Snake deterrent- help!

[dieselcrawler]

Oldest boy (15) uses the basement as a bedroom in our 100+ year old farmhouse. He found a small garden snake last night, told his mother, and she's ready to burn the house. Naturally, there's a million cracks and gaps, and many inaccessible to seal up.

Any ideas, repellant that works, or other solutions? A quick Google search revealed that many of the 'solutions' are nothing more than snake oil, (pun intended) and don't actually work.

I walked around the house with a can of spray foam and filled any gap I could find...

 

[dickfoster]

Oldest boy (15) uses the basement as a bedroom in our 100+ year old farmhouse. He found a small garden snake last night, told his mother, and she's ready to burn the house. Naturally, there's a million cracks and gaps, and many inaccessible to seal up.

Any ideas, repellant that works, or other solutions? A quick Google search revealed that many of the 'solutions' are nothing more than snake oil, (pun intended) and don't actually work.

I walked around the house with a can of spray foam and filled any gap I could find...

When I was a kid, that snake would have become a pet. LOL

 

[MossRoad]

Snake VS Mongoose....

 

[Ed of all trades]

This won't help. My brother got up in a hurry and put on his jeans, jumped up in the air and came down with his jeans on the floor. A little blacksnake came out of the in a hurry. I was laughing so hard I couldn't kill it and he was to shocked. It had been on his inner thigh when he had them on. He slept in the camper for the rest of the summer. Ed

 

[Garandman]

Based on experience, I recommend not telling your wife the next time you find a snake in the house.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Based on experience, I recommend not telling your wife the next time you find a snake in the house.

Lol... let sleeping dogs lay, right? Until she finds out you 'forgot' to tell her, then it's the same kind of h€[[.

I'm not the one that found it... and when you have 6 kids, word spreads fast, ain't nothing gonna not get told!

 

[RobertBrown]

She's right .....torch the house.
Hope this helps. :thumbsup:

 

[kthompson]

You might find a dog in the house a big help or a cat. We had a golden retriever that had a great nose for live snakes. I could live with dog in house but not a pig but growing up we never found a snake where the hogs were.

Sulfur powder spread on the ground is also suppose to help. Can not prove it but my in-laws believe in it. kt

 

[dieselcrawler]

I think the dogs moving outside may have had some bearing on it... until recently, we had a jack Russell that was caged indoors, and a small mutt terrier that stayed in the son's basement room, unless either was outside. Due to fleas, they both got moved outside earlier this summer, we still have one indoor only cat. The dogs run loose in the yard most of the day, caged in a shed close to the back door of the house.

The pigs are only coming in the house in one pound packages. I'm looking forward to fresh bacon....

 

[TomSeller]

You might find a dog in the house a big help or a cat. We had a golden retriever that had a great nose for live snakes. I could live with dog in house but not a pig but growing up we never found a snake where the hogs were.

Sulfur powder spread on the ground is also suppose to help. Can not prove it but my in-laws believe in it. kt

Build a hog pen all the way around the house.

 

[/pine]

Personally...I've seen more instances of snakes getting into houses via doors and windows than I have cracks etc...
Really small snakes are after crickets etc. and will find their way in the same way the crickets etc. do...

Good Luck...

 

[seaneastok]

Snake VS Mongoose....

Now that bring's back memories!!:thumbsup:

 

[JFoy]

Sulfur - you can get it on amazon. If you look at snake repellents, the key ingredient is sulfur. First of spring, I walk the outside perimeter of the house and sprinkle it. Keeps away pretty much everything from the house. First rain, it will smell but after that, little to no smell.

 

[lexluther]

Free range chickens... They eat all the things a snake would eat and eat small snakes too...

 

[Thomas]

Chickens should keep the snakes in check,for maybe pressure washer jug of water mix w/bleach spray foundation good.

 

[FTG-05]

Subcontract it out to a professional:

Cats or rats, pick one. And if it's rats, get ready for the snakes that are not going to be far behind. The only reason a snake is in the area is because there is food there for them. Specifically, rats and mice.

 

[rekees4300]

Any ideas, repellant that works, or other solutions?

Found a 4 foot Black snake in my basement couple months ago. Went to get a shovel (my snake "deterrent") but he was gone by the time I got back down there. Haven't seen him since then so hopefully he's back outside? Mice tend to attract snakes so guess it's time to set some mouse traps?

 

[dickfoster]

Found a 4 foot Black snake in my basement couple months ago. Went to get a shovel (my snake "deterrent") but he was gone by the time I got back down there. Haven't seen him since then so hopefully he's back outside? Mice tend to attract snakes so guess it's time to set some mouse traps?

If my grand dad saw you killing a black snake he'd tan your hide. He catch and put black snakes in the barn, corn crib etc. to keep rats at bay. Most snakes are good, it's the just the ornery poisonous ones that are bad for us in this country, like water moccasins and copper heads. Water moccasins are just plain mean while you usually just don't see the copper head before it's too late.

They've got a lot meaner snakes you can worry about in other places like Asia for example. Some are rated in how many steps you take before you die like two and three steppers. Even cobras are mild compared to some of them. Here we've not got much to worry about. At least a rattle snake will let you know and they taste good too. So everyone leave the good snakes alone, they aren't hurting anything and they usually help us out.

 

[turnkey4099]

She's right .....torch the house.
Hope this helps. :thumbsup:

That was my sister and her hubby's solution. Sister was deathly afraid of snakes. They bought an old house with crawl space, Several garter snakes found in and around it. Only took a few years until the old house was gone and a double wide in its place.

 

[turnkey4099]

You might find a dog in the house a big help or a cat. We had a golden retriever that had a great nose for live snakes. I could live with dog in house but not a pig but growing up we never found a snake where the hogs were.

Sulfur powder spread on the ground is also suppose to help. Can not prove it but my in-laws believe in it. kt

Didn't help here. Always had two dogs, Early on one of them was fond of playing with them and would occasionally bring one in for amusement.

Same with current pair - dachshunds. Yound one likes catching and playign with a mouse, catch it let it go, catch repeat. Two nights ago both dogs were obviously on a 'hunt mouse' track, nosing under/around end tables, easy chaires, etc. I finally started movign the furniture. Young dog caught it, carried over by the couch...and promptly let it go again...

Wash, rinse, repeat.