The best snake poison? (Houston: new house, landscaping, neighborhood)

[joinsway]

We moved in our new house in Firethorne only 1 month ago. Before that, I saw people mentioning snakes in this area, but never thought one day open the door and there it is.

As my husband said (I didnt see it), it's not that big, and quickly went under the ground after disturbed by humans. But i was more disturbed. So here's the question: what is the best thing to buy to get rid of them?

I dont like surprises such as snakes, so I really prefer we keep enough distance between each other.

Please advise. Thank you!

[lhafer]

Originally Posted by joinsway

We moved in our new house in Firethorne only 1 month ago. Before that, I saw people mentioning snakes in this area, but never thought one day open the door and there it is.

As my husband said (I didnt see it), it's not that big, and quickly went under the ground after disturbed by humans. But i was more disturbed. So here's the question: what is the best thing to buy to get rid of them?

I dont like surprises such as snakes, so I really prefer we keep enough distance between each other.

Please advise. Thank you!

Get a cat. An outdoor one. They kill snakes.

[westres1]

Not much you can do about them. They do eat mice and rats which is a good thing.

[Oildog]

Only a couple types are poisonous, the others arent bad to have around. Try to describe its pattern and better advice can be provided.

[Supermac34]

You can't actually poison snakes away from your home like other pests such as mice or rats. Also, other chemical remedies such as moth balls are suspect at best. The things you can do to minimize snakes in your yard are to remove things that they like to live in. Basically, make your yard a habitat that a snake wouldn't want to live in.

Snakes like to hide, so by getting rid of things they can hide under or in, you cut down on their potential environment.

1. Cut your grass. Snakes like high grasses and brush. A well mowed lawn is not a place that a snake likes to hang out in.

2. Clean up your landscaping: snakes like to hang out under low hanging shrubbery. Make sure your shrubs and bushes are well manicured and cut away from the ground a little bit. Make sure to trim away old, dead underbrush in your beds.

3. Clean up the clutter. Store your stuff in the garage, don't let stuff clutter up around your house, snakes like to live in that clutter.

4. Pest control your lawn, home. Snakes eat bugs, OR they eat the things that eat bugs. If you maintain a good pest control system in your yard, you cut down on the food source for snakes, so they move along.

Optional: get a cat. Snakes and cats don't mix and cats will keep snakes away, but then again, you'll then have a cat to take care of and most neighbors don't like your outside cats since they wander the entire neighborhood.

One very important thing to remember about snakes, especially in Houston. Most snakes are not poinsonous. Also, the poisonous snake bite is very rare, and a death caused by a poisonous snake bite in Texas is extremely rare, like 1 or 2 people a YEAR. In all of Texas. Basically more people die from getting run over by trains...while raining....on Tuesdays....during a full moon....in leap years.

[EasilyAmused]

A thick rope. They think it's another snake and won't cross it.

Or, you could do what my neighbors in NE Texas do with their rabbits. Put your kids in cages and hang them from a tree.

[CanTex]

Originally Posted by Supermac34

Optional: get a cat. Snakes and cats don't mix and cats will keep snakes away, but then again, you'll then have a cat to take care of and most neighbors don't like your outside cats since they wander the entire neighborhood.

My neighbor got a cat expressly for this purpose and it is hugely annoying. It spends more time in everyone else's yard than its own. And it keeps coming into our garages and gets stuck in there when door closes (one of my neighbors went away for the weekend and came back to find a very thirsty cat run out when they opened the door...) Gotta love those muddy footprints all over our vehicles too...

Only consolation is I'm not so worried about snakes now!

[DotLib]

When we first moved into our home, we had so many snakes since it was a very wooded area. Once, something made me look down right before I opened my patio door...good thing I did, if not I would have stepped right on a copper head! We had a lot of trouble that first year or so with snakes..neighbor put her plants outside when it rained, and brought one back into her house. When I went to a nursery(one where they grow locally) to buy plants, I just reached down and picked up the plant and the man said,you must not be from around here! He told me never pick up a plant without looking into it.

When they were building my neighbors house, I watched a little bird drinking water in a hole in his back yard...all of a sudden a water mocasin jumped up and chased that little bird two lots away and then came and crawled right back into that water hole.

My neighbor put his little 2 year old in a bike seat and went off thru the woods taking a short cut to his moms house..and another water mocasin chased him ...

I think all the home building going on was chasing them out of their habitats..now its not bad.

Anyway, you get the message, lots of snakes around my home and poisonous ones at that..well... I called into the local lawn and garden line..and was told to get the grandulated moth balls and sprinkle those around the property line..(much like putting down rope), snakes down like to crawl over that scratchy stuff so they will keep skirting it till they run out of the sharp crystals...it worked for us! Dot

[cenhill2]

Go to the nearest coop. They seem to have poisons you can't find at wally mart. I would also buy
bag of regular insect poisons. Really layer it in places they might hide. None of this they are
good. Get rid of them by all means.

[DanielWayne]

I didn't think you could poison snakes since most eat only live food. Anyway, as said above, only a few types are venomous, and you are unlikely to see those unless you live near a pond. Snakes eat pest animals.