How to Get Rid of Snakes and Keep Them Out

What to look for

The other trap is the product aisle. Snake repellents and "snake away" granules have thin evidence behind them, and mothballs are both useless and toxic to children and pets. The things that actually work are boring: a snake hook and a bucket, a tube of caulk, steel wool, and a mowed lawn. This page is about those. Snakes don't move in randomly. They follow food (mice, rats, frogs), cover (woodpiles, tall grass, debris), and a way in (any gap larger than a quarter inch). If you remove the snake and change nothing else, the next one finds the same door. That's why the cheap, quick fix usually isn't a fix at all — it's the first job done and the other two skipped.

• 1A snake you've seen more than once in the same spot.
• 2Shed skins in the garage, crawl space, or garden.
• 3Slither tracks in dust, sand, or loose soil.
• 4Mice, rats, or frogs around the house.
• 5Rustling under floors or in walls.
• 6A musky smell in an enclosed space.

Treatment options and typical costs

Prices are typical published ranges. Ask what’s included before you compare quotes.

The three jobs of snake control (and why quotes only cover the first).

• Job three: remove the reason. Cut the cover and the food — the woodpile, the tall grass, the mice — that made the property worth visiting. Here's the thing most people miss: a typical removal quote covers job one. It gets the snake out, and that's a real service. But if jobs two and three never happen, you've rented a temporary fix. When you compare quotes, ask the same question every time: "Which of the three jobs does this cover?" A pro who can answer that clearly is the one to hire. - Job two: close the door. Find and seal the gap it used, so the next one can't follow. - Job one: get the animal out. Capture and relocate it, safely and legally. - Every snake problem, from a garter snake in a garage to a rattlesnake by the pool, is three jobs.

Exclusion that actually works: the quarter-inch rule.

• Garage: weatherstripping along the bottom and sides of the door. One thorough afternoon of this does more than a season of spraying anything. - Foundation and utility gaps: caulk or steel wool, depending on the size. - Vents and drains: fine mesh — quarter-inch hardware cloth — not foam, which snakes push through. - Doors: a door sweep that meets the threshold. - Snakes are escape artists, and the number that matters is a quarter inch. If a gap is wider than that, a snake can use it. That's the standard university extension offices recommend for sealing. Walk the outside of the house once and check the usual spots: the bottom of every exterior door, the garage door seal, crawl-space vents, gaps around pipes and wires where they enter the wall, and cracks in the foundation. Fix each one the right way.

Rodents first: why the mouse is the real problem.

Treat the snake as the symptom and the mouse as the cause, and both problems go away together. This is also why a snake sighting can be genuinely useful information: it's a free signal that something else is wrong with the property. Skip the rodents and you can remove snakes forever and still find a new one each month. Then the snake loses its reason to be there. Trap and exclude the rodents, and store birdseed and pet food in sealed bins. The fix order matters. If you see a snake, assume there's a rodent problem you haven't noticed yet, because the snake is following something. Most snakes near homes are hunting mice and rats.

What removal actually costs, and what moves the number.

• How many — one snake is one visit; evidence of breeding is not. Ask for the quote broken down the same way, and two numbers become actually comparable. - Whether sealing is included — the single biggest difference between two quotes. - Where it is — a snake in the open yard is minutes; one in a wall or attic is a search. - Venomous or not — venomous costs more because of safety protocol and insurance. - Snake removal is one of the more predictable pest services to budget for, because the range is narrow and the factors are knowable. Published benchmarks are a good planning anchor. In How To Get Rid Of Snakes, ask for a written quote that spells out visits and the warranty. Those are publisher estimates, not quotes — your price depends on your snake, your house, and your pro. The four things that actually move the number:

The DIY line: what's safe to try, and what isn't.

The cheapest way to be safe is to keep your hands out of it and let someone with tongs handle the animal. A dead rattlesnake can still bite by reflex an hour later. Most bites happen to people who chose to interact with the snake — reaching into a woodpile, swinging a shovel, or picking up a dead one. The reason is the accident math. Everything past that is a professional's job: anything you can't identify, anything with a rattle or a triangular head, anything inside a wall, and anything that's already bitten someone. A harmless snake in an open area can be moved with a broom and a lidded trash can, if you're confident of what it is. Removal has a hard line running through it. It's cheap, safe, and it's the part that lasts. You should absolutely do the prevention yourself — mow, clear, seal, control rodents. A clean way to think about it: prevention is DIY, removal is not.

Simple ways to keep snakes away

• Seal every gap larger than a quarter inch in the foundation, siding, and roofline.
• Add door sweeps and screen vents, especially on crawl spaces.
• Mow short near the house and clear brush, woodpiles, and rock piles.
• Store firewood off the ground and away from the house.
• Control mice and rats — remove birdseed, pet food, and other attractants.
• Trim shrubs up from the soil and tree branches back from the roof.
• Fix dripping taps and standing water, which draw frogs and the snakes that eat them.

Questions people ask

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