Have you seen snakes in your yard or garden? If so, you may see them around wood piles. As wood piles are the best place for snakes to hide, they love to roam around them. But, how to keep snakes out of wood piles?
Wood piles are one of the favorite places for snakes to hibernate or hide. You can keep snakes away from them by storing your wood correctly, installing a fence around your yard, regularly cleaning, and making the area free from water or humidity.
Are you tired of snakes in your woodpiles? Are you looking for a way to ward off them? Here are some methods for removing snakes from wood piles that you can use with certainty.
Why Does a Snake Hide in Wood Piles?
Before moving towards the ways of getting rid of snakes from woodpiles, you must know the reasons for snakes in woodpiles. Snakes love to hide in wood piles for several reasons. Following are some of the reasons:
Reasons
- Wood piles frequently serve as a home for the favorite snacks of snakes, such as rats, mice, and other small rodents.
- The snakes may get their preferred foods more easily by concealing them in the firewood piles.
- Wood piles provide snakes with a warm, dark, humid atmosphere to live, hunt, and eat.
- Additionally, snakes can protect themselves from predators by hiding in wood piles.
Tips to Keep Snakes Out of the Wood Pile
According to the VetRecord journal, many people keep snakes as pets in Western societies, and only a few of them can identify the activities of their snakes. No matter; if you have pet snakes or others, you may see them in your yard.
If you see a snake in your woodpiles, you can keep them away by following the below tips.
Keep the Wood Off the Ground Using Cinder Blocks
Cinder blocks are one of the best ways to keep snakes away from wood piles. These blocks lift the wood 2 to 3 feet above the ground to prevent them from snakes, bugs, and rodents. Moreover, placing wood piles on cinder blocks keeps them dry by allowing the air to flow across the way of wood.
You can buy these blocks from a nearby market and make your wood rack to ward off snakes. To create a firewood rack, you must have three cinder blocks, a chainsaw, and landscape timbers. First, level the cinder blocks on the ground, then lay the landscape timbers across it. Now, you can place wood piles over this rack to protect them from animals.
Cover the Wood Pile with Plastic
Another way to prevent wood piles from snakes is to cover them with a plastic sheet. To anchor the plastic sheet to the wood piles, you can use twine or bungee cords to tie it down. As a result, snakes won’t be able to enter the wood piles from the side or top, and the wood will be shielded from other irritants.
Moreover, the benefits of using a plastic tarp are; it keeps the woods dry and maintains their nutrient requirements to keep them sound and alive.
Trim the Grass Around Wood Piles Regularly
Trimming the grass around woodpiles is another approach to ward off snakes from woodpiles. Since snakes always look for food and shelter, they find large grass as a hiding place. If the grass around your woodpiles is large, snakes find it attractive to hide and make their way to woodpiles easily.
Therefore, you should keep your grass short by regular trimming to make it snake-free and prevent its entry to woodpiles.
Remove Rodents and Insects
In addition to being a favorite place for snakes, woodpiles are a haven for insects and rodents. Since snakes eat rodents (rats or mice), bugs, and other insects, you should remove them from wood piles to keep away snakes.
You can set traps for tiny animals like mice and put insecticides on the wood to stop an insect infestation. As a result, the snakes won’t find the wood pile appealing as a habitat.
Install a Chain Link Fence
If a snake problem spreads beyond the heaps of wood, you can install a chain-link fence around the wood piles or your yard. In this way, snakes find it challenging to access the wood piles. Installing a chain link fence is a little challenging because almost every part is exclusive to this style of fence. Therefore, you should ask for help from an expert to install a chain link fence around your property.
Clean the Area Regularly
Snakes are attracted to wood piles because of warmth, darkness, and humidity. Keeping the area clean and free of waste and debris will keep the snakes out of wood piles. Moreover, you can make the surroundings less enticing to snakes by trimming bushes & grass clippings and removing other trash around the wood piles.
Above all, keeping the area around the wood pile hygienic will also aid in preventing other pests, such as rats or mice, which attract snakes.
Use Natural Snake Repellents
Various snake repellents are available in the market, but you can get the same effects by using natural repellents. These repellents include peppermint, cedar, eucalyptus oil, etc. Furthermore, in addition to keeping snakes away, these repellents aid in getting rid of rodents, insects, and other animals.
You can use these natural oils by sprinkling them directly around the area of wood piles so that snakes will not dare to roam around them.
Use a Chicken Wire
Chicken wire is used to make snake fences. Snake fences are physical walls you can construct around your wood piles to prevent snake entrance. In addition to stopping snake entrance in wood piles, such fences help spot the presence of snakes.
For snakes to be unable to climb over or under the fencing, you must bury a fence at least six inches below the surface and six inches above it.
Keep the Woodpiles Dry
Another way to keep snakes out of wood piles is to keep them dry. Since snakes prefer dry environments, you should keep the woodpile as dry as you can. You can protect the wood piles from rodents or keep them dry by storing them under cover or utilizing a plastic tarp.
Furthermore, if there is standing water around the wood piles, you should wipe it as soon as possible to maintain humidity. Additionally, storing the wood off the ground increases the drying process of wood piles.
Store the Woodpiles Away from Your House
Storing wood away from your house will keep the snakes away. And it is one of the best ways to keep your wood piles away from debris. As a result, snakes will keep them out of the wood piles and, ultimately, your house.
Although a change in temperature makes you store wood inside your home, it also invites snakes and rodents inside. Therefore, you must keep wood piles away from the periphery of your home or property.
Rotate the Wood Frequently
This tip works like magic to deter snakes from wood piles. When you want to use wood out of wood piles, grasp a stack of logs from the bottom instead of always going for the highest one. Although it will require effort, doing this keeps the wood from rotting and drawing pests, snakes, and rodents.
Sometimes you may keep adding wood to the large pile of wood. Do you know; it provides the snakes with ideal habitat? Therefore, you should rotate the logs frequently to keep them snakes-free.
Remove Any Source of Food Around the Woods
As snakes are always looking for food and shelter, if there is direct access to food around the wood piles, they” ll never stop infesting them. Therefore, you should remove all the potential food supply like waste & debris, bushes, and rotten leaves around the wood.
If snakes accidentally roam around wood piles and don’t find any food supply, they” ll move somewhere else and keep your wood safe and protected.
Seal Any Holes
Cracks and gaps in the walls and grounds provide snakes with great shelter. Thus, you should look for little cracks or crevices around the base of your home where snakes and other smaller reptiles could slither in and begin constructing homes for their families. Moreover, pay attention to gaps under doors or other structures.
Snakes can erect their home whenever there is a space between a wall and the base of the ground. And if you place wood piles in such places, snakes will likely attack them. Therefore, you should seal all the cracks and holes to ward off snakes.
Grow Snake-Repelling Plants
One of the top ways to keep snakes away from wood piles is to grow snake-repelling plants like geraniums, eucalyptus, and cedar in your yard or garden. According to the journal UpSpace Institutional Repository, most people in South Africa use geranium plants as a home remedy for snakes.
Growing such plants around the wood piles will repel snakes. Therefore, you must plant these trees in your yard to prevent the wood piles from snakes and other pests.
Final Thoughts
Snakes are one of the most challenging animals to deal with. Once they make their way to something, it becomes hard to remove them. Wood piles are their favorite place to hide because it gives them warmth, shelter, food, and water.
To prevent your wood piles from snakes, you should store them off the ground, cover them with a plastic sheet, clean the area & trim your trees regularly, etc. Hopefully, these tricks help you in keeping snakes out of wood piles.
As a final word of advice, if you come across a snake close to your wood piles, the best action is to leave it alone and let it go.