Snakes galore!!! UGH

[clhbubba]

3 snakes in one week!!!! The first one was in the shed trying to get eggs under our duck, got a hoe and killed it. The second one was trying to get my banty's eggs, started striking her. I didn't have a hoe handy but did have gloves on so I just grabbed the sucker with my hands and killed it with a shovel. Tonight we were closing everyone up and there was ANOTHER one trying to eat the eggs out from under another duck. We got a shovel but couldn't kill it in there because of the straw, DH went to get another shovel and it started striking our hen. I was so mad I just reached down and grabbed it with my bare hands. This one was actually almost 6ft long. The biggest one we've seen yet. Do moth balls really work? Can anyone please give me any suggestions on what I can do to keep these things out of our hens nests? Any and all suggestions, no matter how far fetched are welcome!!! He had actually cracked one of the eggs and there was blood. We put some candle wax on it. Hope it helps.

 

[SPRING CREEK FARM]

Oh my goodness, 3 snakes in one week! Yes, I think the moth ball thing does work. About 3 weeks ago we killed a 5 1/2 ft long black chicken snake hanging around the coop.

We are most quite sure that he had already helped himself to some eggs as most of my hens were sitting at the time.

The very next day I got the moth balls! What I did was to put the moth balls in a gallon milk jug and hung it up in a tree on the backside of the coop. I made sure to poke a good many holes in the jug before I put it up. That was the way the snake was slithering in, climbing up the tree and crossing over to the rafters of the coop. I also put some moth balls in 2 liter drink bottles and juice bottles and poked holes in the bottom and with those I just put them on the ground on the backside of their runs and coops where they cannot get to them. Of course the lids are still on the bottles too. You can smell those moth balls when you walk by if you notice it, but you know what? So far we have not been visited by anymore snakes!

 

[ivan3]

clhbubba wrote work? Can anyone please give me any suggestions on what I can do to keep these things out of our hens nests?

Some folks use moth balls, some use sulfur. there is an actual Snake Repellant sold but, IIRC, it is only effective against one kind of Garter?

Only way to be sure (assuming you don't have trees overhanging runs) :

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/snakefnc.html

Or, feed the snakes wooden eggs/golf balls?​

 

[SPRING CREEK FARM]

Quote:
Some folks use moth balls, some use sulfur. there is an actual Snake Repellant sold but, IIRC, it is only effective against one kind of Garter?

Only way to be sure (assuming you don't have trees overhanging runs) :

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/snakefnc.html

Or, feed the snakes wooden eggs/golf balls?

The folks at our local farmers co-op told me that there are a few items on the market, like Snake Away! that they have sold and that all the stuff is really just crushed up moth balls and pretty expensive. They suggested I just do as I did and get the moth balls real cheap at the Dollar General Store, about $2.00 a box.

 

[ivan3]

Post up your mothball results. We go through several boxes a month (hanging on branches in little fine mesh `wedding/gift' bags) to keep the deer from stripping the Pecan/Cherry/Peach saplings/starts. As well as spreading them under the Blueberry bushes (rabbits). Snakes here pay them no mind.

Good luck!

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Sure would be nice to know where "here" is. BOCOMO tells me nothing.

We do not want street addresses, anymore than we want names. A state or country is helpful, though.

BTW, my name is not Dawn.

Snakes are regional.

 

[clhbubba]

I appreciate the responses and will go clean the shelf out of moth balls at Wally World!!! The plastic bottles with holes is a great idea. I was wondering how to do it without the animals eating them. The deer are nibbling our fruit trees, hanging them in the trees was a great tip as well. Thanks!!

 

[NotTheMomma]

Please PLEASE let me know if those work!! We are surrounded by hay fields, and pastures for the horses, plus one area that we don't bush hog but once a year so the wild quail have a habitat. Thus MANY places for snakes to be!! I'm hoping they find enough in the wild to eat that they leave my coop alone. Haven't seen any in the yard YET, but I would LOVE to keep them away from the coop. I can throw bottles under my coop if they work.

THANKS!! and GOOD LUCK!!

Ughh, picking up a snake

.. not gonna happen! NO WAY, NO HOW! Deathly afraid of the suckers! Not even picking up a dead one!!!

 

[Big Chicken Little]

Mothballs work great for me. You can also use camphor oil and apply it with a brush around doorways and on wood surfaces they would slither up.

 

[TexasVet]

I had a duck sitting on 7 eggs. Two days later she had 5, then 3. The shed she was in had a god-awful smell that day, so I checked around the perimeter and found TWO dead rat snakes, tangled up in the bird netting that I'd left on the ground when I moved the run.
So now I have loose bunches of plastic bird netting all the way around the shed. Haven't lost an egg since I put it out.

I installed a hotwire around the bottom of the new run/hen house, and so far haven't seen any snakes in therel. (Of course that'll change now that I've said that!)

Biggest problem here is the heat and drought. Ants are invading the house, the gophers and armadillos are tearing up anyplace that's been watered, and the snakes are going after eggs because the field mouse/frog population is almost non-existant. Sure could use some rain!

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com