Snake in my pond ~ how to remove?

[sgtmom52]

I have a small decorative pond in a garden in front of my house. It appears that a water snake has decided to make it it's home. I don't mind it there at this time as it is fairly small ~ maybe 18" or so ~ but DH is not happy. He is less tolerant of snakes than I am so the snake needs to be relocated to the stream. I don't think it is causing any harm in the pond as all the fish we have in there are much to large for it to eat. It is more than welcome to the bugs, tadpoles, toads, etc as there are far to many in there right now.

I know that it is not a poisonous snake and is most likely a young Northern water snake. I have been unable to get a picture of it as it spends all of it's time under water except when it comes up for a breath. I am looking for suggestions on how to safely catch the fast little critter.

I do not want to harm or kill it ~ just relocate it. I also don't want to have to tear apart the pond and plants to get him. The pond is a hard plastic preform with a stone edge. This is a picture of the pond from earlier this spring. Thanks!

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

perhaps you could get a fish net to remove it..put it under water also and when you get it over it, snatch it up.

 

[cassie]

Personally I'd tell DH to get over it and find something more important to worry about. But that's just me.

 

[shellybean40]

pretty pond!! I am jealous!

 

[sgtmom52]

Quote:
That thought has crossed my mind as I do all of the work on the pond ~ but I am trying to keep DH happy right now as he is building me a big new coop right now!

 

[sgtmom52]

Quote:
Thanks ~ it's just a simple preform, but we really enjoy it. It is very relaxing to sit and listen to the water. I would love to have a bigger one but digging around here is a major operation as we have lots of very large rocks and you never know what you will find when you start digging a hole.

 

[americancowboy]

use this http://kill-fireants.com/mcart/index.cgi?ID=326196263&PID=IT553&code=13 or make your own snake trap.

 

[ivan3]

If it simply has to go, I'm with D'Angelo, netting is probably the least labor intensive method of removal. Your water feature should be pretty well `fished' out and the intruder will move on of its own accord without intervention in a short period of time.

If it is a Northern, put on a pair of gloves and pick it up (if they were poisonous they would be trouble as they've the nastiest disposition of any nonpoisonous snake I've ever dealt with - they do bite with vigor).

Here are a couple of shots of Northerns in/around our pond. We didn't let our chooks forage around it until they'd gotten bigger than a `nugget'.

Better a hundred Northerns than one Snapper, imho.

 

[sgtmom52]

I think I will try the net ~ just to make DH happy. If I don't get it, I will just leave it for the summer & maybe it will move on by itself.

 

[ekemily]

We have this same exact problem. We have cotton mouths, though, which are deadly. We have a broom handle just for this purpose. We sneak up on them and then..... WHACK!! Sometimes we have one person stand off in the distance where the snake can see them, but doesn't feel threatened. That gives the other person an opportunity to sneak....
If they are where we can get a shot at them without damaging the liner, we have a .22 pistol with scatter shot. Hard to miss with that!