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Making it inviting for snakes in my hay shed?

HermesMom

HermesMom

New member
Aside from making log and rock piles, is there anything else I can do to make my hay shed an inviting home for snakes? The mice are there, not bad but I'd love some snakes to call that place their home. I'm not interested in a barn cat, I have three cats {indoor only} already.
 
I know nothing about where you live. Are there any venomous reptiles? It just sounds like a bad idea to invite them but being in AZ I have been very close to a rattlesnake and not seeing while feeding the horses on many occasions. I have also had a snake bite a horse and he did eventually had to be put to sleep. I do what I can to keep rats and mice away so the snakes stay away. If they are found we will relocate them but if a neighbor found them they would be dead. So that is another reason I make things less inviting. Like I said I don't know anything about where you live and animals that live there but being here it is not something I would encourage. :)
 
The only venomous snakes in her area are the copperhead (rare), and the timber rattler which is very rare. I want to ask: is your shed near any source of water? Garters are by far the most common snake in this region and they have a close relationship to water. A source of water is important.
 
Yeah, venomous snakes are quite the rarity here. No Matt, I don't have a water source nearby. There's a riverbed a ways off in the woods that only has water during the snow melt. Do you think a low lying type of container would suffice as a makeshift one?
 
Its kind of a longshot, but if the rodents live there you never know. Maybe like a small plastic pond adjacent to the shed?
 
If you don't have enough copper heads I can hook you up lol it is lousy with them down here. I am still looking for a tiger striped one. One was found a couple counties over from here.
 
We have lots of copperheads where I live. We are supposed to have timber rattlers too. But I never see them alive. Just when neighbors show of the ones they've killed. Really makes me mad because in my state their numbers are going down.

Anyway, I have bird feeders, bird houses and a pond in my backyard. I have over 20 acres of lands. I leave wood piles out in the field next to the woods. Copperheads like to live in there and have babies. Most people would kill them. My parents always did. But I leave them in peace.

My pond used to have queen snakes in it. I haven't seen any for a long time. Last summer I found quite a few baby northern water snakes though.

But other than that, I've also been very unlucky getting snakes to move in. I haven't seen a green snake, ribbon snake, or garter snake on my property in years. I found one black rat snake hanging around my house last summer. But no others.

I'd also like some tips on attracting snakes. They seem to be disappearing.
 
this is very interesting, I love the idea of letting part of your land be used for the wild snakes. especially for people that live one acres of land, why not help out the population, they could use the help with all of the people who are against them already..

and if you don't use ALL of the land why kill them when they arnt hurting anyone?

coudos too you guys!
 
Shelter, water and rodents sounds about right.

One possibility is go catch a snake or two and let them lose in the barn, see if they stick around. Second version is to set up a corridor of shelters from the woods or other snake-friendly area, so that any snakes don't have to cover much open ground, and hope some snake follows that chain of shelters up to your barn. Of course it helps if the corridor attracts rodents, too :D

For water source, as you probably know, it doesn't have to be a large amount of water for snakes, a small bowl would suffice. However, it needs to be fresh, some sort of running water or something that gets replaced daily. You could have a slow drip of water to a tiny basin so there's a bit of overflow constantly, or it could be one of those timer garden valve systems that opens a valve for a couple of minutes every day. Of course you'd need to check and clean it once in a while.
 
anything thats old metal will work great, we use to have old tin siding around the place and it attracted garter snakes and similair species all the time.
 
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