Whether you’re a residential or commercial property owner, it’s essential to take humane ways to remove a snake from your property. Of course, your safety should be a priority, so choosing a snake removal service that can handle such a unique situation is important.
Humane traps safely capture and remove unwanted snakes in your property. A professional snake removal service company practices effective habitat modification, preventing snakes from coming back. So, how do you humanely get rid of snakes in your yard?
In this post, you’ll learn why you should choose a humane snake removal service to get rid of unwelcome snakes in your property. You’ll also learn some helpful tips to prevent snakes from entering your property and things to do when you encounter a snake.
1. Comply with Animal Laws
With humane snake removal, you can comply with existing animal laws. Some of the federal animal protection laws include the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which was signed into an animal law in 1966, the Animal Welfare Act, and the Endangered Species Act, which was enacted in 1973.
Here are the good-to-know facts about different animal laws concerning snakes in the United States:
- Exotic Pet Snakes: Every state has a law when it comes to exotic pets. In some states, there are specific laws as to what animals are restricted and allowed as pets.
For instance, Delaware laws require permits for hybrids and wild animals, and possessing non-native poisonous snakes is illegal. Kansas laws consider snakes as dangerous animals and are not allowed to be kept as pets unless they’re in an approved facility, like a zoo or sanctuary. Permits are required for large constricting snakes and venomous snakes in Louisiana.
- Killing Snakes: The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 protect threatened and endangered snakes. Most states regulate designate snakes as non-game animals, snake hunting, and impose strict snake bag limits. It’s illegal to kill snake species, including Louisiana pine snakes, Indigo snakes, the eastern massasauga rattlesnake, Lake Erie watersnakes, and garter snake subspecies.
- Fine for Violating the Law: The maximum penalty for breaking ESA is $50,000, imprisonment for one year, or both. Maryland has the strictest laws when it comes to protecting snakes with higher fines and sentences.
A snake removal professional can help you safely and humanely remove snakes from your area, and you can find an expert snake removal specialist here. Humane snake removal is the best way to protect the snake without attempting to kill it because it’s illegal to do so. Also, you’ll likely get hurt if you remove the snake from your property by yourself.
2. Effective and Safe Snake Removal
For many property owners, unwanted snakes are a nuisance and safety hazards. But, you don’t have to deal with them on your own. Humane snake removal services are available to remove snakes onsite.
Snake professionals have special equipment and gear to catch, handle, and transport snakes to their natural habitat.
Here are some examples of humane snake removal traps:
- Snake Traps: A snake professional will set up snake traps where snakes and other reptiles have been regularly discovered.
- Box Snake Trap: It’s similar to a parcel box at the post office. But, it’s made of corrugated plastic, which works in humid weather and damp areas. It has a glue board to immobilize snakes (venomous and non-venomous) and keep them trapped inside the box. Scent triggers are also placed inside the box to attract snakes.
- Tube Snake Trap: It’s the box snake trap’s tube version with an adhesive applied inside to trap and immobilize the snake. It has a perpendicular design so the snake can enter either one of the three ends with a size and shape that create a suitable snake habitat while waiting for their prey.
3. Effectively Prevent Snakes
If you don’t have any background knowledge about snakes, killing one will just make things worse. One thing you have to understand is that snakes, like rattlesnakes, take over a place and make it their habitat until they lack resources. That’s why killing one snake won’t cause the others to back out, but modifying their habitat will do the trick.
You can effectively prevent and get rid of snakes from coming back and forth your property using humane snake removal service. It’s given that you should trim foliage, remove weeds, mow grass, and remove debris, like tree branches, firewood, rock piles, bricks, and woodpiles from the ground to avoid snakes from residing your property.
A professional can help you set more sophisticated snake prevention structures, such as sealing and covering drain pipes, cracks, holes, crevices, and other possible entry points of snakes.
Here are the other services that a humane snake removal service can provide:
- Property Inspection: A humane snake removal service will check if your property warrants the use of a more sophisticated method of trapping snakes and the use of rodenticides for rodents to avoid attracting snakes waiting for their rodent prey inside your property.
- Set Rodenticide Traps: Snakes love rodents for dinner. So, hiring a professional will ensure that rodenticide traps are out of children and pets’ access.
- Install Snake Fencing Barriers: The best snake physical barrier is a fence. It prevents unwanted snakes from entering your property, which will also avoid snake bites. Some of the materials used in building this fence include the galvanized mesh, concrete anchors, stakes, and screws.
The snake fence should be at least 36 inches tall. In this way, it prevents large snakes from entering and keeping their babies out.
4. Humane Snake Removal Service Is a Wildlife Controller
Venomous snakes present a considerable public safety risk, both in residential and commercial areas. The only professionals who can relocate venomous snakes are wildlife controllers who can relocate snakes using humane methods.
Snake removal services are wildlife controllers who are permitted to relocate snakes. They have a Wildlife Management Permit to remove venomous snakes from residential homes, backyards, and commercial establishments.
Here are good-to-know facts about snake removal service wildlife controllers:
- Licensing and Permit: Before given a permit, a snake removal service should have a specialist to keep and endorse venomous snakes. To become a wildlife controller, a snake removal service should have a secured facility for housing captured venomous snakes, hold a valid first aid certificate, training certification for handling and capturing venomous snakes, and security arrangements for transportation of venomous snakes.
- Responsibility: Wildlife controllers remove and capture venomous snakes when they become a threat to public safety. Also, wildlife controllers can remove other non-venomous snakes and reptiles that cause public concern.
5. Snakes Are Important
Maintaining biodiversity is crucial for all living things, including humans. Snakes play a vital role in keeping environmental balance.
It’s important to hire a snake removal professional for humane snake catching because killing snakes would disrupt the natural order of things. When snakes decrease in number, the animals they usually prey on multiply.
Here are the important benefits of snakes in maintaining biodiversity:
- Pest Control: The best natural pest control are snakes, and they play an integral role in reducing pests, including mice and rats that destroy crops and carry disease.
Many homeowners remove or kill harmless Brown Snakes and Carpet Pythons only to learn that they’ve gotten rid of their home’s best rat trap.
- Venom as Medicine: Snakes have venom that kills and also saves lives. Scientists study the medicinal properties of snake venoms. Certain snake venom show to have anti-tumor properties, antibacterial properties, and pain-relieving properties.
While hemotoxins that are present in snake venom target the body’s circulatory system, scientists use hemotoxins to produce medicines for treating blood disorders, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, brain injuries, and heart attack.
Snake Safety Tips: What to Do If You Encounter a Snake
Do you know what to do when you encounter a snake? Snake removal services are no stranger to snakes and most of the snakes that are seen in residential and commercial areas are not venomous. That’s why you need to have a game plan so you’ll ready if you encounter a snake.
Here are some snake safety tips when you encounter a snake:
- Stay Calm: The snake likely saw you before you saw it. The snake will release a warning sound or lay still if it has not retreated.
- Move Away: If you encounter a snake, you shouldn’t freeze in terror. Instead, move away from the snake. Never move closer, attempt to pick it, poke with a stick, or touch it.
Snake experts highly recommend retreating from a safe distance away from the snake but keep your eye on the snake. It’s a good idea to use your smartphone’s camera to get a quick shot picture of the snake to help the local snake removal company to identify the species of the snake. The Gray Ratsnake (Black Ratsnake) and rattlesnakes are commonly confused snakes, in which Gray Ratsnakes shake their tail to mimic the rattlesnakes’ warning sound they usually make.
- Know the Difference: It’s important to determine if the snake is venomous or non-venomous. The easiest method to tell is to look at the snake’s eyes using your smartphone’s camera zoom.
Venomous snakes have elliptical pupils while non-venomous snakes have round pupils, with the exemption of coral snakes that are venomous but with round pupils. The other telltale signs of a poisonous snake include fatter bodies with a triangular-shaped and wide head.
Tips to Keep Away Snakes From Entering Your Property
If you reside in a place where snakes are frequently seen, chances are, you’ve walked out into your backyard and found a snake at some point. It’s a fact that many people have a fear of snakes, and finding a snake in your backyard can freak you out. So, how do you keep snakes away from your property?
Here are some tips and tricks to keep snakes away from your home or commercial establishment:
- Contact a Snake Removal Service: Make sure to contact a snake removal service if you saw a snake in your property. If it’s a garden snake or non-poisonous snake, you can easily drive it away by reaching for a water hose. Spray it until the snake slithers away.
- Make a DIY Snake Repellent: You can keep snakes away from your yard with ammonia because snakes hate the scent and deter it from entering your house.
You can soak rags or unused cloth in ammonia. Place inside unsealed plastic bags and leave the plastic bags on areas you usually see the snakes so they won’t return.
- Keep Snakes Away from the Pool: Pour vinegar around the pool’s perimeter to keep snakes and other pests. The skin of the snakes absorbs liquids and will not slither over the vinegar.
- Show Human Presence: As much as you hate snakes, they also don’t want to live with humans. So, one way to keep snakes away is to show human presence.
Save your cut hair from your comb and sprinkle it in your property, like in your yard. Snakes will smell your hair and move away.
- Take Advantage of A Snake’s Strong Sense of Smell: Snakes rely on their unique sense of smell because of their “Jacobson’s organ.” It makes them sensitive to the scent of cinnamon, clove essential oils, and other strong odors.
- Inspect Your Home: Pay special attention under doors and check for any gaps. Seal visible holes by using weather stripping. It’ll prevent the escape of cool air. Make sure that there are no cracks in your house’s foundation. If there are cracks, seal it immediately.
Conclusion
Now you’re more knowledgeable when it comes to preventing snakes from entering your property, the importance of snakes in biodiversity, and how to react and act if you encounter a snake. With this information in mind, you realize that snakes are also important and snake removal services that use humane methods are highly recommended than killing snakes.
By using humane snake removal service, you’re assured that snakes are not just removed, but snake issues are prevented. You don’t want snakes to keep entering your property. A snake professional can install a snake fence barrier and provide expert advice to prevent this from happening. Of course, the humane way of removing snakes by hiring an expert is safer and legal.
