Pest Control Library: Snakes

Articles→Pest Control Library

By National Gardening Association Editors

Although popular lore suggests snakes should be feared or exterminated, relatively few are poisonous and they generally avoid humans. Besides, they can be the gardener's friend, as various snakes prey upon rodents and slugs. Seeing snakes in your yard is a sign that you have a healthy population of mice and voles. To encourage snakes to inhabit your yard and garden, provide them with a shallow dish of water and many cool spots to hide. Rock walls, woodpiles, or boards laid in the garden provide shelter and a place to soak up the sun's warming rays.

Control

Even though snakes are ″good″ guys in the garden, no one likes them in the house, so patch any cracks into your house or basement. Snakes particularly like the relief of a cool cement basement on a steamy summer day. If one does find its way indoors, call a wildlife control officer to remove it. If your fear of snakes is overwhelming, try discouraging them by removing weeds, woodpiles, rock walls, water sources, and brush where mice might hide. Commercial repellents or a fence can also be used to exclude them from a favored area.

Photograph by David Liebman

Together with Victory Seed Company:
Victory Seed Company Logo Victory Seed Company has all the seeds you want for your best garden in 2024.

For 25 years, the family-owned Victory Seed Company has provided the highest quality vegetable, herb and flower seeds to families across the country. We are passionate about providing you the best seeds available that give excellent germination, robust plants, and the harvest you want. With a catalog of over a thousand varieties, we have everything, and our prices are the kinds that we'd want to pay. We have hundreds of yesterday's heirloom vegetables, as well as today's award winning hybrid selections. Get to know us by visiting our website and browsing through our online vegetable seed catalog.

This article is a part of our Pest Control Library.
This article is a part of our Pest Control Library.
Member Login:

( No account? Join now! )