What is the best approach to get rid of snakes?

in #hive-1143082 years ago

I still have PTSD from a snake-bite encounter I experienced about a year ago. Even though I was not the direct victim, the brouhaha that followed the incident is enough for anyone to dread snake bites.

Don't get me wrong, it is not that I really fear snakes as such. In actual fact, I still killed one last week. Just that you don't know when things might go rough with snakes around. Especially when kids are involved just like the last time.

If everything goes as planned, I and my small family hope to relocate to a new apartment in a couple of months. This apartment is located in a newly developing area where the environment is more of vegetation than houses.

In other words, we are likely to be faced with a snake infestation. We have visited the new apartment a couple of times and each time, we either end up killing a snake or sighting one lucky enough to escape in the surroundings of the house.

I have got 2 kids that are barely 4 and 2 years old respectively. While snakes may not be of direct concern to me, it is to my kids. Snakes may not be of direct concern to me because they are usually not aggressive unless they are agitated.

Kids may not know the difference between a snake and a piece of string. Thus, how best to get rid of snakes in the surroundings has been a major concern to me.

When I said getting rid of snakes, two approaches are possible:

  1. Killing off snakes in the surrounding
  2. Put a barrier in place that will not allow snakes to get anywhere close to the surroundings of the house.

I would actually prefer the latter. Snakes are a major component of the food chain in the ecosystem. Killing them off may disrupt the food chain or food web of the ecosystem.

Also, not all snakes are dangerous, even though merely sighting them gives adrenaline. However, deciphering poisonous snakes from those that are not poisonous requires some expertise on one hand and close proximity with the reptiles on the other.

I am neither an expert nor do I want to maintain close proximity with snakes. Thus, my first reaction to sighting them is to chase them down and dealt them fatal blows with the nearest stick or any other weapon.

Since the first option is off the table, I am only left with the second option. What barrier can be put in place to ensure that snakes do not come close to the surroundings of the house? Definitely not physical barriers. Below are the potential solutions that I was able to gather:

image.png

The snake that bit my neighbour's son. Image by @gentleshaid

Using Nicotiana tabacum plant

There is this general belief in my locality that snakes dislike the scent of Nicotiana tabacum plants and will usually not move anywhere close to them.

Thus, it is a common sight to see the plant around houses in my area. Growing up, I never questioned this belief, until I got educated and started making my own research. Does the plant actually chase snakes away?

Several literatures on the ethnomedicinal importance of plants actually link this plant either as snake repellent or in the potential treatment of snake bites. However, a piece of anecdotal evidence from a friend of mine says otherwise.

According to him, he has personally witnessed a snake lying calmly under the Nicotiana tabacum plant. This should not be so if the plant, indeed, repels snakes. Could literature be wrong? Perhaps not. Just that there may be a lot of intricacies involved.

Only relevant experimental tests can actually prove that the plant has the capacity to repel snakes. I was not able to find any published experiment throughout my search.

Other ethnobotanical approaches

Apart from Ticotiana tabacum, there are several other plant or plant products that have been reported to have the potential to repel snakes. The potential is either due to their scents or their morphology.

Plant products like ginger, garlic, onions, etc are known to have strong smells and have been implicated in many literatures to have the potential to repel snakes. Still, there are no experimental tests to support these assertions.

Plants with thorns or leaves with sharp edges have also been reported to be enemies of snakes. The thorn or sharp leaf edges prick the snake's skin whenever there is contact and this tends to make the reptiles move as far away as possible from such plants.

Use of chemicals

The use of chemicals may seem like the most obvious and easiest solution to keep away snakes. However, as someone who cares for biodiversity and the environment, the practice raises some concerns.

I really do not know how selective the commercially available chemicals are. Most chemicals affect organisms that are not the primary target. They also have the capacity to persist in the environment and get into food chains/webs.

Thus, the chemicals end up bioaccumulating in the body of higher animals. I really would not like my hatred for snakes to take away a few years from my life expectancy :).

Biological Control

Snakes can also be taken care of biologically by making use of their natural predators. The realistic natural predator in my own case would be chickens/hens.

Free-roaming chickens or hens are capable of killing snakes, provided they are not of considerable side. The reverse may be the case if the chickens are kept in a cage.

I have witnessed a couple of events where chickens locked up in cages end up losing their lives to snake bites. Once snakes are able to find their way into the cage, the restricted movement of the chickens makes them susceptible.

My best approach

As an environmental activist, the use of chemicals is out of the equation for me. Also, unproven methods of getting rid of snakes may come as mere experiments and if they fail, the consequences may be too costly for me.

Thus, I am left with scientifically plausible, but not necessarily proven methods. In other words, planting plant species with thorns and or sharp-edged leaves in combination with rearing chickens would be my best bet.

Local chickens are generally stronger than genetically modified breeds. So, here comes my local chickens in a couple of months.

What do you think?

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Lo mejor es no molestarlas y dejarlas seguir su camino. Si se reconocen como culebras cazadoras hay que protegerlas. Si son venenosas no irritarlas a menos que estén en un área o entorno cercano a nuestra familia.

Tienes razón. Pero los errores ocurren a veces. Especialmente donde hay niños.

I would start by reducing the food source for the snakes. If the snakes eat rodents, I would start with rodent control.

The snakes where I live like dense vegetation. So, cleaning out bushes and mowing areas near the house might help reduce both the rodent population and the snake population.

Unfortunately, I believe that proper snake control starts by learning about the local snakes.

Here is an article about cats and snakes.

!hivebits

Thank you. I also know about reducing things that tend to bring snakes, such as rodents and dense vegetation. I will definitely put those in mind while trying to keep away snakes.

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Fowls and thorny plants are really great options. Go for it.

How about the option of poisoning these snakes? Are there no foods or stuffs that can be poisoned and kept around for these snakes to eat and die?

As an advocate of conservation of biodiversity, I don't want to take the option of killing them off. That is why I don't want to go the chemical route. Of course, there are chemicals that can be used to get rid of them once and for all.

Okay,I thought the major reason for not going the chemical route was the other harmful effects chemicals might have on the soil or other innocent creatures. Alright, I understand now.

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if you use a native species, there is nothing wrong with biological control! thanks for sharing the experience! What snake species do you get there?
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I sincerely don't know the species. Can you identify the species if you see one? What about the one in the image above?

I am not a snake specialist! lol but also it is good to have a head picture to help!
here is a list to help u maybe ! https://informationngr.com/10-most-dangerous-snakes-in-nigeria/

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Having rattlesnakes in my environment as I was growing up, sometimes the old methods are the best methods.

You are forgetting the most natural eradication method ever. Pigs..

That's right pigs actually can be taught to hunt snakes and in the far majority of times the toughness of their skin repels snakes. They definitely will hunt track kill and eat snakes.

I'm not sure what kind of snakes are in your area and if this will work however it is definitely worth a try.

My grandfather told me tails of the local farmers getting together and putting all of their pigs into one herd and then running them through certain valleys to clean out the overabundance of snakes.

Absolutely you want to make sure that there are no venomous snakes in your area and where are you from as well as which snakes are the problems?

I cannot distinguish the venomousness or otherwise of these snakes. Also, rearing pigs is out of the equation for me, I simply detest them.

It is interesting to know that pigs can be used to get rid of snakes though. I will read more about it. Thanks for calling my attention to it!

Interesting question...

  1. Killing off snakes in the surrounding
  2. Put a barrier in place that will not allow snakes to get anywhere close to the surroundings of the house.

I would go with the second option, as with the first one there is no guarantee that snakes won’t come back.

The use of chemicals may seem like the most obvious and easiest solution to keep away snakes. However, as someone who cares for biodiversity and the environment, the practice raises some concerns.

Personally (although I am not directly concerned) I would also avoid this. You have young kids, and they may start touching the traps, the repellant, etc.

Thus, I am left with scientifically plausible, but not necessarily proven methods. In other words, planting plant species with thorns and or sharp-edged leaves in combination with rearing chickens would be my best bet.

I agree! I am glad to see that my naive idea about what to do is yours too! :)

The littlest of things we can do to conserve biodiversities and the environment at large. Thanks for the dissection :)

Totally true!