Mar 13, 2020 | DIY, DIY Wildlife Prevention, Wildlife
If you live in an area where snakes are common, chances are you may stumble across one at some point. Snakes, like any other pest, are usually in search of three things: food, water, and shelter. Oftentimes the area around our homes provides all of these things that attract snakes.
The likelihood of a snake on your property depends on several factors, including location (north vs south), landscape (urban vs rural), a nearby water source (pond, lake, river), how well your lawn is landscaped and maintained, and how readily a food supply is available.
When dealing with snakes, it is important to identify the type of snake you are dealing with: venomous snakes should be left to a professional to eliminate while non-venomous snakes can often be deterred with natural snake repellent techniques. Here are 4 ways to keep snakes out of your yard:
1. Scare Them Off
One of the easiest ways to scare off a snake from your yard is to use your garden hose. Spray the snake with a steady stream from the hose until he slithers off. Consider installing a perch pole for hawks, owls, and other natural snake predators to alight on. Be sure to place it in an open area so the birds have a good view of your yard and the surrounding area.
2. Repel Them Away
There are some natural products and at-home techniques you can use for snake prevention. Ammonia is a common snake repellent. Snakes hate the smell of ammonia and won’t come near it. Soak rags in ammonia and place them in unsealed plastic bags. Leave the bags where you usually see snakes to keep them away.
You can also use vinegar to keep snakes and other pests out of your swimming pool. Pour white vinegar around the perimeter of the pool. Snakes can absorb the vinegar through their skin, so they will avoid slithering over it once it’s poured on the ground. Snakes also try to avoid humans at all costs. Save hair from your hairbrush and scatter it around the perimeter of your property to help keep snakes away.
3. Don’t Invite Them In
Snakes will come into your yard in search of food, water, and shelter. Eliminating these three basic necessities will make them much less likely to pay you a visit. Mow your grass often and keep it cut short. Shorter grass means more exposure to predators like hawks and coyotes and also makes them much easier for you to spot.
Avoid overwatering your lawn, as this can attract snake food sources like frogs, worms, and slugs. Keep trees, shrubs, and branches trimmed away from the sides of your house, the roof, and the ground. Try to keep a 24 to 36-inch space cleared under trees and shrubs, as this reduces the chance of snakes using them for cover and makes them easier to spot. Move bird feeders away from the house or get rid of them altogether.
Birds often leave seeds scattered underneath which attracts rodents that, in turn, attract snakes. Keep bird seed and pet food stored in metal cans with tight-fitting lids.
Make sure your woodpile is kept away from the home and elevated if possible. When designing your landscaping, try not to use mulch or large rocks, as these create breeding grounds and overwintering habitats for snakes. Instead, try to use smaller, tight-fitting rocks like gravel or river rock. Also, try to avoid using water features and Koi ponds as the water can also attract snakes.
4. Lock Them Out
Snakes can be very persistent pests, and keeping them out can be difficult. Carefully inspect the outside of your home and seal any cracks or crevices you find on the house, sidewalk, and foundations. Consider installing fencing around your yard, garden, or pool.
Fencing should be buried a few inches into the ground and constructed using 1/4″ rigid mesh or solid sheeting. Fencing should also include a bend at the top to prevent snakes from climbing up and over. There are some companies that even make wildlife-specific fencing.
The best way to prevent snakes is to take steps to keep them out in the first place. Dealing with snakes can be dangerous, depending on the type of snake you have. If you have a snake problem, contact animal control or a professional wildlife control company that can help safely trap, relocate, or remove the nuisance snake from your home.
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Oct 18, 2019 | Wildlife
Unlike many warm-blooded animals, snakes don’t actually hibernate in the winter. Instead, snakes go into a state known as brumation where snakes become less active and their metabolism slows down tremendously. Brumation is similar to hibernation in that snakes will sleep for long periods of time. They will, however, wake up to forage for food and water and if a sudden warm snap occurs and temperatures rise for a few days at a time. When the weather cools back down, they will go back into their brumation state once again. Brumation can begin anytime from September to December and last until March or April.
Because snakes are cold-blooded, they can’t regulate their body temperatures like warm-blooded animals can. When cold weather hits, snakes must find shelter from the temperatures by burrowing in holes or caves, under logs or rocks, in tree stumps, or by making their way into basements, crawlspaces, garages, barns, sheds, wood piles, and even car engines. Snakes are very quiet and experts at hiding so their presence often goes unnoticed until they are disturbed.
Now that you know where snakes might be hiding this winter, the next question is how to keep snakes away? Here are some tips on how to prevent snakes from hiding out on your property.
- Landscape Management: Rodents are attracted to tall grass and overgrown landscaping. By minimizing these unkempt areas on your property, rodent populations are reduced which, in turn, helps keep snakes who feed on these rodents away. Keep grass mowed and landscaping well maintained. Cut shrubbery regularly and trimmed away from your home and other buildings.
- Storage: Snakes will look for any area of cover that will protect them from the elements without being disturbed. They will often seek shelter in wood piles or other piles of debris on your property. Make sure that these stacks are kept at least 12″ off the ground and, if possible, stored in sealed containers.
- Wildlife Exclusion: Snakes can’t chew to create openings into your home so they take advantage of any openings that are already present, such as gaps near pipes, damaged window and door screens, open windows and doors, damaged soffits, crawlspaces that aren’t enclosed, and through cracks in the exterior of buildings. Carefully examine all of your property and seal any potential openings that snakes may utilize.
- Food Sources: Snakes are known to feed on rodents, lizards, and frogs. Eliminate these pests and you will help eliminate snakes. Get rid of any areas of standing water on your property. Keep landscaping well maintained to deter rodents. Inside your home, make sure to keep areas clean especially kitchens and pantries where spilled food and crumbs are readily available for rodents to feed on.
- Professional Service: Depending on the species, snake removal can be dangerous to undertake on your own. It is usually in your best interest to contact a professional wildlife control company when dealing with a snake issue. Establishing a regularly scheduled service plan can help identify pest risks before they become an issue. These professionals can also identify any areas where wildlife exclusion services may be beneficial and establish a comprehensive pest control program.
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Apr 26, 2019 | Pest Control, Wildlife
By Anna V., Editorial Lead — Pest Education · Last updated: April 2026
When a snake shows up in your yard or near the foundation, the instinct is almost always the same: go to Google and search for something to make it go away. Mothballs. Garlic. Essential oils. Ultrasonic stakes. At Northwest, we get asked about home remedies to keep snakes away almost every warm-weather day, and here’s the honest version most homeowners don’t hear: the vast majority of DIY snake remedies don’t work, and a few are actually illegal or dangerous. What does work is nearly always free, already in your toolshed, and takes a Saturday morning.
This guide walks through the most common home remedies for keeping snakes away, which ones have any real science behind them, which ones are outright myths, and what’s actually effective in a Georgia or Alabama yard. We’ll also cover where snakes go in cold weather (the question we get every fall) and how to quickly tell a harmless snake from one that needs a pro.
Why Snakes Come Into Residential Properties
Before you can keep snakes away, it helps to know why they showed up. Snakes don’t pick yards at random. They follow food, shelter, and water, in that order.
- Food: Rodents, frogs, lizards, and large insects. If you have a mouse problem in the crawl space or under the deck, you’ll eventually have a snake problem.
- Shelter: Wood piles, rock piles, thick mulch beds, tall grass, debris along the fence line, untrimmed shrubs touching the foundation.
- Water: Standing puddles, dripping outdoor faucets, leaky AC condensate lines, overwatered flower beds, low spots in the lawn.
- Easy access: Gaps around dryer vents, foundation cracks, torn crawl-space screens, missing weatherstripping on garage doors.
Remove those four things and snake activity drops fast, with or without a single bottle of repellent.
Common Home Remedies to Keep Snakes Away: What the Evidence Actually Says
Here’s how the most-searched home remedies stack up in the research and in the field.
Home remedies fall into three buckets: works, doesn’t work, and actively unsafe.
Mothballs
Mothballs are the single most common home remedy we hear about, and the single worst one. Their active ingredients (naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene) are registered pesticides with very specific label instructions that limit use to closed containers indoors for clothing moths. Scattering mothballs outdoors to keep snakes away is against federal label law per the EPA. They’re also toxic to pets, kids, and wildlife, and contaminate soil and groundwater. On top of all that, the research shows they don’t actually repel snakes. This is a “worse than useless” remedy: it creates real health risk while producing no benefit.
Ammonia-Soaked Rags
Ammonia is another scent-based remedy that circulates online. In practice, the vapor dissipates within a day, the first rain washes it out completely, and ammonia kills surrounding grass and plants. Snakes route around treated spots if anything, but don’t avoid the yard. Skip it.
Garlic, Onions, and Cinnamon Oil
These show up in almost every online list of home remedies for snakes. The idea is that strong botanical scents overwhelm a snake’s chemical-sensing system. The science is thin. Snakes navigate primarily via the Jacobson’s organ on the roof of their mouth, which processes airborne chemicals very differently than a mammal’s nose. A snake hunting a mouse isn’t going to be turned back by a border of onions. These remedies can provide a very short-term deterrent effect at best, and only at high concentrations close to the application point.
Essential Oil Sprays
Cedarwood, clove, peppermint, and cinnamon oil sprays are the “natural” version of a commercial snake repellent. At close range and high concentration, they may nudge a snake off a specific path for a few hours. They evaporate fast in summer heat, wash out with the first rain, and do nothing to address the reason the snake came. Use them as a short-term spot treatment if you’re so inclined, but never as a standalone plan.
Sulfur-Based Products
Granular sulfur products marketed as snake repellents have mixed evidence at best. Some studies suggest minor avoidance behavior; most show no meaningful effect. Sulfur can also irritate pets’ paws and contribute to an unpleasant smell around the yard. Not unsafe, but not reliable either.
Ultrasonic and Vibration Stakes
The marketing on these is aggressive, the research is not. Snakes don’t hear airborne sound the way mammals do. They sense low-frequency vibration through the ground. Solar-powered ultrasonic stakes emit sound waves that snakes mostly ignore. Independent testing has not shown a consistent repellent effect.
Fake Owl Decoys, Snake Decoys, and Rope Circles
Plastic owls might fool a few snakes for a week. Decoy king snakes might deter a copperhead momentarily. A rope laid in a circle around your tent (a long-running outdoor myth) does nothing. Snakes adapt fast to anything that doesn’t move. Skip.
What Actually Works to Keep Snakes Away
Almost without exception, the effective ways to keep snakes away are free. They’re not remedies, they’re habits.
- Habitat modification. Short grass, clear fence lines, no wood or rock piles within 20 feet of the house, mulch beds kept thin and tidy.
- Rodent control. Get mice under control and snake activity drops sharply. Snakes follow their food. Professional rodent control is the single highest-impact change most homes can make for long-term snake prevention.
- Exclusion. Seal every gap in the foundation, around utility penetrations, at crawl-space vents, and under garage side doors. Use ¼-inch galvanized hardware cloth. Expanding foam alone won’t hold up.
- Moisture control. Fix leaky faucets, redirect gutter runoff, don’t over-irrigate. Dry yards are less attractive to snakes and the prey they eat.
We covered the detailed seven-method playbook in our Snake Repellent: Natural & Effective Ways to Keep Snakes Away article. This post stays focused on the myth-busting side.
Snakes don’t leave for winter. They shelter in piles, burrows, and crawl spaces and emerge on warm days.
Where Do Snakes Go in Cold Weather?
One of the most common questions we get in October and November is whether snakes “leave for the winter” in Georgia and Alabama. They don’t, not exactly. Snakes are cold-blooded, so when temperatures drop they enter a state called brumation, which is similar to hibernation but not identical. They don’t sleep through winter; they slow way down and shelter in protected, insulated spots.
In the Southeast, those spots are often:
- Rock piles, wood piles, and dense leaf litter
- Abandoned rodent burrows (which is why a mouse problem in October becomes a snake problem in March)
- Crawl spaces and basement crevices, especially homes without sealed vents or where screen is torn
- Gaps under concrete porches, sheds, and slab additions
- Root balls, tree hollows, and stump cavities
Warm winter afternoons in the South will often bring snakes out briefly to bask, even in January. If you see a snake on a 65-degree February day, it hasn’t “woken up early.” It’s just thermoregulating. The bigger story is where it’s spending the rest of the season, because that shelter spot is almost certainly on or under your property.
What Kind of Snake Is That? A Quick Southeast Field Guide
Most snake sightings in Georgia and Alabama yards turn out to be non-venomous species. Knowing what you’re looking at dramatically changes how much action is needed.
- Eastern Rat Snake (Black Rat Snake), non-venomous. Long, black, strong climber. Often found in attics and shrubs hunting rodents. One of the best natural rodent controls you can have on a property.
- Black Racer, non-venomous. Slender, fast, solid jet-black. Harmless. Feeds on insects, lizards, and small rodents.
- Garter Snake, non-venomous. Small, striped, common near gardens, water features, and rock edges.
- Kingsnake, non-venomous. Black with pale bands. Notable because it actually eats venomous snakes. Leave it alone if you can.
- Copperhead, venomous. Tan body, dark hourglass banding. Hides in pine straw and leaf litter, which makes it the cause of most venomous bites in the Southeast. If you see one, back up and call.
- Cottonmouth / Water Moccasin, venomous. Thick-bodied, found in or near water. Will stand its ground rather than retreat. Call a pro.
- Timber Rattlesnake, venomous. Less common in suburban yards, more common in wooded lots, rural properties, and at elevation. Distinctive rattle, heavy body.
When in doubt, the UGA Extension guide to Snakes of Georgia is the best free identification resource for the region.
When Home Remedies Aren’t Enough
DIY approaches top out fast. Here’s when to stop experimenting and call a professional:
- You’ve confirmed or suspect a venomous species on the property.
- A snake has been inside the house, garage, crawl space, or attic. Inside means an entry point that needs finding and sealing, not a remedy.
- You’re seeing snakes repeatedly in the same spot. More than two sightings in the same part of the yard within a season means there’s harborage or a food source you haven’t found.
- There are kids, pets, or people with limited mobility on the property. The cost-benefit of a professional inspection shifts the moment safety tolerance drops.
(Not sure if it’s time to call? Request a free Northwest inspection and we’ll walk the yard with you, identify what you saw, and lay out what’s worth doing.)
Professional Snake Control & Prevention
Northwest’s wildlife team handles the full snake-control workflow: identification, safe and humane removal, sealing the entry points that let snakes in, and treating the underlying rodent or moisture issue that drew them in the first place. Most of what we do isn’t catching snakes. It’s removing the reason snakes keep showing up. That’s the difference between a one-time removal that repeats next season and a long-term solution.
Frequently Asked Questions About Keeping Snakes Away
Do snake repellents really work?
Most commercial and home-remedy snake repellents offer limited, short-term effects at best. The most reliable way to keep snakes away is removing what attracts them in the first place: rodents, hiding places, standing water, and gaps in the home’s perimeter.
What smells keep snakes away?
Snakes show some sensitivity to strong scents like cinnamon, clove, and cedarwood, but these smells don’t stop a snake tracking prey. Treat scent-based remedies as supplemental at best and never as a standalone plan.
Are snakes dangerous to pets?
Most snakes you’ll encounter in a Southeast yard are non-venomous and not a threat to pets. Copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes are the three venomous species most likely to injure a dog or cat. If your pet is bitten, assume venomous until proven otherwise and go straight to a vet.
Should I try to remove a snake myself?
No, not if you can’t confidently identify it as non-venomous, and not if it’s inside the home. Non-venomous snakes in the yard can usually be left alone or gently encouraged to move on by turning on a sprinkler. Anything else is a job for a pro.
Do mothballs really keep snakes away?
No. Mothballs are not an effective snake repellent and are illegal to use outdoors for that purpose under federal pesticide law. They’re also toxic to pets, kids, and the environment. Skip them entirely.
When home remedies stop working, it’s time to address the rodent or moisture issue feeding the problem.
Ready to Actually Keep Snakes Away?
If you’ve tried a home remedy or two and the snakes keep coming back, the problem isn’t the remedy. It’s the yard. Northwest has been solving snake problems in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina homes for over 70 years, and we solve them by addressing the cause, not just the sighting.
About the Author
Anna V., Editorial Lead — Pest Education leads pest education content for Northwest Exterminating, working with senior technicians and service center managers across our Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina service areas to translate field expertise into homeowner-friendly guides. The focus: accurate, regionally-specific answers to the pest questions Southeast homeowners are actually searching for.
Nov 21, 2018 | Pest Control
Fall is here! Football has started, bonfires are lit, and the weather is bringing more people outside. Though now is the time for all the Fall fun, you aren’t the only one enjoying this weather. Those snakes that slither through the tall grass and the woods of your backyard also appreciate this time of year! They can be intimidating creatures, but they also shouldn’t draw too much concern from the average person.
In Georgia it is illegal to kill certain snakes, punishable with fines of up to $1000 and/or up to one year in jail. This shouldn’t be an issue for most of us, however, because snakes want to avoid us just as much as we want to avoid them. Did you know that most snakes in Georgia are non-venomous with only six being venomous?
Let’s touch on these 6 venomous species of snakes and how you can tell which is which:
Eastern Coral Snake: This snake is easily recognized. You can tell them apart by the red and black segments on their body separated by yellow rings. Unlike the other snakes on this list, the coral snake has a rounded snout.
Copperhead: The copperhead usually has a light brown to gray skin color, but they can range from rusty orange to nearly black. You can recognize them easily by the 10 to 21 dark-brown hourglass-shaped crossbands on their body. Look out for their triangular shaped head, as well.
Timber Rattlesnake: They have background skin that can be a variety of different colors, ranging from shades of pink, yellow, gray, brown, or black. It has brown to black V-shaped bands down its body. It has a black tail with a rattle at the tip.
Pigmy Rattlesnake: They are usually gray or tan but can be reddish or black. The pattern on its body resembles blotches or spots that are dark in color. The tip of the tail has a rattle.
Cottonmouth: The cottonmouth has light brown or olive-colored skin with dark bands along their bodies. When they mature they may become very dark, obscuring the bands completely.
Eastern Diamond Rattlesnake: Its body is patterned with a row of diamond-like shapes that are dark brown in color. Each shape is outlined by a yellowish border. The tail has 3 to 10 brown and white bands and a rattle.
Before snakes go into hibernation, there’s a chance you might see one in your yard or while you’re out for a walk. In a situation like that, avoid the snake, and call your local pest control company to relocate it for you. And remember, it doesn’t want to hurt you, so don’t hurt them.
