Just bought a new house right next to undeveloped land/pasture..whats the best thing to use to keep snakes out of my yard??

thanks for the help!!

Multiple outdoor cats.

Mowing

Concrete

If they want to get onto your property, they will. Cats might get a couple of them, or at least you'll know when one of them his been bitten.

Set it all on fiya!!

With undeveloped land comes mice and rats, I'd leave the snakes alone. If you see a snake in the yard it's most likely because there's a food source in the yard.

There isn't really something that is going to keep snakes away. The crap they sell at the box stores really doesn't work IMHO.

The best thing to do is 1) limit access of their food source (i.e. rodents) by not leaving food out, having a bird feeder (mice come for the seeds), controlling them if you have shed, etc. 2) Snakes like to hide; therefore, limit their hiding places. Exchange bushes in landscaping for a more open landscape; remove other potential hiding places.

That being said, I'd rather have snakes in my yard than mice or rats.

Get a mongoose or two.

Cairn Terrier. We have one. They will get rodents and snakes. They are quick.

[This message has been edited by 76Ag (edited 5/9/2013 7:16a).]

What zooguy said. Clean yard with little clutter. Limit potential food items for rodents.

What Robk and zooguy said.

And keep the cats indoors, they kill too many other things.

Have you even seen a snake yet? And if so, was it even venomous? Methinks you are finding something to worry about.

.410 #8s

The deer in my parents eat their flowers all the time so they they put down netting over the flowers. They caught more snakes than deterred deer.

So putting netting over your flower beds might work...

My parents decided that they would rather replace flowers than deal with a bunch of dead/half dead snakes.

I have a mutt that gets a few every summer in the backyard. She also gets raccoons, cats and rodents that get in the yard.

Harbor Freight Tools solar mole chasers. Have them around the house/yard and haven't seen a snake in three years.

Also, remove water sources, maybe put some mothballs around your house (probably more of an old-wives tale, but may keep food snakes are looking for away), seal any gaps or holes in house or ground (i.e. any nook or cranny a snake could hide in).

When we used to do reptile surveys, we'd use 1' metal flashing to direct the snakes into buckets we had put in the ground.. maybe use this idea along a fence?

Honestly, I'd be more worried over rodents than snakes.

What? Nobody suggested some guinea hens?