Snakes and garden ponds

[herfy]

I'm not a fan of snakes...sorry

[harrywitmore]

Originally Posted by herf

I'm not a fan of snakes...sorry

I'm not a fan of football players but I don't want to kill them. Sorry

[orchids3]

Remember putting a minnow trap in the water and leaving it overnight - (the kind that has a funnel shaped opening so that the minnows go in and cant find their way out because they swim toward the light)- when I took it out of the water it was full of snakes all dead drowned. Just a thought and you might try it especially if you already have a minnow trap.

[Gin]

Only need 6 pumps

[herfy]

Originally Posted by harrywitmore

I'm not a fan of football players but I don't want to kill them. Sorry

LoL..that is your opinion
k thanks.... lets stick to the subject of the thread..

[herfy]

Originally Posted by Gin

Only need 6 pumps

I will try that next time..

[phearamedusa]

Have you tried moth balls around the pond area. Hubby says that they repel snakes. Its supposed to work, good luck.

[Donald]

Hello Nancy. Last year I had the same problem with Eastern Garter snakes. I cam out one morning to find two of them stretched out "tanning" themselves on a carpet of water hyacynths. I sprinkled genuine mothballs around the perimeter of the pond making sure that the mothballs were in a positions that any runoff would not enter the pond. Voila! That was the last I have of them around the pond and I do have a few of them in and around my gardens. Good Luck.

[orkie]

Hi Nancy,

I study snakes as a PhD student (so to me I'd rather the snakes than the fish!). But with a free food supply, it's going to be hard to get rid of these guys. I am certainly against killing them, but even if you killed the ones you saw, there are probably more around and they will hunt at night as well, so youwon;t be able to keep watch 24/7. It wouldn't take long for just 1 or 2 to polish off all your fish in a few nights, they can eat a ton.

I would suggest a few things (snake away and things of that nature typically don't have much effect, but can't hurt to try and it could possibly work). 1. Can you stock your pond with just a few very large comets/fish? I know big ones are more expensive, but you can try getting fish that are just wayyyyy too big for the snakes to eat.

2. You can keep the area around the pond inhospitable for the snakes. Anything easy for them to hide in/under will encourage them to hang out. Any loose rocks should be removed and keep your grass around the pond mowed very short. That might help a bit. Snakes don't like being without cover and places to hide.

I don't know whether a fake owl or something might help, but raptors certainly eat snakes, so again, it couldn't hurt.

I would not suggest doing something as inhumane as drowning the snakes in minnow traps, that's an awful way for any animal to die (ugh, that type of thing disgusts me). You could however, set out minnow traps, leaving part above water to allow any caught snakes to breath and then transport them elsewhere.

Feel free to send me a private message or just post here if you have any other ideas/questions I might be able to help with. Good luck!

Sara

[orchids3]

By the way - I was trying to catch minnows - not snakes. Keeping part of the trap above water does sound more humane - my life leads me not to be very humane with snakes. The old family home I lived in in Arkansas was alive with snakes. (Copper heads to be exact). There probably was a pit or cave where they over wintered. Vigilance was necessary to keep from being bitten especially in the spring. We had a small border collie mix who literally hated copperheads and had snake bite wounds all over its head. The hatred grew worse with each bite. My own disgust with the things was almost as bad as the dogs. Several family members were bitten. We killed the copperheads but revered and cherished the King snakes and racers. The snake we called the chicken snake was wasnt very much loved either - we often heard the chickens and knew the snake was about usually too full of eggs to get back thru the hole where it entered the hen house.
It was summarily chopped in too the eggs squeezed out and eaten for breakfast . Some of the eggs were far enough down the digestive tract to be soft - some digested enough so that there was no shell. Little green snakes were loved and watched with joy. Some have disgust for anyone who would kill a snake but for us it was often a necessary part of farm life. Oh and we often had snakes bailed up in the hay - half out half in and mad thats another story.