Sigarms
Super Member
Yesterday morning, mr black snake sitting on the fence post.
Had all the dogs outside with me when I was walking back with the newspaper, and wanted to take them in before removing the snake because it would of been a ***** show with 4 loose dogs and me carrying a black snake.
Came back out, and surprised the snake was already getting into the birdhouse.
The black cone under the birdhouse isn't for snakes, but for squirrels. My wife bought these birdhouses and we found that due to the length of pole, it added more stability to mount them next to the fence post (first mistake I now know).
My first thought was to raise the "squirrel guard" up higher. I didn't see how the snake got up, but assume the fence post was close enough that the snake just lifted himself up over it from the post onto the squirrel guard.
That said, it all may be a loosing battle anyways.
I did read that using bird netting could help (which we have a bunch of for our blueberries, ironically enough due to the birds), where the snake gets caught in the netting and then you can cut them free and release them.
Could drop nest from trees instead of using the fence post as well another option, but then I see the snake coming down instead of up.
Just wondering from everyones experiences what you all do trying to "snake proof" a pre fab birds nest. We've had these for a couple of years, always seem to get blue bird families year after year which my wife loves. Never seemed to have a snake issue before, but now that one knows where the dinner table is at, would like to take precautions for next year.
Don't want to kill non venomous snakes, and understand that they're only trying to survive, just looking for a better deterrent if available.
Had all the dogs outside with me when I was walking back with the newspaper, and wanted to take them in before removing the snake because it would of been a ***** show with 4 loose dogs and me carrying a black snake.
Came back out, and surprised the snake was already getting into the birdhouse.
The black cone under the birdhouse isn't for snakes, but for squirrels. My wife bought these birdhouses and we found that due to the length of pole, it added more stability to mount them next to the fence post (first mistake I now know).
My first thought was to raise the "squirrel guard" up higher. I didn't see how the snake got up, but assume the fence post was close enough that the snake just lifted himself up over it from the post onto the squirrel guard.
That said, it all may be a loosing battle anyways.
I did read that using bird netting could help (which we have a bunch of for our blueberries, ironically enough due to the birds), where the snake gets caught in the netting and then you can cut them free and release them.
Could drop nest from trees instead of using the fence post as well another option, but then I see the snake coming down instead of up.
Just wondering from everyones experiences what you all do trying to "snake proof" a pre fab birds nest. We've had these for a couple of years, always seem to get blue bird families year after year which my wife loves. Never seemed to have a snake issue before, but now that one knows where the dinner table is at, would like to take precautions for next year.
Don't want to kill non venomous snakes, and understand that they're only trying to survive, just looking for a better deterrent if available.
