Snakes all around.

[Svanbooven]

Hello forum friends. This is my first post on an incident that happened during my nest check today. I was greeted by a very un-welcome visitor in one of my T14's today. This large rat snake was coiled up enjoying what looks like 3 adults already in his belly. I was furious!! I am several years in and always have a large very active colony each season. A few years back I went the way of electric chargers for preditor guards thinking that will stop a horse surely it will stop a snake. Found out today it doesn't always work. My brother, David Van Booven, always used snake netting and I never talked with him about that because I was using Troyers stove pipe preditor guards and wasnt having any issues with un-welcome visitors. I'm reading more now about the snake netting and would appreciate information about what is it that I need to buy and method for successful installation of this netting. I'm reading the fence charger should be used in conjunction with either netting or the stove pipe guards and not as the sole deterrent. I would appreciate any advice on this as well. Thank you friends for your advice.

[h2y]

Great to hear of your successful, active colony vs the many abandoned colonies seen roadside. I considered netting as a deterrent, the reservation was it works just a little too well for extracting the caught rat snake. I prefer relocating them to barns/fields to find rats vs killing them.

Instead, after a particular failure of a year, I installed guards made from galvanized 8" x 5' AC duct pipe & have not had a single breach since.

[Conrad Baker]

Snake netting can be purchased at Home Depot, Lowes, etc. It is sold in the gardening dept as "bird netting". Apparently it is used to drape over your fruit trees to prevent the birds from eating the fruit. It comes in two different sizes of mesh, maybe 1/4" and 1/2"? Buy both sizes and use them together. Use some stiff wire to make stand offs (L-shaped). I used wire tires to affix the wires to the pole for the housing about 5 feet off the ground. The horizontal L-shape should be about 12 to 14 inches out from the pole. You basically make a fluff ball with the 2 sizes of netting, and secure it to the pole with wire ties, and fluff the net out and secure it to the end of the "L". The idea is not to allow the snake to slide between the pole and the net and not allow the snake to climb out around the net. The only way to get up the pole to get to the housing would be to go through the net. When they try to go through the net, they will get caught and not be able to continue up the pole, and not be able to get out of the nest to escape.
I no longer use netting so I don't have any pictures, but I'm sure some can be found online somewhere.

[Svanbooven]

Thank you, Mr. Baker, for the information. I kept seeing bird netting and was wondering if I could use that. I have been reading articles that the openings should be a 1/4" and didn't really see anything that small. Your suggestion of putting 2 nets together makes sense. My reply from h2y is making me think further on the netting solution with trying to get them out after they become trapped. Didn't really think that all the way thru I suppose. So now may be going back to the stove pipe idea. Anyway, thank you again Mr Baker, for the information.

[daveh]

Svanbooven, I use an electric solar charger on 7 poles and it works well. It cranks out around 1700-1800 volts. It gets my attention real fast. Why did yours fail? dave

[flyin-lowe]

Do you have any photos and detals of your electric set up. If they are insalled properly they are ususally the best option. There was something going wrong or the snake would not have gotten up.

[Svanbooven]

I use a 25 mile charger on 5 poles. The picture marked modified method is the one he breeched. I have to keep my charger in a weatherproof box because my sprinkler system water has very high sodium content and really doesn't play well with anything made out of metal. But the enclosure has a clear plastic door and the charger is always in the green charged range. Maybe needs to be higher on the green scale and maybe not charged enough causing lower output from charger???

[brent]

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This was my old set up but never trapped a snake. I’ve switch to an electric box since. By the way the netting should go above the pole guard.

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[brent]

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Picture of my electric deterrent.

[Svanbooven]

Thank you, Brent, for that information. Have you ever had a breech with that electric setup?

[brent]

No, I haven’t had a breech. Thomabear, a member and forum participant, designed it. It saves me so much time when nest checking too. Don’t have to remove a pole guard or snake trap. Has worked beautifully so far. 2nd year I’ve had it.

[h2y]

Just confirming that the chicken snakes are, indeed, all around. Last week, relocated 4 chicken snakes from our chicken coop (<100 ft away from the martin houses, the PM houses were not breached). Saw another pair courting/mating 1/2 mile away at a cattle guard. The female of that pair was pink striped from head to toe, never seen that before. She was pretty! The last one caught at the chicken coop had a pink tint on it's neck. New to me that the females have chameleon abilities.

Another 5 or 6' rat snake on the dam this evening, 300' away from PMs and coop. Pic of harmless $20 Snake Grabbers attached.

Hope the OP figured out what system, or hybrid, works best for him. The only thing that matters is it's foolproof because it will be tested by snakes, coons and others.

[flyin-lowe]

In your "modified" 'pic how far off the ground is the winch? There have been photos on this forum before of a large rat snake going from the ground with it's head straight to the top of a guard or to a winch without touching the pole. That is why the recommend the top being at least 48 inches off the ground. It is hard to tall from your pic how tall the electric guard is. With the electric setup you have. The snake has either got above it or it was not working correctly at the time. It is pretty unlikely the snake would coil around that electric guard and continue to climb up while being shocked...

[MJM]

Unfortunately, "snake netting", "bird netting" whatever it is sold as and used for- is a very cruel punishment and guaranteed death for native snakes, especially ones we need like Black Rat, King, etc. that keep populations of rodents and other varmints at bay.

Shooting an invasive European Starling = no problem. Torturing a native American snake to death = problem.

Please look to those posting with options other than netting. Mother nature thanks you.

[jasalva]

We use netting bunched up both above and below the predator guard. For years we only used it above the guard. One year we lost birds, so we started to do both top and bottom of guards. Every year the netting on our poles catches snakes, mostly rat snakes. My husband then takes them to a swamp far from our home.