How To Get Rid Of Copperhead Snakes
#1. Are Copperhead Snakes Venomous? How To Identify A Copperhead Snake
#2. Bring A Friend
#3. Make Homemade Snake Repellent
#4. Get Rid of Food Sources
#5. Maintain Your Yard
#6. Remove The Hiding Places
#7. Do Mothballs Really Work?
#8. How To Snake-Proof Your Home
Conclusion
#1. Are Copperhead Snakes Venomous? How To Identify A Copperhead Snake
Photo by Ed Dunens (Flickr.com)
Copperhead snakes are the most misidentified snakes in the southern hemisphere. These snakes are born in the late spring to early summer and like warm, dry to humid weather. Adult female snakes give birth to nearly twelve snakes at a time.
Each offspring is anywhere from six inches to a foot long. Some of the most identifiable attributes to a copperhead snake are the brightly colored tips of the snakes tail, as well as the light auburn color beneath darker brown stripes.
Copperhead snakes can reach up to four to five feet in length. Copperheads will bite when they’re spooked or startled and don’t mind the company of other snakes. This means, be very cautious as you prepare your garden in the spring and summer.
You may step on a copperhead snake and if you are bitten, be sure to immediately seek medical attention. You may risk amputation of a finger, toe or even a hand or foot if you are unable to receive anti-venom from a medical professional right away.
#2. Bring A Friend
If you can, call a professional to get rid of copperhead snakes if you spot one in your yard. Seventy five percent of bites happen while homeowners are attempting to kill the snake themselves. If you don’t know what you’re doing, trying to catch or kill the snake yourself is very dangerous and presents risks to your health and safety that aren’t worth it.
Read this tutorial carefully and make sure that you have a friend or family member nearby who is able to call for medical attention in case it is needed.
#3. Make Homemade Snake Repellent
Some of the most basic ingredients found around the house make great snake repellents. The only issue is that most snake repellents have to actually be sprayed directly onto the snake. Why? Snakes have moist porous skin and the mixture that you create needs to sink into their sponge-like epidermis.
You can make copperhead snake repellent using cinnamon oil, clove oil, and black pepper. Put these ingredients in a spray bottle. You only need about a quarter cup of each ingredient. Shake up your spray bottle and mix the ingredients.
You’ll then want to make sure that you have a friend or relative close by as you look for the copperhead snakes in your yard.
Do be careful not to step on one as they can and will bite you, sending you on a trip to the doctor.
#4. Get Rid of Food Sources
One of the best ways to make sure that copperhead snakes get out and stay out is to get rid of the food sources that these snakes love to eat. Food sources include rats, mice, and other small pests.
Copperhead snakes can even eat frogs, which may be the hardest to remove from your yard or garden during the springtime when showers are common. Though sometimes unsightly, installing a mesh or small gate around any water, moat or pond areas in your yard can help to keep frogs from coming into your backyard or garden.
These frogs will lure the copperhead snakes, so one way to keep them out is a fence about eighteen to twenty-five inches high. Install these fences around your property if possible as well. They’re effective for keeping copperhead and other snakes off your property.
#5. Maintain Your Yard
Always be sure to maintain your yard. Mow your lawn often, explore and manicure your garden often. This will help you to identify if and when a copperhead snakes hole or borough has formed in the dirt.
Copperhead snakes can share holes or boroughs with other snakes, so be careful when you do see a hole in your yard or garden. If you do see a hole in your yard, fill it as tightly and solidly as you can until its level with the rest of the ground near it.
If there are still reptiles or animals living inside the holes or boroughs that you find while you’re maintaining your property, take a few mothballs and toss them into the hole. Mothballs are poisonous for snakes and will repel them far from the hole. Come back to the hole in about thirty minutes and fill the hole with dirt.
#6. Remove The Hiding Places
Take a look at your garden or yard and imagine all the places that copperhead and other unwanted snakes will be nesting. Any tall grass, tall vegetation, logs, lumber, piles of wood or rocks will house the critters that snakes will eat.
Snakes will be around these areas in order to find the mice, rats and worms that snakes love. By removing these items, you’ll be able to be certain that snakes will not find your garden, yard and property to be a welcoming home. Hiding spots such as piles of rocks or logs is also another way that snakes will not be welcome.
#7. Do Mothballs Really Work?
Mothballs are often recommended in removing snakes and especially venomous copperhead snakes. Mothballs dry out the moist, porous skin of snakes. Using mothballs not only repels them, it also makes them not return to the location of the mothballs. Naphthalene is the main component of mothballs. This substance is toxic for snakes and emits a fowl smell that reptiles find unfavorable.
A common trick is to mix your mothballs with kitty litter and spreading it across the bed of your garden. You’ll find that this rids your garden of not only snakes, but also worms and other unwanted critters that copperhead snakes love to eat. Any tall vegetation in your garden or piles of wood or lumber should be placed far away from your home or buildings on your property that your family members and children will go near.
#8. How To Snake-Proof Your Home
First, seal up any areas that snakes may be able to slither through. This means basement windows, screen doors, or areas close to the ground that are open such as vents.
Be sure that these areas are closed so that snakes are not able to enter your home.
Secondly, sometimes you may need to remove a snake from your home yourself. Make sure that you’re not alone. If you’re bitten or hurt, make sure that you have someone with you who is able to alert a medical professional immediately or drive you to the hospital.
Set up traps in your home or call a professional. A professional has all of the tools and skills needed to effectively catch a snake and make sure that all of the sources that allowed the snake to favor your home are eliminated as well.
Lastly, make sure that any food that you leave out is stored away safely. This means dog or cat food. Be sure that animal food is stored in a closed area that is not accessible to outside critters or reptiles. Removing food sources of reptiles and copperhead snakes forces them to leave that area.
Sometimes, actually removing the food sources for these pests will solve your snake problem entirely. Copperhead snakes are always on the hunt for its next meal. This being the case, securing animal food and getting rid of the mice, rats or frogs in your yard and garden is the surest way of getting rid of copperhead snakes.
Conclusion
Copperhead snakes are venomous and highly dangerous. They are easily mistaken for other nonvenomous snakes, so take precaution even if you are not sure if it’s a copperhead or not. Make sure that you have a friend or family member close by while you are trapping a copperhead snake or getting rid of the hiding places in which critters and snakes hunt or hide.
Did you love this tutorial? Comment below with your questions or experiences with copperhead snakes and other pesky snakes that you’ve found around your home or garden.
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