Many farmers and property owners have complained a lot about seeing snakes hiding in their wood piles. Are you looking for ways to keep snakes out of your wood piles? Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered.
We have outlined five steps to follow in order to keep snakes out of your wood piles. Whether you’ve noticed snakes in or around your wood piles or you’re trying to prevent them from inhabiting your wood piles, these strategies and steps will help solve your problem.
Why do snakes hide in wood piles?
Before we list some of these strategies, it is very important to know why snakes find wood piles attractive in the first place.
Snakes are commonly found in wood piles because it provides them with shelter. i.e., it shelters them from the elements (sun, rain, and water) and provides a dry, warm, and dark environment to live, hunt, rest, eat, and nest in safety.
Apart from being a source of shelter, snakes find wood piles suitable because they also provide shelter for some of their prey. Common snake prey, like rats, mice, squirrels, and other rodents, love to live in woodpiles; these prey make the crevices and cracks of the woodpile their home. Because of this, snakes would usually come around in such areas in hopes of landing an easy meal.
5 strategies to keep snakes out of your wood piles
1) Remove food sources around the wood pile.
The first thing to do is to make sure that you remove all potential snake prey around your wood piles. The availability of food sources is one of the things that attracts snakes to an area.
Snakes have the ability to detect the scent of rats and mice, so if you have rodents around your wood piles, then there is a high chance that snakes will come around.
2) Keep the wood pile area clean.
It is important to keep the area around the wood piles clean. Make sure you clear the bushes and debris around the wood piles. Snakes can easily move through tall grasses to your wood piles. Clearing the grasses and debris around the wood piles makes it easy for you to spot them.
Additionally, maintaining a clean and neat environment prevents other pests, like rodents, which attract snakes, from inhabiting your surroundings.
2) Keep the wood piles off the ground.
Another way to prevent snakes from lodging in your wood piles is to keep them off the ground.
By keeping it above the ground, you make it difficult for snakes to easily crawl into it. Keeping your wood piles one or two feet off the ground would help.
You can do this with cinder blocks or a wooden rack. However, it doesn’t really matter what you use to elevate the wood piles; just make sure you don’t leave them laying at ground level.
3) Cover the wood piles.
The next thing you should do after elevating the wood piles off the ground is to cover them with a plastic tarp.
You can secure the tarp with a plastic tarp or any other strong rope. This will further secure the piles and prevent snakes from getting into the piles from the ground.
4) Use snake repellents.
You can also use snake repellents to prevent snakes from getting into your wood piles.
There are different products on the market that help to repel snakes. Some of these repellents work by using undesirable scents to chase snakes away, while others make use of ultrasonic sounds.
In the absence of industrially made repellents, you can also make use of natural repellents like mint, cedarwood, and eucalyptus essential oils, which have been proven to repel snakes and are also safe to use around people and pets.
However, you should remember that it might not be 100% effective, especially if used in areas with a large number of snakes.
5) Use a snake fence.
A snake fence is the most effective of all the strategies in this list. Although it might come at a higher financial cost. There is no way a snake can get across a well-installed snake fence.
A snake fence is a physical barrier that helps prevent snakes from getting into a particular area. Typical snake fences are made of materials like chicken wire and hardware cloth that are difficult for snakes to crawl through.
When installing snake fences, make sure that they are buried at least five inches below the ground and at least seven inches above it to prevent snakes from finding their way under or above it.
Final thoughts
Not all snakes are venomous; however, it is necessary to prevent them from coming into your wood piles, especially if you’re not familiar with the venomous snakes in your area.
Snakes do not seek to live with humans; if you see them close to your surroundings, then it means that they are just seeking shelter or food. They do not seek to harm us either; in fact, they usually avoid us altogether. However, they may bite in a sudden encounter.
Snakes are attracted to wood piles because they provide them with shelter and a good hunting ground.
If you’re seeking to prevent snakes from coming into your wood piles, we believe that the best way to achieve this is to build snake fences around them, however, if you feel this method may be expensive, you can use the combination of other strategies mentioned in this article.
These strategies should help you deal with the problem of snakes hiding in your wood piles.
