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Joined: Jul 2005
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My pond is new and about 1/2 acre and sits behind my house which is located "inside" the city limits. I noticed a snake in the pond today...I think it is a water moccassin. My wife is terrified of snakes, not that I'm fond of them myself. Since I'm not allowed to discharge a firearm inside city limits how can I get rid of the snake and is there anything I can do to try to discourage more snakes? Kids will be fishing all around the pond by this fall. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

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RLewis,

One possibility is a fish trap. I have caught snakes in them that have drowned trying to eat the fish in the traps.

Another possibility is to just bug them to death. Snakes don't like to be disturbed and by throwing rocks or whatever every time he shows his head above water, you may drive it off.

A 22 pistol loaded with bird shot does not make much noise or carry very far. Probably not advisable but if I were desparate...

Your city may have an animal control unit that would dispatch the snake, but unlikely.

As for prevention, harassment is the only thing I can think of to suggest.

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I have purchased some .22 ammo called the Super Calibri. It has no powder, is almost silent, and will shoot all the way through a coffeee can at 20 or so ft. I use them to shoot squirrels in town. No more noise than a pump up pellet gun. Their accuracy isn't up there with a shell having powder, but I suspect some of that is me.

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Rlewis,

Believe me, many more people are hurt trying to kill snakes or needlessly running away from them than by being bitten. Best thing to do is leave them alone. They are part of the ecosystem.

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During the first few months after digging my pond I had a snake in the pond about every other day. I harried them and harried them and I haven’t seen one in the pond in several months. They hid under everything. Gardening was a thrill a minute; I was lifting almost everything with a stick. I have since cleared almost all hiding spots and am careful with the areas that I could not clear.
Bobad is probably right about the accident ratio, but with a poisonous snake you only need to be wrong once. Your snake is probably not poisonous, but, with children involved, you might think about treating all snakes as you would a gun assume it's loaded, and teach your kids accordingly. I don’t know enough about them to be able to tell bad from good, even so, I try to urge them along rather than kill them. They really are an asset.


1/4 & 3/4 acre ponds. A thousand miles from no where and there is no place I want to be...
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You might want to take a good look at that snake if you think it is a moccasin. I have seen many snakes (30+) in my pond over the past 5 years and have never seen a water moccasin, but it is amazing how if anyone else who comes over sees a snake it is ALWAYS a water moccasin ;\)
I am not a snake fan at all and am very cautious about what type of snakes I see. In my case a non posinous snake can still cause a heart attack!


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I agree with bobad. The best thing to do is be careful and don't be foolish around ponds because there could always be a snake near it. Walk with your head down, use a walking stick in front of you and walk with heavy steps. The snake can't hear you, but it will fill your vibrations and try to escape the disturbance.

Try and learn to appreciate the animal. After all, one of the reasons people build ponds is to attract wildlife. Snakes are part of that wildlife and are actually rather entertaining to watch.

Get a book and understand what snakes you have and teach your kids about them. I find it wiser to teach kids to be careful and knowledgable about snakes, rather than training them to automatically react with a kill them mentallity.

If you do have poisonous snakes now, or in the future, then you would want to remove them. However, it is unlikely that's what you are seeing. It's very rare to come across a poisonous snake.

For ID purposes, poisonous snakes in the U.S. have cat like pupils in their eyes. They also have heat sensing pits in front of their eyes. Or, their coloring bands will tell you their poisonous. As for the mocassion, it will be rather short in comparison to its girth. They don't get very long, but they do get thick. When they swim, their entire body is on top of the water.

Like I suggested before, get a book and learn about them. It can be like birding, except you won't see near as many snakes as you do birds, which makes it more challenging and exciting.


0.6 acre pond / 13' max depth / Bonham, TX
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Here's another rule of thumb I've adopted:

If an animal spends more time in a location than I do, I consider that location the animal's home. Meaning, I'm just a guest there and I should not be overly intrusive.

On the other hand, if you are in a specific location more than a particular animal, it is likely you won't have to perform a removal. That animal, if smart, will be gone before you can take drastic measures.


0.6 acre pond / 13' max depth / Bonham, TX
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Jimmy, I understand and appreciate your thoughts. I feel the same way regarding nature in general. Nobody shoots anything for sport on my land.

However, in my pond, everything is there by my suffrage. I have Grandchildren around and no snakes are allowed unless they are green garden snakes. I just won't take a chance. I don't really mind the snakes but one that recently surprised me and caused a loss of a significant amount of dignity and a certain amount of skin. Damn, I hate that snake.

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Dave,

I understand the extra worry when kids are around. It doesn't make you very at ease when you send the grandchildren out to play and you're worried about snakes.

However, you can't guarantee that you've cleared your entire land of all snakes. Therefore, I find it more beneficial to teach caution and tolerance with most snakes. Give the kids some knowledge about these creatures and they'll learn to stir clear of them. After all, tolerance is a good lesson for any kid!

When I was a kid, I was often in areas where snakes were living. I never once got bitten. I think with a few lessons about safety, adults, kids AND snakes can co-exist with harm to anyone.

It's true some people will never feel this way. They'd prefer to destroy something they don't understand and have been taught to fear. That's unfortunate!


0.6 acre pond / 13' max depth / Bonham, TX
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I don't know if this works, but if you crush moth balls and spread them around your dock or where you walk. It contains the stuff that is in snake away they sell at home depot. I go to the dollar store and buy it buy the case. Be careful when you crush, I put in a burlap sack and run over it with my truck. Like I said, don't know if it works, but it makes my wife feel safe. I think 99% of snakes seen in my lake are just water snakes, that no more want any part of you, then you of them.
Bob

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RLewis Offline OP
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I really appreciate all the suggestions, you have all been a big help! I'll try to get a better look at it to see if I can make a positive I.D.

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Jimmy, I don't want to kill them all and know I can't. I don't even mess with rattlesnakes unless they are around the house or water. I take my Gkids to see them so they will understand. However, if they are where I/we spend a lot of time, there is no real upside to their presence. The potential for loss outweighs the possible gain.

I hope they spend a bunch of their life in the natural world and see snakes as part of it. I've only been bitten once but had some close calls. Only a couple of "mean" rattlers that have actually come after me. I stepped on the snake that bit me and it was defending itself. However, I don't personally know of anyone else who has even been bitten.

Of course, none of this matters. Wife says clobber the poisonous snakes around the house and ponds. Yes Ma'am.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Robinson:
Or, you could do like my little boy, and take a machete to it.
You know, I can imagine a rare situations where I would remove a poisonous snake. For example, if a cottonmouth were to become habituated to people, and I kept finding him close by my house. In that case, I would reluctantly remove the snake.

However, I would not even tell anyone I did it. I certainly would not brag about it, or let children make sport of it. If anyone kills any vertibrate on my land, they better be prepared to eat it.

I don't want to come off like a PITA. I'm not. I just root for the underdog. Snakes are the biggest underdog and must misunderstood critter I can think of.

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I agree with you yet again bobad. Bragging about one's power over a snake is not very impressive. It's pretty clear to all involved, snake and human, that the human is just slightly more dominate.

I'm also in total agreement about the needed action when faced with the extremely rare aggressive and poisonous snake. There's no question that such a snake posses a danger. As for those other snakes in the majority, they're harmless.

Even if a non-poisonous snake bit you, what would it do? It would inflict about the same amount of damage as barbed wire would if you rubbed up against it. Come on! We're country people. We should be tough enough for that!


0.6 acre pond / 13' max depth / Bonham, TX
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Yeah, but one of my best friends stands about 6'% and weighs in at maybe 375#...truck driver and all.

Man, I was rollin' onna porch laughin me arse off when he got bit by about the tiniest bull snake I've ever seen...and he was dancin' around and literally screamin' like a li'l girl!!!!!!!!!

5" snake hangin' onta his finger for dear life and him doin' a ballet! Thought he was going through the porch floor! Gawd...with a video Ida been rich!!!


In a lifetime, the average driver will honk 15,250 times. My wife figures I'm due to die any day now...



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Great story Matt! I have a pretty good one too.

My best friend and I were in high school at the time. We were searching for extra credit points from our biology teacher. Our biology teacher tells us that if we bring in a rat and feed a 10' boa that had been donated to the school, we'd get extra credit. We agreed and the two of us went in after baseball practice to feed the monster.

He comes out of his cage without much effort. We put the snake on the floor and put a barrier around him to keep him in place. We dropped dinner in with the snake and about 30 seconds into the introduction, WHAM! The boa has got the rat and is doing its thing. The snake works the rat into his mouth and begins to digest it.

We can't stay there all night and wait until the rat is at the snake's back end. So, we start negotiating the idea of picking it up and putting it back in the cage. This isn't something I'm as eager to do after seeing what the snake had just done to the rat! I don't know how I convinced my friend to be the head man, but I did.

My friend leans in for the quick grab, but the snake isn't ready to get up from the dinner table. He strikes his head around and latches on to my pal's hand! The two struggle for a few seconds before the snake lets loose.

To make a long story short, we spent another hour trying to get the snake put away. The following day, my friend brings in 5 teeth that were removed from his hand. I received 20 extra credit points, but my friend scores an extra 5 for the teeth!


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Since I've been controversial all day (maybe all my life \:\) ), I agree with everyone!

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Robinson,

You're lucky to have a dog that reacts to snakes that way. Many many dogs do not, and get injured or killed because of their reactions. They'll stick their noses in for a closer look and get bitten on the nose.

I've heard of people putting shock collars on their dog and placing a plastic snake on the floor in front of the dog. When the dog goes in for an inspection, the shock tells him that he shouldn't be investigating the creature.

For those with snakes and dogs, probably a smart tactic.


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Get some rattlesnake rattles. Rattle them in the presence of a town raised, foofoo, house dog and watch the reaction. He will get nervous and back away. He won't do that with a baby rattle.

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Meadowlark, don't you dare start agreeing with everyone and everything! We need you just the way you are!


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Norm,

It's taken 59 years to get this crusty...no matter how hard I might try, that crust won't come off easy.

However, I'm doing better, or worse depending on your viewpoint.

I just read a Bill Cody post where he said that frozen fish tastes no different than fresh fish, even after 5 years. It took all of my will power and newly found "agreeability" to keep my mouth shut. That would be a laughable statement in these parts where our saltwater species do not freeze well at all.

If you did a survey of good fishermen here in Houston, I venture to say that 90%, maybe 95%, would say they do not like frozen fish vs fresh fish from our saltwaters....but I'm not saying anything, not saying anything, not saying anything. \:\)

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'Lark, I'm proud of you. I learned years ago from my Uncle Mutt that nobody ought to argue with an old, retired guy. They have tons to say, decades of experience learning how to say it, all day long to talk, and no matter what they say, their retirement won't be affected.

Not that any of this applies to you, I'm talking about "older" guys. ;\)


"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
-S. M. Stirling
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Like Rad said, remove all hideing places for snakes. Keep grass cut short .. snakes don't like to be exposed & don't live long if they are.
They will either get eaten by other creatures or not come around if they can't hide.

I've been bitten by alot of snakes (non poisonous) mostly because I don't try not to. Snakes don't bother me. However I agree with Dave, I don't want any snakes around my pond. They eat alot of the same things my fish eat & I don't want the competition.
No offense to those who would leave the pond to the snakes but it's my pond, I made it & I get to decide what will live in it!
They are not endangered & have alot of places they can live. My pond is not one of them.


Pond Boss Subscriber & Books Owner


If you can read this ... thank a teacher. Since it's in english ... thank our military!
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Theo,

I might have missed that class on how to say it, but I will say I wish you were within visiting distance because I would enjoy the heck out of chewing the fat with you...that's a Texas expression, again reflecting that I missed that class. \:\)

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