Silicone spray on metal poles???

[marilena~MD]

Has anyone tried spraying metal poles with silicone as a deterrent against snakes? I was thinking about trying it and wondered if anyone else has.[/b]

[klcretired]

marilena~MD,
You can't put enough on to do any good the snakes can still climb the pole, if possible you need to go to Home Depot/Lowes and buy some Bird netting, buy 2 different sizes then follow these instructions on this site below:


http://audubon-omaha.org/bbbox/nestbox/hksnake.htm

I hope this helps you.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I use 4ft of pvc pipe to keep snakes out, but the larger the better. I use 6in on one pole and 8in on 4 poles and it keeps out the snakes. The problem with metal poles is that they can wrap around them a couple times and that enables them to crawl up the pole partly due to the small size. Many people even tried stuff like oil or grease on the poles and the snakes still can climb them.

Like the previous post, bird netting is used by some people and that captures the snake in the netting.

The very best guard is an electric fence, it keeps all predators away. If you don't like the wires running in your yard to get electricity, you can use a solar powered electric fence. A few wraps of the ground wire, and a few wraps of the hot wire will stop the predators. To insulate the wire, some people put short pieces of pvc pipe around the pole..it works good.

[Guss P O'Brien]

The silicone spray is good to add to the 6"+ diameter PVC pole guards. It makes it slicker and helps protect it from degradation in the sun so you won't have to replace it as soon. Care should be taken not to contaminate nests with the silicone spray, oils or grease- touching silicone spray/oil/grease on pole guard and then touching eggs would not be good for the eggs, chicks or birds.