5 Ways To Keep Water Snakes Away From Dock

Just when you thought you’d had enough with snakes on land, there comes one (or more) slithering towards you on water. Well, if the sight of snakes fills you with fear, then you better act quickly before these critters make your side of the docks their new home.

But the problem is, how do you keep water snakes away from the dock?

Let’s get into the details of the ways you can keep water snakes at bay and some points on why it’s not a good idea to outright kill water snakes.

How To Keep Water Snakes Away

Here are 5 ways you can prevent water snakes from invading your side of the dock.

1. Lay Snake Traps

The most common and safe method to deal with all sorts of pests is to lay traps. The same goes for water snakes, as they too can become troublesome when coming near your side of the waters.

The best way to go is to use minnow traps. These are designed in a way that they allow snakes to enter, but once they do, they cannot leave.

You can bait the water snakes in by putting actual minnows, frogs, or fresh chicken eggs cause snakes love fresh eggs.

However, once the snake is caught, make sure to call handle the trap safely and release the snake a few miles away from your dock. Or call a local water snake specialist to handle the critter.

2. Use Fine Mesh Snake Fence

You can also lay a fine mesh snake fence near your side of the dock to keep the water snakes from entering.

The problem here is that you can only go so deep with the mesh fence. If there is any food source near the dock, water snakes may take a deep dive and go under the fence to reach their prey.

However, most of the time, if water snakes can’t find a straight path to the dock, they’ll quit and move in another direction.

3. Using Natural Snake Repellents

There are numerous snake repellents available at your local gardening shop. You can ask them to give you products that repel water snakes, specifically the local species of water snakes.

Some DIY repellents include:

• Trying essential oils like clove, cinnamon, or peppermint oil.
• Spraying snake predator urine like mongoose, minks, badgers, or foxes.
• Spreading moth balls.

Essential oils and mothballs can disturb the sensory systems of the water snakes, causing them to go into disarray and go back from where they came.

The predator urine can be purchased online and sprayed along the dock to deter the water snakes from coming too close.

4. Keep Your Dock Clean

It’s safe to say that if your dock is full of debris and floating trash, it’s a safe haven for water snakes to come and rest.

Water snakes are sneaky, just like their land-based snake cousins so they like to hide in piles of debris accumulated alongside the docks.

Cleaning all the mess up regularly while also trimming down any shrubbery will keep the water snakes from coming close to bask or rest.

5. Call Professional Snake Control

If the above methods fail, the only sensible thing to do is to call in your local snake control service. They will know how to deal with water snakes and carry out the best methods to relocate them or scare them away for good.

Why Not Kill Water Snakes?

The number of snakes around the world is declining. You may think this is a good thing as it means fewer scary pests to deal with.

However, snakes are an essential part of the ecosystem. They play an important role in the sustainability of wildlife worldwide.

Here are 5 reasons why snakes are important:

1. Snakes keep disease-spreading pests like rodents and other reptiles under control.
2. Without snakes, some major pests will reproduce into uncontrollable population sizes.
3. By eating pests like mice and rats, snakes protect the native plant biodiversity.
4. Mammals, birds, and insects rely on plants that otherwise can be destroyed by small pest infestations.
5. Snakes are also prey for animals like hawks, weasels, mongooses, foxes, and other predators.

As you can see, every creature on this planet has its place in the natural order of things and should be dealt with as humanely as possible.

Summary

Know that snakes are just as much afraid of you as you are of them. So if you see a snake slithering on the dock, don’t panic.

Here are 5 ways you can keep water snakes away from the dock:

1. Laying snake traps.
2. Use fine mesh snake fence.
3. Using natural snake repellents.
4. Keep your dock clean.
5. Call professional snake control.

Remember, do not handle the water snake on your own. If everything fails, you can either learn to live with your cohabitant or call a professional snake control expert to handle the situation.