Snakes in woodpile

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

I have plenty of black snakes living in several of my piles. I love it as they take care of all the little mice like creatures. They also prey on copperheads. It is illegal in the Commonwealth of Virginia to kill a snake, venomous or non-venomous so, even if you do encounter them, you have to just let them go about their business.

 

[FTG-05]

Well the snakes are out around here today! Got just into the very low 60's and found this little guy right next to my neighbor's house. We actually were standing there for about 2 minutes before I noticed it about 5' away.





Of course, we left it alone! Harmless, except to little mice and rats and whatnot.

 

[Oldman47]

Cute little guy and better than your cat at keeping mice away from your stacks.

 

[mass_burner]

I've seen some nests, jumbled mass of sticks, twigs, etc in the stacks of my covered shed. I'm assuming they are mice nests. Is it too cold for garter snakes now?

 

[FTG-05]

Cute little guy and better than your cat at keeping mice away from your stacks.

Not even close.

First, it wasn't in my stacks, it was about a quarter mile away right next to my neighbor's house.

Unless he just ate a mouse, he hasn't had one since probably Sept or Oct., if then. Who knows how many my shop cats have eaten and/or killed in that time.

He eats one mouse, and he's pretty much done for the week, maybe five days at most, before he needs to eat again. How many would my shop cats eat/kill in that 5-7 days?

Cats are far better mousers than any snake. They have intelligence, which leads to the "thrill of the kill", something a reptile would never have. And that's why cats will always be a better mice/rat killer than any snake or reptile.

 

[beatlefan]

Has anyone had much of a problem with snakes setting up shop in their woodpile? We live in western NC where copperheads are common and I usually kill a few each summer that get too close to the house. I have two dogs and one of them has been bit twice by copperheads and I'm not keen on getting bit myself. I generally do not like killing things if it can be avoided, but I think poisonous snakes near the house are just too big a threat to leave alone.

I've often thought that the woodpiles are likely places where such snakes would find as a good home, but until this past week I never actually encountered any in them. Last week I picked up a nice piece of an oak limb in the woods on the way home from a morning hike with our dogs, so I carried it home to throw on my woodpile. As I was sliding it into an opening I saw a copperhead buried in between some splits with his head just poking out. It was about six inches from where my hand was! I tried shoving a piece of pipe in between the splits to get him, but he disappeared in a flash. A few days later we finally had some sun, so I decided to flit off the tarp covered piece of plywood I have on the end stack that doesn't have a permanent roof over it. When I did, the copperhead was lying right on top of the wood. He slowly slithered into the stack before I could do anything. I went back about a half hour later with a hoe, my weapon of choice for snake killing, and he was back sunning himself. I was able to get a clean whack at him and dispatch him.

We get copperheads around here. Best way I've found to keep them out of the wood pile is snake repellent, available at just about any hardware store. And when I see a poisonous snake on my property, I kill it...period.

 

[Jeffm1]

I'm not keen on poisoning mammals in their natural environment. Too many other animals eat them. Insects and weeds are a different story.

I don't consider disease carrying vermin in MY wood pile or shed to be their environment. That's MY environment. And if they or what they carry can harm me or my children in OUR environment then death by any means necessary will come upon them swiftly and severely. That's the way it is. Like it or not. And if someone doesn't like that then TS.

 

[mass_burner]

I don't consider disease carrying vermin in MY wood pile or shed to be their environment. That's MY environment. And if they or what they carry can harm me or my children in OUR environment then death by any means necessary will come upon them swiftly and severely. That's the way it is. Like it or not. And if someone doesn't like that then TS.

That sounds familiar.

 

[billb3]

except for small birds looking for bugs I've never found any animals in my stacks.
Little stashes of seeds here and there. Mice or chipmunks.
We have black racers. I've only found them soaking up the sun in the top of a trimmed yew up against the house. They are gone in a flash. Other than that we have lots of garter snakes, I'll find them in the garden looking for a meal. I let them be. And ring neck snakes.
Had a milk snake squeeze itself under the front door once poking around in the middle of the living room. Persuaded it outside pushing it with a broom. Never saw it again.

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

Tick tubes are cardboard tubes with permethrin cotton balls in them. The mice take the cotton for their nests and it kills ticks for a few months.

Soooo...if I soak cotton string in permethrin instead, I would get rid of the feral cats?

 

[pblormis]

A Few years back i was cut and splinting wood my wife was loading into the pickup when i hear her screaming I turn in time to see a piece of wood going one way and her the other, when i finely got her calm down she told me that she had seen a snake in a split i found the piece and it was a milk snake went and look at the next piece i had cut from that tree and found one more. needless to say i did all the rest of loading that day by myself. I still laugh about to this day.

 

[mass_burner]

I like snakes, I always catch a garter to pet when I see 'em. My daughter likes to see them too.