiding – remove anything that snakes can hide under or around. Move piles of rocks and logs, mow your lawn and tidy up your gardens and get rid of the weeds. If there are less places for snakes to hide around your yard and garden, there’ll be less chance of them hanging around.

6. Get rid of or move large areas of water

It turns out snakes are attracted to water. Not only do they hunt around water sources, they can also be found swimming in the water. This includes water sources such as ponds, pools, puddles and even bird baths. Try cleaning up the areas around your water features, getting rid of any unnecessary water sources such as buckets of water or moving ponds and bird baths away from your house.

7.  Block up any holes that snakes can use to get into your house

There are so many reports each year of finding snakes in toilets, roofs and even in people’s beds! So, how do they get into your house and how can you stop them? Well, snakes can squeeze themselves through the tiniest of holes, which is why it’s important to make sure you block up any holes. That includes making sure there are no holes in your roof or screen doors, as well as making sure any pipes into and out of your house are covered up. You should also cover up any holes in your bricks or in your floors or garage to stop them getting into your house that way.

Have you ever found a snake in your house or yard? Do you have a way to keep snakes away?