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How to Deal with Snake problems

Ryan Mooney said:
Looks like a smart idea!

You could also just get a herd of guinea fowl which would handle the snakes on thier own, but then you'd have to deal with a herd of guinea fowl, might be easier to deal with the snakes.
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My grandmother always kept a couple of guinea fowls on the yard with the chickens... two benefits.. they're better than a watch dog - you can't sneak up on one and you can eat the eggs.
 
Brent Dowell said:
With my luck, just as I went to pick up the minnow trap the snake would discover a way out.

Just had never heard of anyone doing anything like that before. Really not looking forward to someday opening up the nesting box lid and finding a rattler at face level.
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When I was 3 or 4 we lived on my dad's old family farm at the end of the road and with woods all around... the farm had a log barn that dad put nest boxes up on the wall in the runway... the boxes were high enough that they wouldn't touch his hat as he walked by, but too high for my mom to reach into (he was 6'3" and she was barely 5'2")... one day he was getting eggs down for her and a bull snake came out of the box, down his arm and into the crack between the logs into corn crib... we lost lots of eggs and chicks to snakes... he just happened to have a pitch fork in his hand and stabbed the snake in the tail as it went into the barn... 'course it struck back at him and was just inches short of the end of the fork handle.... he had my mom hold the end while he reach down and got hold of the snake by the tail... he could kill snakes by cracking them like a whip and snapping their heads off. This 3 or 4 year old was standing there watching all this and I was almost into my teens before that snake stopped chasing me to the house at night... usually caught me just as I reached the porch steps.... I don't even watch snakes on TV.
 
Dave Hawksford said:
If you get a couple black snakes they will take xare of the coperhead problem.
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Black snakes do not seem to stay local. I'll see one or two a year around my place. Really want more. But copperheads and rattlers I kill on sight. I carried my .44 magnum revolver at the farm. First two rounds up were shot capsules I loaded myself. Snake pizzen. Kilt several a year.
 
My grandfather used to trap rattlesnakes and sell them for $0.25 each so they could be milked for the venom to produce anti-venom. He was also a story teller who might occasionally embellish the truth a bit. Sometimes his stories caused bad dreams when I would stay over, but that never kept me from asking for one when I was there.

My favorite involved him trapping a tiny snake and raising it for a pet. One night, a burglar broke in to steal Grandma's silver (never knew she had any). The snake wrapped his body around the burglar, stuck his tail out the window and rattled for the pOlice. I didn't learn til last year that he's stolen that story from Mark Twain.
 
I don't really care what the rattlers or copperheads do as long as they do it way over there somewhere. Seriously, living where I am with a creek bed below me some I would have thought they would be a bigger problem than they are. I have been on this land for almost 10 years and have seen exactly one copperhead and one western diamondback rattler. All the rest of the snakes I like; bull and rat snakes. I have one rat snake that is really big, close to 6', and I call him Zeus. Seems appropriate for him. He hangs around inside my shop all the time. He just lays around and watches me work. I also have a boat load of roadrunners. Guineas would be helpful, but they kinda drive me nuts with all the racket they make. I do have some owls and hawks that hang around as well. Guess I am lucky in those regards. But, yeah. Go out to Sweetwater, TX if you want to really see something.
 
Dave Hoskins said:
I don't really care what the rattlers or copperheads do as long as they do it way over there somewhere. Seriously, living where I am with a creek bed below me some I would have thought they would be a bigger problem than they are. I have been on this land for almost 10 years and have seen exactly one copperhead and one western diamondback rattler. All the rest of the snakes I like; bull and rat snakes. I have one rat snake that is really big, close to 6', and I call him Zeus. Seems appropriate for him. He hangs around inside my shop all the time. He just lays around and watches me work. I also have a boat load of roadrunners. Guineas would be helpful, but they kinda drive me nuts with all the racket they make. I do have some owls and hawks that hang around as well. Guess I am lucky in those regards. But, yeah. Go out to Sweetwater, TX if you want to really see something.
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I've got a big Gopher Snake that I dang near step on every year he's so quiet. Add to the fact that on first glance he has similar colorings to a rattler, well, The noise that comes out of me is more of a high pitched scream than I would like to admit.

But I've named him goofy and look forward to seeing him around. Usually some sparrows have a nest somewhere around the house that he gets attracted to and tries to climb up to.

There's been more rattlers around than I care to think about, but keeping things cleaned up around the house tends to keep them away.
 
I don't hate snakes, I think some of them actually look pretty cool.

I am seriously glad I live where snakes are not a problem.

I could not find a list if snakes in Massachusetts on Wikipedia.

I also tend to be very glad we don't have a problem with fiddle-back, black widow, killer bees, scorpions and other stuff like that. I guess those things don't like out winter.

I did have chickens and can fully understand that there are chicken forums. There are some really beautiful chickens, they are good to raise for food and for eggs. I may do chickens again after I retire. Racoon is my problem with chickens, and maybe foxes.
 
Those dang brown recluses are small and MEAN! MEAN! MEAN! and MEAN!!! I had one bite me twice on the left hand or two get me about the same time. Had to have two minor surgeries to clear all the dead stuff out of my hand. I don't like them. I hate them. Those little things need to go to the arctic and bother the Eskimos or someone.
 
Dave,
You may be a little too far north for them, but with water about, would think you'd have about as much problems with moccasins than rattlers... I remember visiting my cousins in Coolidge and going down to the city reservoir with our .22... we shot snakes all afternoon and probably didn't make a dint in their population.

And my dad lived near Springfield lake (Ft Parker park) between Groesbeck and Mexia... I took my son there and rented a paddle boat for an afternoon... finally gave up paddling because the moccasins were so thick in the lake.

When we lived on the east side of Lake Houston, I came home from work to find one with it's head buried about 6 inches in the dirt just outside the front door... the wife was gardening when she said one of the cats started hissing at something in the philodendron, she looked over and a 5' moccasin was coiled there... she buried his head in the dirt with the shovel... she didn't realize how dangerous the snake was until I got home and told her what it was.
 
Hi Chuck. No, I am not too far north for moccasins at all. Just don't seem to have them here. The creek only has water in it when there is a lot of rain. But remember, cottonmouths and copperheads are both moccasins, members of the Agkistrodon family. Cottonmouths are nothing to play around with. They have a tendency to have large neurotoxic properties to their venom more so than other pit vipers. Makes the bite hard to treat. They tend to be rather viscous as well. If that creek had water all the time I'd be worried about them. All I have to do is go about 7-8 miles and I know I will find some by the river and lake. I'll stay here, if that's alright. I'm a bit rusty on some of the stuff, but I know a fair bit on snakes. I spent several summers as a kid at the Fort Worth Zoo's Herpeterium. Went on a lot of field trips and such. Picked up some tidbits on some foreign snakes and stuff as well going through jungle and desert survival training in the Marines.
 
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Ryan Mooney said:
Leo,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reptiles_of_Massachusetts

:D
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Massachusetts snake problem:

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I'm thinking the best thing for snakes that come near the house is "high speed lead poisoning". They can live 100 yards away, no problem...just not near the front door. Thankfully most of them have learned to stay away in the last few years. Although with this wet winter, bunnies and birds are out like crazy, so I'm thinking we may see a few this year :dunno:
 
From what I have read, the best anti-snake treatment is to mow with a rotary blade mower. If you run over one, it is dead. But, the noise and vibriation drive them away. Might be why we see very few around my place.
 
Pretty much anything you do that causes ground vibration will drive them away. They don't like that at all. So running a mower, tractor or whatever will reduce your chances of running into a snake. With the possible exception of the cottonmouth. The only thing that runs them away is a 12 gauge magnum shell. That kinda cuts them in half or whatever, but those results are fine with me when it comes to one of them.
 
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