Measures to Keep Snakes Away from Animals
Snakes are generally harmless creatures unless they are not messed with. But even if you accidentally step on them, chances are it’s going to bite you. And if it happens to be a poisonous one then it may be fatal for you. Snakes are one of the deadliest reptiles in the world and a snake bite (if it’s poisonous) can even claim lives. Hence it is extremely important for you to keep these extremely dangerous creatures out of your vicinity at all cost. And to do that, you should know about snake control.
Before implementing measures of preventing snake bites in animals, one must know a few points regarding their behaviour. Majority of the snakes found roaming around human and animal dwellings are non-poisonous. They usually thrive on rats, mice, frogs, insects etc. They do not pose any threat to the animals i.e. they do not attack the animals in the first place. When the animal becomes furious due to their presence, only then, they attack that particular animal. Snakes do not prefer to live among animals or in their dwellings. Since snakes can’t chew, therefore, they can never make holes in the walls or burrows in the ground on their own. They just creep or crawl through holes already available in the walls and happen to be seen in the animal premises. Snakes, being poikilotherm, hibernate during colder months of the year. They are seen roaming on the ground during summers and monsoons only. Snakes can be prevented from coming very close to the animals by following some effective points explained ahead.
1. The grasses around animal premises should not be allowed to grow too much. These should be mowed to about one inch length regularly. Snakes can easily hide/conceal themselves in overgrown grasses or untended bushes around animal sheds. Even the preying birds (like owl, eagle etc.)fail to detect snakes in haphazardly grown grasses. This way the snakes gain easy entry into animal premises.
2. Efforts should be made to attract the preying birds to animal premises. A long bar or bamboo-made-open-roosts should be installed along East-West direction so that the preying bird can easily perch over there. The perching place should be high enough so that the birds can sit over there for hours together without any fear. The height can also prove beneficial for the preying birds since they can have better view of a larger area.
3. Crops that have bushy stems (like Napier grass) should not be grown too close to the animal premises. Rats can make their shelters in such crops and snakes get attracted easily to those rats.
4. In kandi area, most of the ladies, as a goodwill gesture, feed cereal grains to wild birds. They usually employ earthen pots for this purpose. The birds often splatter or spill grains while eating from those pots, thereby, pulling in rats or mice. If rats or mice are there, can snakes be far behind!
5. It will be a good practice if the earthen pots full of cereal grains are put at the roof tops.
6. The incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes meant for lighting purpose should not be put outside the animal premises. This will attract the moths especially during monsoons. Moths will attract frogs, toads or lizards that will in turn attract snakes. The lighting arrangements should preferably be switched off as soon as the manual work is over especially during monsoons.
7. The animal premises should not be used for stacking firewood or for storing loose goods or for putting agricultural implements over there. These will act as harbouring places for snakes.
8. The boundary walls of animal premises must be free from any kind of holes or crevices. The holes that are bigger than half an inch diameter should be plastered.
9. In areas where snake bites are frequently encountered, other methods (chemical method) of warding them off should also be followed. The best alternative method is use of phenol or carbolic acid. It is a volatile acid. Its smell is quite offensive for all kinds of snakes. The bottle of carbolic acid with holes in its cap should be installed near the entrance to animal premises in such a way that the bottle remains erect all the time. It can be put in a hole dig up in the ground for the purpose. It can also be secured in a wooden rack with the help of sand or sawdust or ragged clothes. The wooden rack, then, can be fastened in the wall with the help of long nails.Carbolic acid is highly corrosive. Contact with skin should be avoided at any cost. Efforts should also be made to keep children and wild animals away from the bottle of carbolic acid.
10. Another physical method to keep snakes away from animals is to install a sheet made of wood, tin, plastic or asbestos in a slanting manner. The sheet should make an angle of 30° with the wall. The snake can never be able to climb this slating sheet. Installing of slanting sheets can bring lot of expenditure. To reduce its costs, plants or hedges should be grown instead of walls along slanting sheets. There are certain other things which should not be encouraged for keeping snakes away from animals. Naphthalene balls should never be used to fend off snakes. These are highly toxic to humans. Their mishandling can lead to accidental ingestion among children and pet animals. Research by San Julian and Woodward in 1985 clearly indicates inability of naphthalene to keep snakes away from animals. Similarly, sulphur, ammonia, lime and insecticides prove useless. If you have an encounter with a snake, don’t get panicky. Just procure a plastic pipe of 3 or 4-inch diameter. Close one end with any sort of cap. If it is not feasible, just put that end in thick plastic or gunny bag and tie it with a string. The pipe, then, should be placed on ground just near to the snake and efforts should be made to allow the snake to enter through the pipe into the bag. Once the snake is inside the bag, remove the pipe and close the mouth of the bag with that string. The snake, thus, can be easily transferred to the forest area. If you can distinguish a non-poisonous snake, then, it can also be put into a deep bucket with the help of a broom. The path of the snake can also be manoeuvred with the aid of a water jet. The non-poisonous snake has a thin and elongated head while the poisonous snake has broad and triangular head just to accommodate poison glands. The poisonous snakes have small scales over their head and their tails taper suddenly. When the snake is seen entering the premises but conceals itself quickly somewhere in the vicinity, then, put a wet towel or wet gunny bag or any cloth on the floor just close to the wall. Keep another bigger cloth over the wet cloth. Snakes, often, hide in dark, cool and moist places. After some time, you will notice presence of snake under that wet cloth. When the snake was noticed entering some burrow or a hole, then, cinnamon oil, pine oil, clove oil or eugenol oil (Sukumaran et al., 2012) can be used to bring the snake out of that hole. Thus, by employing these methods, one can easily keep animals at a safe distance from snakes and life-threatening incidences involving livestock and humans may be prevented.
Compiled & Shared by- Team, LITD (Livestock Institute of Training & Development)
Image-Courtesy-Google
Reference-On Request.
