Snakes and No Dig Gardens

by Gayla
(Kansas City, KS)

We have a lot of snakes around here, how do you keep them out of the No Dig Gardens?


Doug says you don't. While snakes are not the favorite creatures of many folks, they are incredibly useful in your garden. Snakes chow down on more slugs (common in heavily mulched gardens) than you can believe. They love grasshoppers and all kinds of slow moving plant pests.

So - bottom line, snakes are good guys in the garden. They don't eat plants but they do eat the pests that eat plants.

They're welcome in my garden any time.

So while you don't like them - they are impossible to stop (you can't fence them etc) and they do good things.




Comments for
Snakes and No Dig Gardens

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Snakes
by: Evelyn

There is a liquid called "Snake Away" that will keep snakes out of you garden but you have to make sure that all the snakes are out before you use it....if there is just one snake in the garden you can trap that snake in. You put it around your garden and snakes will not cross over it. You can purchase this at Lowe's, Wal-Marts or most anywhere they have a garden center or on line. For on-line search for 'Snake Away'. Make sure all the snakes are out of your garden first.
Snakes
by: Evelyn

Barb I thought Mona Lisa Abbott up above had good advise about getting the snakes to leave when it is your turn in the garden. Noise....just take a metal pan and a wooden spoon out to the garden with you and give the pan some beatings while holding it on the ground. The noise I make with opening the gate and my dog barking makes my snakes run. Might just give it a try. Read Mona's advise up above.

Snakes
by: Evelyn

I have Mamma Snake have her little ones in our garage every year and after a while the little ones are every where in my garden. I have never seen Mamma but the little ones scatter and head for the garage when the gate is opened and I see them no more while I am in the garden. After the little ones get a certain size they leave and I haven't a clue about Mamma. I am scared to a near stroke of snakes but I have learned to live with them They are kind of like other varmints you don't bother them and they wont bather you. If you hear a rattle in your garden back off and then call your wild life extention for help. Thanks Doug for the insect/snakes information. I had no idea that those pest were doing me some good in my garden. I will look on them with a different attitude from now on.
Asking snakes to leave...
by: Mona Lisa Abbott

I've always been told to make some noise when you enter snake territory, and also snakes "hear" with vibrations to their tongue, so I think to make some verbal and physical commotion when entering their turf is good, using a stick ahead of you to poke around the ground, and I think usually its best to freeze if a rattler is within striking distance. Might be hard for you to do.
snakes etc
by: Doug

The deal is simple. Snakes don't respect fences or gardener's wishes. You can't keep them out of the garden if they want to go in there. Period.

I'm sorry you feel this way but nothing I can tell you from the snake's point of view. Many folks have a phobia about snakes. It's only justified if you live in a tropical country that's full of poisonous snakes (and then it's not a phobia, it's caution.) :-)
Snakes and No Dig Gardens
by: Barbwire59

Well Doug, that's all great and wonderful that snakes are actually "good" for something, but this visually impaired gardener would prefer the snakes vacate the premises when I want access to the garden. So how do I politely ask them to leave for a bit?

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