Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please don't blast me here... I have a ball python and and getting advice on dealing with a yard snake issue. I have a fenced in yard with 2 dogs. One came in last night with a swollen jaw and you could see two puncture marks. I live in GA so there are only a couple I can think of that would be the culprit. I am sure the dog instigated something and hopefully learned his lesson but I need see if there is an alternative to going out there and trying to eliminate the problem if we seem to have any more. The bite marks were close together and the first thought that went through my mind was a nest of something. Since I also have kids (older but not always the most observent) I want to do what i can without just going out and declaring an all out war on anything slithering out there (with fangs).
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

0-1-0 Rescued Ball Python - Athena (formerly Apep)
0-0-1 Rescued Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
2-3-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Vader, Bastet, Isis, Angel
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

This is the time of year for snake activity. Cooler temps and getting those last meals before the winter sleep.

Removing potential hiding places and food sources (typically rodents) will help a lot.

Quite often the snakes are in search of food or water and just happen to cross paths with pets or people while cutting through a yard to their destination.

Snake fencing your perimeter fence can help with this.
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Tim Cole
www.austinherpsociety.org
www.AustinReptileExpo.com/
www.AustinReptileService.net
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Conservation through Education

Tims advice about keeping the yeard clean and not having food in bird feeders and such spilt on teh ground is probably most important. Waging war on them does not help at all, in many cases it can actually increase your numbers. Rattlesnakes have territories that they compete for and protect although usually a certain number of males will have overlaps an tolerate each other within these. When you kill a snake you open a territory and you get a number of youngsters coming in to try and fill that gap. It's best to let your current population become your barrier.

Rattlesnakes have good memories and often will not return to places they have been captured or unduly harassed. Now if you catch a snake in one side of your yard and relocated it outside your property, you may find it again on the other side of the yeard, but after a time or two, they often learn to circumvent the property entirely. There have been a number of relocation studies in which atrox and horridus learn to completely circumvent campgrounds where they have been captured. It has worked for my mom, she has atrox, scutes,cerastes and occasional tigris and molossus on her property. She used to kill a couple of snakes a week (she knows my stance on this but she has horses and dogs so she was always afaid for them). I bought her some tongs about ten years ago and taught her to relocate the snakes to the outside of the property. It is working well, she no finds only one or two rattlesnakes a year within the fenced area of the property and barn. The population around the property is still normal. Her neighbors are so impressed they have gone out and bought tongs to just move the snakes. Good luck, hope you don't have to resort to anything drastic,

cheers,

Rich

Just one thing I thought I would add, although my dad was a hunter / fisherman and quite the naturalist, he usually killed the rattlesnakes in the yard (elswhere he let them be). When we were small he actually made a point of always making us come see any snakes that were found and to walk around and look at them from all angles. This developed our eye for spotting them and avoiding accidental bites, and is probbaly what led to my love of them. I would often find an atrox in the yard and never tell him. I would just sit and watch it and check around the next day to see if it was still around etc.

We did have dogs get bit, they were always the instigators. We had one that continued the activity, a yellow lab that just loved rattlesankes and walked around carrying them gently in his mouth (he was pretty much immune after his first bite, definitely immune after subsequent bites), the others learned not to mess with them after the first bite.

To this day I still tell people to make a point of taking a few minutes to just look at the snakes from all angels and to have kids do the same to develope that eye for them. I think it makes a world of difference.

Rich

I didn't find anything outside and the dog is not exactly the smartest so hopefully he won't cross paths again. I completely forgot about the territory aspect... we had a couple of black snakes outside our old house and never saw much else. And the dog was inside or on a leash so we didn't have run-ins. Thanks for the help! The only slaughter I did this weekend was killing Zombies... Lots of Zombies (Dead Island for X360)!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

0-1-0 Rescued Ball Python - Athena (formerly Apep)
0-0-1 Rescued Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
2-3-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Vader, Bastet, Isis, Angel
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids