Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend at my work was wondering about some snakes that were in his lake. They are under his dock and his little girl goes swimming there, so he wants to get rid of them without harming them. Is there something snakes dont like that he could put under his dock?? any info would be great thanks!

I know I'm going to come off as a real jerk here. But maybe she should stick to swimming in a pool. If they don't like what's in the lake, don't go in the lake. *shrug*
I would have been incredibly bored when I was a kid if my parents removed all of the snakes and spiders, and "undesirables" from wherever I happened to be playing.

To answer your question: I can't think of anything you could put down there to scare them out. There's a reason why they're there. Probably because it's dark and secluded. Maybe you can open it up some so more light gets in. Maybe trim the bushes around it or something.

But consider this: When they're under the dock, you know where the are. Scare them out and they could end up anywhere. If it's a cottonmouth for instance, I'd much rather have it under a dock than underneath my bare foot while I'm walking on shore.

You sound like an idiot to me.... His 6 year old daughter likes to go swimming off that dock and some advice would be nice instead of just insults because this guys not really my friend hes a hillbilly from my work and if i dont find a way to get rid of them then he will just sit out there and kill them (Me and him dont see eye to eye)... I DONT AGREE WITH IT THATS WHY IM TRYING TO FIND A PEACEFUL WAY TO GET THEM TO ANOTHER DOCK..... I was the same way when i was a kid i wouldnt have had as much fun eather but the point is his little girl wont and hes going to do something about it, so people like me and you shouldnt sit and waist time insulting eachother about it and just maybe give some good advice so no animals get hurt.

I told you I was going to come off like a jerk, so I was expecting a backlash like that. Wasn't expecting to be called an idiot . . . but if that's the kind of environment you want to promote on this forum, have at it. I'm not going to play along though.

I'll continue to hand out what I consider helpful advice, as I did after the first paragraph of my post. Hopefully it will be helpful in the future if someone else has a similar problem and reads through the entire post.

Where is this lake located? The right quarter of the state will do. The odds are that the snakes are nonvenomous water snakes, but without the location we can't say anything definite.

If you don't want to give the location, then go to the public library, find a good reptile field guide, and check to see whether your friend lives inside the range of the cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorous. If he's outside that range, then what he's got are nonvenomous water snakes, and he doesn't have to worry about them.

Paul Hollander

Ok, ill go to the library tomarrow... Thanks a lot!!

K, ill tell him to try and take some pictures of them. I believe he said the lake is in kentucky, but im not sure exactly where i will ask him on monday.

A couple of other possibilities:

If you can give us a pretty narrow idea of where your friend lives, maybe someone here can come by and relocate them or knows someone who could (although if there are a few he knows about there are probably more that he doesn't.)

If your friend has a digital camera (or you can loan him one) get a pic and post it here (or email it to me) and we can tell you whether they're worth worrying about.